Intelligent CIO Europe Issue 56 | Page 20

NEWS

Proximity opens Bristol Edge colocation data centre

Proximity Data Centres , one of the world ’ s fastest growing regional Edge colocation data centre providers , has announced the opening of its latest facility . Strategically located , Proximity Edge 9 will serve users in and around Bristol as well as throughout the south-west and Wales .

Built on a 3.4 acre site with easy access to Bristol anmd the M5 / M4 motorways , Proximity Edge 9 has excellent power , cooling and security features . The 90,000 square foot facility is built to Tier 3 standards , has 4 MW of IT capacity including 1 MW of ‘ White Space ’ immediately available and the potential to expand to 20 MW .
It is ideally positioned to support one of the UK ’ s largest regional Edge markets – including a rapidly growing technology sector –# with best-in-class colocation services and excellent low latency connectivity solutions . Multiple Tier 1 connectivity providers are on net including dark fibres with fully diverse links .
“ Our new Bristol site is strategic to ensuring we continue to provide fit-for-purpose Edge colocation facilities close to major conurbations and population areas ,” said
John Hall , Managing Director , Colocation at Proximity Data Centres . “ Edge 9 is at the heart of one of the UK ’ s largest and most vibrant regions and ensures we remain on track to meeting our ultimate goal of serving 95 % of the population outside of the London metro region .”

Zen builds solution for SSP to modernise food giants across the UK

SSP , the international food travel expert , has announced it has successfully modernised the applications of food giants such as Burger King and Starbucks across the UK , which it franchises alongside its own brands , Upper Crust and Millie ’ s Cookies , thanks to its partnership with Zen Internet .

For a large and geographically diverse business , ageing connectivity became a major obstacle for SSP . After kicking off a network expansion programme that was driven by a need to sunset old copper technology and gratify bandwidth-hungry applications , a new solution was needed to continue success and expansion .
As one of the largest B Corp accredited technology service providers in the UK , Zen was tasked to build a service to meet the varied needs of modern application requirements constrained by their traditional networking model . Having identified SD-WAN as the solution , the two companies worked together to develop and implement a new product that is now rolled out across the majority of SSP ’ s UK locations .
“ We ’ ve been operating with Zen as a partner for nearly 15 years and throughout the pandemic , so knew its networking pedigree was the best fit for our new SD-
WAN solution ,” said Francisco Castillo , Head of Infrastructure at SSP Group . “ With such a comprehensive and complex task , Zen has remained extremely effective in terms of communication and relationship management which has allowed us to keep on track and achieve our goals . As a result , we ’ re on track to migrate all 600 locations to SD-WAN in the next year .” p
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