With G-Cloud just around the corner, Dell opened a new data centre in Slough enabling it to pitch for public sector Cloud services business in the UK.
The first wholly-owned EMEA data centre that Dell has had, the facility is 20,000-plus square feet and locally owned, run and managed, and able to offer public and private Cloud services. It formally opens for business on 3 November.
The 5,000 square foot data centre is divided into two sections – a raised-floor area featuring rows of cabinets using hot aisle containment and in-row cooling units, and a second section with IT capacity deployed in Dell Modular Data Centres. Meeting Tier III reliability standards and a power usage effectiveness of about 1.5, the data centre will offer a range of security and storage services, as well as platform services.
Don Mann, VP infrastructure and cloud Computing at Dell Services, commented:
In 2012, Dell plans launch its Cloud-based VDI system, branded as Dell Virtual Desktop-as-a-Service, and its Dell Cloud, which will run off the back of VMware’s vCloud. One service that will be provided by the Dell Cloud in Slough is Unified Clinical Archiving, which allows healthcare providers to manage, share and store medical imaging data.
In April, Dell announced plans to build ten data centres around the world to support a range of Cloud-based services, including Azure, VMware and OpenStack clouds. The services will include Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Platform-as-a-Service, Virtual Desktop-as-a-Service and IT outsourcing, Steve Schuckenbrock, president of Dell Services, said then.
