Anthony Foy joined Interxion as group managing director in July 2001. He is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s sales, marketing and business development activities across Europe. During his time at Interxion, he has been instrumental developing the company into a structurally cash flow-positive, profitable and thriving business. Data Centre Management reports...

How do you see the UK data centre market developing in the next three years?

The logic behind outsourcing data centre services is now accepted as making excellent business sense. Many more companies across all sectors are deciding to outsource to subject matter experts like Interxion.

Demand for high-quality data centre space is increasing rapidly. More business-critical applications, and content-rich web services with very high bandwidth needs, are migrating to outsourced data centres, which means that high-security, high-service-level operations such as Interxion are all the more important.

Are data centre costs going to rise?

As demand increases, the supply of physical space, cooling and power will inevitably be squeezed – despite Interxion and others’ aggressive build-out plans.

The price per rack, as a combination of space, cooling and power, will therefore probably rise, yet the cost per unit of computing will almost certainly fall as high-density computing using blade servers becomes standard practice.

Interxion is able to support fully populated blade server racks, carrying up to 40kW power and suitable cooling. Customers can maximise the advantages of high-density computing, actually shrinking their floor space needs, with the result that their costs per transaction are likely to decline.

What are the biggest growth markets?

Financial services is one of the largest growth areas, particularly with the continuing stream of international regulation that makes business continuity such a high priority. For example, the requirements to have a tested, audited disaster recovery plan in place mean that for many organisations an outsourced data centre is the only cost-effective choice.

Sheer complexity of IT infrastructure is also causing other more general businesses to grow their outsourcing needs. As interconnectivity and interactivity rise, such as integrated IP telephony and messaging, IT and network infrastructure complexity means that an outsourced data centre is the most cost-effective way to manage the business.

At what stage does data centre outsourcing become financially attractive?

A useful rule-of-thumb outsourcing entry point is one fully populated rack. For many organisations, such a rack may be extremely difficult to support – not least because the costs of bringing sufficient power and cooling into their own data room may be prohibitive.
By using an outsourced data centre, the benefits are absolutely clear, and even at the single rack level the savings can be significant. Company floor space is released, cooling and power bills are lower, maintenance and administration costs are cut – and staff are free to focus on the business.

How robust is the Interxion service?

Interxion offers three principal service level agreements, of three-nines, four-nines and five-nines uptime. With multiple levels of redundancy for all critical systems, Interxion is fully confident that it meets or exceeds its service levels at price points that individual companies would find very difficult to beat.

How well are your data centres connected?

All the Interxion data centres are carrier neutral and offer flexible and scalable colocation and managed services, from small-scale to pan-European solutions. For example, typically there are 25 to 50 potential carrier partners in each data centre

This kind of connectivity choice allows customers to drive down the cost of bandwidth, by encouraging carriers to compete for the business. Having a large number of carriers also enhances resilience, as there is always an alternative provider should the primary service fail. This is a classic example of the benefits of an outsourced data centre, where shared services bring new advantages.

What are customers demanding?

The biggest single worry for our clients is power availability. As computing densities rise, so does the power need per rack. This concern arises because some data centres offer power per rack only on the basis that not all clients need peak power at the same time.
Interxion has added 13MW to the London data centre alone in 2006, offering guaranteed power at peak demand levels, demonstrating the company’s commitment to providing sufficient power for the high-density computing world.

Is it important for a data centre provider to have an extensive network of data centres?

The internet has torn down many international trading barriers, and it is important that a data centre provider has a corresponding physical footprint.

With Interxion’s international service, a single master service level agreement and a central always-available customer support service can remove many of the business headaches of international operations. #

Interxion operates an extensive network, with 22 data centres in 11 European countries. This international spread allows Interxion to offer standardised services that customers find easy to manage and highly cost-effective, matching their business needs.

• Interxion