Custodian Data Centres to build 10MW Data Centre in Dartford, Kent

Custodian Data Centres plans to build a new 10 MegaWatt (MW), carrier-neutral data centre in Dartford, Kent. Due to open in Q2 2022, the facility, named ‘DA2’, will be located less than 15 miles from Central London and is being built to support customer growth as its award-winning, 2MW Maidstone facility nears full capacity.

Once operational, the site, which broke ground in September 2021, will operate at a PUE rating of below 1.3, and be powered by resilient, 100% dual diverse renewable energy feeds. The design of the facility will remain in keeping with its energy efficient flagship facility in ME14 Maidstone, which uses five times less energy per kW of IT load than the average data centre. It will incorporate a chilled water-cooling system alongside hot and cold-aisle containment solutions to optimise IT temperatures within the whitespace, ensuring lower operating costs and a reduced carbon footprint for end-users. Custodian’s DA2 data centre has been designed to exceed Tier III standards, and once complete, will be ISO 27001 accredited, PCI DSS, and Cyber Essentials Plus certified, creating a highly secure home for managed service and internet service providers (ISPs) looking to scale. It has also been designed to host the critical IT requirements of cloud, enterprise, and public sector organisations who require in-house, technical expertise and agile, mission-critical facilities to support their infrastructure and applications. Further, as an accredited G-Cloud Service Provider, DA2 will join the Maidstone facility in becoming fully approved to provide services to governmental and public sector businesses.

“Uptime, digital security and energy efficiency are shaping the business environment,” said Rowland Kinch, CEO, Custodian Data Centres. “As businesses look toward their post-pandemic future and re-draw their digital transformation roadmaps, it’s now a commercial imperative to have a data centre partner that can underpin their growth with agile mission-critical infrastructure. At Custodian, we believe that our service-first ethos offers a step-change for the data centre market, and that our new DA2 facility offers a competitive choice for organisations looking to step away from the crowded London Docklands.”

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Today Custodian is trusted by some of the world’s most renowned digital entertainment organisations and delivers agile, mission-critical data centres that underpin their digital applications including gaming and streaming services. Once all three phases of the build are completed, DA2 will be designed to host up to 800 racks, while the 2500 sqm size site will have a full capacity of 10MW, allowing growth of current and potential customers.

DA2 will include advanced, multi-layer security features with reinforced doors, razor wire fencing, and both ANPR and high-resolution CCTV. The facility will also host an on-site 24/7 Network Operations Centre (NOC), alongside 2-stage secure visitor ID and independent control systems that prevent unwanted access to customers’ infrastructure. It will also incorporate an advanced, high pressure water mist fire suppression system, with full VESDA zone based addressable systems, and both high sensitivity rack and duct probe sensors. Finally, from a connectivity perspective, DA2 will be completely carrier-neutral and offer links to all key Tier I and Tier II cloud providers. It will include several fully diverse duct entry points, A + B carrier meet-me rooms and a dedicated Dark Fibre ring to offer latency connectivity from central London to Custodian’s ME14 data centre in Maidstone. Further, it will offer its own Global IP Transit via Custodian’s ASN 50300, delivering 1G to 400G Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) & Wavelength/Optical services direct to customers’ racks.

“At Custodian we want to empower businesses to grow, and we do so by offering them agile mission-critical infrastructure combined with unparalleled technical service,” said Robert Williams, Technical Director, Custodian. “With a dedicated, on-site, M&E team who are primed to deliver bespoke infrastructure suites, including built-to-suit options, our DA2 facility will ensure customers have the power, cooling, security, connectivity and support to thrive in a post-pandemic world.”