London's largest connected data hub?

A newly connected, 68 mile-long high speed fibre cable connects eight data centres across London’s three key data campuses for the first time, enabling more businesses to unlock growth through digital transformation.

London’s data driven tech start-ups are benefitting from record levels of investment[1], and traditional businesses are accelerating their digital offer to capitalise on COVID-fuelled demand for online transactions, however, the increasing need to process and exchange data at speed in a city where space is at a premium presents real challenge.  Interxion’s newly connected data centres offer a solution, creating London’s largest, interconnected data hub, giving more businesses access to high speed connections and improved performance at lower cost.

To ensure London’s digital economy can continue to grow unfettered, data centres in the City and Docklands are now linked to greater and more affordable capacity in West Drayton.  This means businesses large and small, new or established, that want to adopt fast growing technologies such as AI and real-time analytics, can benefit from agile infrastructure, cloud connectivity and physical proximity to data all through one provider. They can also gain access to Digital Realty’s PlatformDIGITAL®, a first of its kind global data centre platform for scaling digital business, which offers customers an ideal meeting point for deploying network hubs on.  Internet service providers will also be able to better connect to hundreds of potential new customers. 

The technology used by Interxion, a Digital Realty company and leading European provider of carrier and cloud neutral colocation data centre solutions, to connect London’s largest colocation network comprises dark fibre and cutting edge ‘Managed Wave’ equipment. This provides a private and upgraded path between the three sites, offering higher performance and quicker speeds of connectivity compared to purchasing bandwidth or leased line capacity on an existing network.

"We want the UK to be the world’s number one data destination, so it's great to see Interxion investing in our data infrastructure to give our tech sector a further boost to grow, create jobs and help power our recovery out of the pandemic,” said Minister for Media and Data John Whittingdale. "Data is the driving force of modern economies and, through our National Data Strategy, we are building a data economy that works for everyone and builds public trust in data use."

“Covid-19 has accelerated the pace of London’s tech innovation and some believe the capacity for new technologies to change our lives means we are at the start of a fourth industrial revolution. By creating London’s largest and most highly connected data hub, we are providing the city’s thriving tech sector and growing digital economy with the infrastructure it needs to be at the forefront of global digital transformation. By linking sites from East to West London, we’re unlocking digital growth for hundreds of our cities’ businesses,” commented Assad Noori, MD, UK at Interxion.

“We're excited to support Interxion in the launch of their new colocation data campus in London. This expansion will give our members and prospective members even more opportunities to connect to our interconnection services on either of our London fabrics from great new locations including Oliver’s Yard and West Drayton. It is important for us to work closely with valued partners such as Interxion to continue to deliver a low latency, secure and controlled network for our members. We're pleased that Interxion have invested in this project to link their data centres in London, and look forward to working closely with them in the future to promote the value of the vibrant interconnection scene in London,” says Jennifer Holmes, CCO, London Internet Exchange (LINX).

Interxion’s £1.1 million investment is the latest in a series of multi-million-pound investments the business has made in London’s infrastructure over the past five years, most recently with the opening of its Docklands Cloud House and City LON3 data centres in 2019.  The campuses being connected by the dark fibre and Managed Wave network and their respective data centres are:

City Campus

• LON1 Hanbury Street

• LON2 Hanbury Street

• LON3 Hanbury Street

• Oliver’s Yard

Docklands Campus

• Sovereign House

• Cloud House

• Cloud House West

West London

• West Drayton