Category Archives: Ark Data Centres

Ark Data Centres, BT, Datacentre, Neil Lock, News & Analysis

BT, Ark expand ‘cloud of clouds’ in the UK

BT is redoubling its 'cloud of clouds' efforts

BT is redoubling its ‘cloud of clouds’ efforts

BT is bolstering its partnership with Ark Data Centres to expand its ‘cloud of clouds’ initiative and its reach in the public sector, healthcare and financial services.

Launched in April this year, the ‘cloud of clouds’ service is much like Equinix’s cloud interconnection service, linking its own datacentres and cloud services with its own and others through its own fibre network.

The companies said BT will leverage two of Ark’s new UK datacentres to offer its infrastructure as a service platform, BT Compute, as well as its financial services and healthcare-focused managed cloud platforms.

Ark said the datacentres are amongst the most energy efficient out there, with a power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.2 compared to an industry average of 1.7 according to the Uptime Institute.

Neil Lock, vice president, BT Compute, BT Global Services said: “Organisations in all industries are embracing the need for greater innovation through digital strategies that rely on cloud services.  This is especially true for public sector bodies faced with the complex challenge of transforming services sustainably with increasingly tight budgets.”

“By adding two new data centres to our BT Compute portfolio that comply with the latest government security guidelines, we believe that we have the ideal platform on which to innovate. We already deliver some great cloud services to our government, finance and pharma sector customers. Our latest investment builds on this strength to help us realise our cloud of clouds vision for large organisations.”

The datacentres additions will help bolster the company’s cloud scale in its home market. BT claims its ‘cloud of clouds’ is already being deployed form about 20 facilities globally and a further 30 third-party datacentres operated by other cloud providers.

Ark Data Centres, Capita, Datacentre, Huw Owen, News & Analysis, Peter Hands

Capita to deploy private cloud service in Ark datacentres

Capita is deploying its private cloud solution in Ark's UK datacentres

Capita is deploying its private cloud solution in Ark’s UK datacentres

IT services specialist Capita struck a deal with Ark Data Centres this week that will see the company deploy its private cloud service in Ark datacentres.

Capita IT Enterprise Services said that deploying in Ark’s facilities would mean the company spends one tenth of the capital cost compared to that of maintaining its existing facilities, making it more competitive as it moves further into the cloud services segment.

Peter Hands, executive director, Capita IT Enterprise Services said: “Ark Data Centres offers modern facilities which integrate its innovation in cooling technology, dynamic monitoring, modularity, security by building not site, guaranteed power usage effectiveness (PUE) and speed. Combined with our expertise in cloud based services, we’re in prime position to deliver the availability that our customers need, with the flexibility and security that they want and with the reduced carbon footprint that everyone seeks.”

Capita will be deploying the private cloud solution on VCE Vblocks initially in one installation with about 28 cabinets worth of space, with two further installations planned across Ark’s datacentres.

Ark has sites in Hampshire and Wiltshire.

“At Ark we are fully focused on delivering data centres. Just datacentres, but those that are the very best,” commented Huw Owen, chief executive of Ark Data Centres. “We don’t attempt to sell further up the IT services stack. As a result, all Ark customers enjoy a professional relationship of integrity and complete trust.”