Scotland's 'largest ever' datacentre targets AWS, Microsoft and Apple with new facility

New facility sees call centre transformed into datacentre and could reach up to 500,000 sq ft

A new Scottish datacentre, dubbed Scotland's "largest ever" by its backers, is targeting tech giants AWS, Microsoft and Apple as potential customers.

The Pyramids Datacentre, located just outside Edinburgh, will be 250,000 sq ft when completed, with the option of doubling its size.

The project is headed up by property consultant Ashfield Land and IT facilities management firm TRE Asset Management, with Cushman & Wakefield's datacentre group providing additional services.

Michael Hunter, associate director at Cushman & Wakefield's datacentre group, said: "In recent years Ireland has benefited from attracting upwards of £6bn of investment in the datacentre industry from companies such as Google, Facebook, Apple, AWS and Microsoft. Up until now, Scotland has not provided the size and scale of infrastructure needed.

"Data is becoming a more important tool for businesses every day - and is crucial for individuals, enterprises and the public sector. As a result, the market for storage, collaboration, and information management tools is on an upward curve.

The site of the datacentre has had a number uses over the years, being a manufacturing centre in the 1990s before being converted into a call centre.

The new datacentre will be a Tier 3 facility with plans in place to develop on-site renewable energy sources.

Its development will be broken into three phases, with 60,000 sq ft of the site open now and ready for occupancy.

Steven McGarva, director at Ashfield Land, said: "Having owned the Pyramids for the past year or so and examined a number of options for its future, it is clear that we need to invest and be at the heart of Scotland's digital economy.

"With such investment the Pyramids presents a unique opportunity, given its scale, power supply and data infrastructure, to create a campus-style Datacentre and digital hub.

"The need for regional datacentres will continue to grow as demand for quicker access to data from businesses and consumers increases and technology improves.

"As the Scottish datacentre market grows, and becomes more sophisticated, it will become more and more important for Scotland-based companies to support these services locally."