31 Oct 2008

UK 'hot market for data centres'

Data centre facilities in the UK are in high demand among London-based businesses, analysts have stated.

According to SunGard Availability Services, companies want data protection technology to be geographically close to their establishments.

Speaking to Techworld.com, chief strategy officer Dave Gilpin said being in close proximity to data centre facilities is deemed a priority by many company bosses.

Since London is the main commercial centre of the UK, this is apparently where many centres are being developed.

Mr Gilpin commented: "People in London want their data centres nearby, they still want to touch it, and they still want to get access to it in a hurry if they need to."

He added that people in the data centre industry describe this group as "huggers".

This comes after a survey by information security firm Thales found that about half of businesses do not know where to store data tape backup encryption keys and a further third do not know if they will be having their backup tapes encrypted in the near future.