UKFast sets sights on public sector with datacentre investment

Managed hosting provider invests £2.3m in Manchester datacentre facility

Hosting firm UKFast has invested £2.3m in its datacentre complex as it looks to increase its public sector business.

The investment has seen security for the site's colocation facility improved as well as the construction of a new high-security compound.

Speaking to CRN UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones (pictured) said the improvements to the facility will make a more compelling argument for the government to use a UK hosting firm, rather than outsourcing to foreign companies.

"We're pushing harder to go in the public sector and I didn't want people to have excuses for why they wouldn't host with us," he said.

"At the moment the government places a huge amount of business with foreign companies, a great many of companies known not to pay tax - certainly not to the level that we're paying - and rather than just moaning about it you've got to create an environment that will attract large public sector companies and large foreign companies."

Part of the work in the complex has also seen the construction of accommodation alongside UKFast's colocation facilities available free of charge to customers wanting to carry out work on-site, which Jones says will make it easier for public sector bodies to move their data from a different provider to UKFast.

Public cloud

The arrival of public cloud giants Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to the UK has been highly publicised, with AWS launching its training scheme in London last week.

Jones pointed out that there is still uncertainty around data soveignty and the US government's jurisdiction when it comes to UK data, and also highlighted that the public cloud players do not own their UK facilities.

"With the big ones when they're talking about building datacentres in the UK for government clients, what everyone needs to remember is they're still American organisations," he said.

"We own the land, we built the buildings, we own the infrastructure, we have the critical power directors on site - everyone else uses consultants. If they have problems they're ringing up the consultants to solve their problems. Our critical power director designs the entire fabric of every single board in the datacentre.

"It means that when you're wanting to make improvements or wanting to fix things you're not having to wait."

Future i nvestment

Jones said that UKFast's investment will continue into 2017, with seven new employees already placed in the marketing department and a wave of new programmers set to be recruited.

He also hinting at an imminent acquisition, but remained tight-lipped when asked for more details, saying he "didn't want to jynx it".