Kao Data introduces ‘Built-to-Suit’ service for the hyperscale community

With financial backing from one of the UK’s largest investors, the new ‘Built-to-Suit’ service enables Kao Data to offer attractive, low cost financial terms for hyperscale cloud service providers looking to fund and rapidly develop new data centre capacity around London’s perimeter. As part of the service, Kao Data’s leadership team will oversee all developments, enabling clients to benefit from the guidance, insight and expertise of award-winning industry professionals who are well positioned to manage the challenges of industrial scale data centre construction projects.

“Our Built-to-Suit model presents a significant opportunity for hyperscale providers, removing many of the financial, contractual, logistical and technical complexities often experienced on large data centre builds,” said Paul Finch, Interim CEO and COO, Kao Data. “By working with Kao Data’s established team of engineering and operational specialists, hyperscalers can significantly shorten the development and build cycle of their future data centre deployments.”

The Kao Data ‘Built-to-Suit’ service provides the ability to:

• Fund – With access to funding options through market-leading UK investment, Kao Data provides hyperscalers with structured, flexible finance on highly competitive terms.
• Design – Award-winning expertise in customisable data centre architectures delivers highly optimised designs to complement hyperscale global facility portfolios.
• Build – Kao Data’s optimised supply chain reduces construction complexity to deliver hyperscale-inspired data centre developments, on time and on budget.
• Operate – An Integrated Management System and suite of UKAS (UK Accreditation Service) ISO standards, deliver the highest levels of operational excellence, sustainability and 100% availability.

The four key components of Kao Data’s ‘Built-to-Suit’ service can be utilised to provide customisable data centres that specifically meet hyperscale requirements. Where necessary, certain elements can be excluded to accommodate the most suitable commercial model and deliver a market-leading lower TCO.

A unique location for hyperscale

Located in Harlow, at the heart of the UK Innovation Corridor and less than 20 miles from central London, Kao Data is one of the UK’s largest data centre campus developments. Operational in 2018, it provides world-class digital infrastructure and scalability for a further 30MW of technical capacity.

The campus offers an important strategic location in the East London availability zone, providing a high capacity, ultra-low latency fibre network within the euNetworks North London Artery; a key route for hyperscale connectivity from Dublin, across the UK and into Europe’s FLAP data centre network.

“Developing hyperscale data centres can be costly, time consuming and complex. Our Built-to-Suit service streamlines the process and provides megawatts of readily available capacity on an already operational, planning-approved campus,” said Spencer Lamb, Vice President, Kao Data. “A key component of our bespoke approach is our ability to flex the model and incorporate the relevant components for each hyperscaler.”