Computacenter finds £5m base

Corporate giant ploughs £5m into data centre as part of services drive

Computacenter has ploughed £5m into building a new data centre as it nears its goal of generating the majority of its business from services.

The corporate reseller is closing down the Warrington data centre it inherited through its 2007 acquisition of Digica and is transferring capacity to a new location three times its size in Manchester.

Computacenter’s preliminary results show it drew 48 per cent of its gross margin from services last year and chief executive Mike Norris said 2009 would be the year the balance is finally tipped.

“I think this year we will get more contribution from services than product,” he said.
“I have chosen not to play in volume distribution as I have better places to invest. Data centre hosting gets me a much better return as there is a general push for more people to use outsourcing to reduce operating costs.”

Bob Tarzey, analyst at market watcher Quocirca, said: “We think data centre hosing is going to be a strong market even in the downturn as business can buy infrastructure out of Opex rather than Capex.”