Kao London Data Centre launches at Kao Data Campus in Harlow
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Kao London Data Centre launches at Kao Data Campus in Harlow

Kao Data has opened the doors to its Kao London One Data Centre, the first of four data centres to be built at the £200 million Kao Data Campus in Harlow.

The campus is one of the largest developments in the UK and once completed the 150,000 sqft facility will operate over 35MW of IT load. The new site is set to enable substantial capacity and future organic growth opportunities for its customers

Commenting on the opening of the new site, Jan Daan Luycks, CEO of Kao Data, said: "The ever-expanding data economy continues to drive the need for IT capacity. Kao London One provides highly resilient capacity and connectivity for national and international businesses. We believe that our strategic location and premium campus solutions offers an exceptional proposition to customers across a wide range of sectors, providing them with significant competitive edge."

Kao London One, features a fully operational technology suite, which provides a 2.2MW customer-ready technical space within an 8.8MW powered shell. The facility boasts a design that has taken into consideration energy-efficiency, sustainability and flexible configuration a fact that Kao says makes the site advanced.

“I'm delighted that the first phase of the Kao Data Campus has been brought to market according to schedule, with all objectives met and, importantly, on budget, added Paul Finch, chief operating officer at Kao Data. “From the outset of the project we went back to basics, with an acute focus on reliability and availability. We have shown these attributes can be complementary to lower capital and operations expenditure, energy-efficiency and sustainability.

Kao partnered with, JCA Engineering on the procurement aspects of the facility, a move that Finch says was motivated by the number of high-profile failures in the sector as of late.

“From a procurement perspective, Kao adopted a collaborative and shared risk approach to delivery, which in light of recent high-profile failures in the construction sector, has strongly positioned both us and our partners well for the future phases of the development. This is due in no small part to the experience of the management team and the decision to partner with an engineering-led main contractor, JCA Engineering, and key equipment suppliers," explained Finch.

As a new market entrant to the wholesale data centre market, Kao Data has garnered a lot of attention both for its size and level of investment.

David Bloom, chief executive and founder of Goldacre Ventures (now part of the Noé Group), said: "It is has become increasingly rare for new companies to launch into the wholesale data centre market. The barriers to entry are simply too high given the funding requirement and the lack of suitable sites with sufficient owned power, land and connectivity. Kao Data Campus represents an exciting and important resource for the UK data economy."

"Completing the build programme to schedule and on budget is reflective of their ability to deliver on what they say they are going to do. We now look forward to the growth of the business and seeing a range of different customers choosing Kao Data as their data centre provider and partner of choice," added Tom Phillips, investment director at Downing.

The Kao London One has been designed to with concurrently maintainable site infrastructure, meaning it provides 100% uptime. With a climate control infrastructure using Indirect Evaporative Cooling (IEC) Units, the new site offers resilient and energy efficient operations, with an ultra-low PUE of below 1.2.

John Keddie, chairman of the Harlow Enterprise Zone, said: "Harlow Council has been pleased to have been a partner in the data centre development, supporting the infrastructure delivery, and are excited about the prospect for further growth on the site".

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