Continent 8 Technologies diversifies and expands Isle of Man data centre

The hosting provider, which has been headquartered on the island since 2006, has increased the capacity of the facility as part of its diversification strategy and in order to reach growing demand.

Having been successful in delivering data centre services including Co-location, Managed Services, Distributed Denial of Service protection, Disaster Recovery, MPLS services and Content Delivery to online gaming companies across the world for more than 15 years, Continent 8 now plans to use its proven expertise to reach out to new sectors.

Head of Product at Continent 8 Stephen Trimble, who joined the company in July this year, commented: “The data centre upgrade, alongside an aggressive product development roadmap, is key to showing that not only is Continent 8 truly global, but we are also investing heavily in and committed to the Isle of Man.”

Members of the island’s Department of Economic Development, including Minister John Shimmin, were some of the first to view the facility in the capital, Douglas, in September.

The upgrade programme has seen Continent 8 double the capacity of its state-of-the-art data centre on the island and bring new people on board. Using its recently opened data centre in Dublin as a blueprint, a key element of the Isle of Man upgrade is the introduction of fresh air cooling, via a dedicated air handing unit (AHU). Trimble explained: “The Isle of Man is the ideal climate for this type of super-efficient cooling system given that, in general, outside air is cooler than the temperature required in the data centre.

“Using the latest hot aisle containment technology, heat is extracted directly from the rear of the equipment racks, drawn out of the room and across the heat exchanger system in the AHU. The fresh air from outside is brought into the AHU is filtered, mixed with as much warm air as required, if any, and supplied into the room. During high external ambient temperatures, the AHU systems are assisted by an evaporative adiabatic cooling array.”
Trimble added: “All systems are fully redundant in an N+1 configuration, meaning that no failure of any individual component would affect the system’s operation.”

With a truly global footprint, the company also has a private network that links all of its data centres - London, Paris, Dublin, Montreal, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Malta and Singapore – allowing its customers to target their key markets or replicate their data anywhere across Continent 8’s network. Using this network the company can provide an end-to-end global solution, which is ideal for international businesses.
“We have built a fantastic asset here on the island, to world-class levels, which is already being used by leading international businesses and can now be utilised by other sectors too,” said Trimble. “While we are looking forward to continuing our leading technical and visionary reputation within the online gaming industry, we are now diversifying outside of this niche sector – it’s an exciting time.”