Administrator asks 2e2 clients for £1m to keep datacentres on

Smaller customers asked to pay £5,000 each towards £960,000 total to ensure services are maintained for another week

2e2's administrators have asked datacentre customers to stump up almost £1m by Tuesday if they want to ensure their services are maintained for another week. Clients have also been warned that it may take almost four months to migrate their data to a new provider.

In a letter to customers published on 2e2's website, administrator FTI Consulting explains that all flexible resourcing, business applications, unified communications and field support services have been terminated. Customers are counselled that they "need to put alternative arrangements in place with immediate effect".

"However, in view of the critical nature of the datacentre services provided...we are seeking to continue to maintain the datacentre infrastructure and key personnel...to facilitate an orderly migration of the data and systems or some other alternative solution," adds the letter.

To keep the datacentres staffed and operational, FTI outlines that it needs "immediate funding" from affected customers.

"In the event that funding is not provided, we will be unable to maintain the datacentre infrastructure and we will have no alternative other than to cease all operations without any managed wind-down of those operations," explains the letter.

The estimated cost of keeping the lights on for the period from yesterday until Friday 15 February is £960,000. Some £253,336 is the weekly projected cost of maintaining staffing, while operational costs are pegged at £163,643. Weekly rent and bills at the two facilities in Gateshead and Reading stands at £33,255, with administrators' fees and other central expenses coming to £150,000 per week. This takes the weekly total to just over £600,000.

2e2's top 20 datacentre customers will bear the brunt of funding the £960,000 cost, having provided £800,000 between them. FTI is asking the remainder of smaller customers to shell out £5,000 – a £4,000 fee plus VAT – to ensure services can be maintained for at least another eight days. However, end users are warned that the process of getting their data back could take almost four months.

"As you will understand, we have received a number of requests from customers seeking to gain access to their data immediately and to transition services to alternative providers," explains the letter. "Unfortunately, the levels of data held in the datacentres are such that this process could take up to 16 weeks and we will need to ensure that the integrity of third-party data and security is maintained."