£200million boost to welsh economy
Next Generation Data is to invest up to £200million in Wales to create one of Europe’s largest and most technically advanced ‘green’ data-centres.
The announcement was made today (Thursday April 10) by Ieuan Wyn Jones, Minister for the Economy and Transport, who described it as a strategically important investment that would bring long term benefits to Wales and the Welsh economy.
The NGD Europe 1 data-centre will be based in the former Hynix semiconductor plant in Newport – a circa 70,000 sq mt facility owned by the Welsh Assembly Government. It will be located near an electricity sub-station which will ensure that the facility has adequate power for the foreseeable future.
Data-centres house the hardware, software and high speed communication connections required to run customers' websites, intranets, extranets and other e-commerce facilities in a highly secure and managed environment.
Commercial data-centres offer a range of services to customers from co-location to fully managed hosting.
Next Generation Data plan to sub-divide the building into a large number of data halls with dedicated infrastructure. An area will also be designated specifically for small and medium sized businesses in Wales.
Next Generation Data is in negotiations with several large blue chip companies and anchor tenants are being signed up on a co-location basis and allocated long term sub leases for secure areas within the facility, where they will install their own servers and run their business independently.
Next Generation Data will also provide managed services which will be particularly attractive for SMEs. The centre will offer hospitality facilities including a gym and a café.
The Minister described the investment as being a critically important addition to the IT and telecoms infrastructure in Wales.
“A data-centre of this size and capacity will not only support Welsh businesses to remain competitive in a global economy but also has the capacity to act as a catalyst in attracting new business.
“The new centre will be of particular interest to our growing financial services sector, offering business continuity while also providing our SMEs with cost effective access to high quality, robust and secure data-centre services.”
The First Minister Rhodri Morgan said the Assembly Government had been actively targeting the data-centre development market and promoting the Newport facility as part of its strategy to attract investment from this sector.
"Data Centres are the motorways of the 21st Century. They encourage economic development in the same way that motorways did in the 20th Century and the railways in the 19th Century. They are an absolutely critical tool for economic growth, and that's why I am so pleased that we have secured this development.
"This major investment will create up to 100 high skilled jobs, and is a big vote of confidence in Wales.
"Global demand for data-centre space is accelerating due to the rapid and continuing growth of e-business. In addition to the direct benefit of this £200m investment to the Welsh economy, this prestigious new facility will provide a strong focus for inward investment, and secondary investment as more and more companies decide to locate to Wales to benefit from the services offered by the centre. “
