VMware rocks up in Chessington with second UK datacentre

Virtualisation firm expands its vCloud Hybrid Service

VMware has cut the ribbon on its second UK datacentre as it looks to expand the capacity of its vCloud Hybrid Service (VCHS) in EMEA.

The new site, which is based in Chessington, is VMware's second datacentre in the UK and fourth worldwide. Current facilities are already in operation in Slough as well as in the US and Japan.

At its VMworld Europe conference last autumn, VMware unveiled the new VCHS, which eventually went live in the UK in February. Since then, more than 800 individuals at partner organisations in EMEA have been accredited.

VMware's general manager for cloud services in EMEA Gavin Jackson said customers have been impressed with the service so far.

"Our customers have started off using our hybrid service on specific projects for the easy, affordable and seamless movement of workloads between private and public cloud," he said.

"Now they have seen what VCHS can enable, they're turning to it to power their strategic transformation programmes."

When the vendor first announced its plans to provide its own services, it insisted it would not step on channel partners' toes.

Computacenter's head of transformation and cloud services, Nick Henry, said the service has been good news for his firm.

"VMware has created a game-changing service," he said. "Enabling IT agility combined with cost efficiency is the key differentiator. We're looking forward to helping our customers continue to use it to transform their IT infrastructures."