Cheerio from Manchester!

Thanks to all of you who joined me in Melbourne, Australia last week. My World Tour of Online Tech data centers continues this week with my arrival in Manchester, England! The jet lag is real, but so is the energy in the fastest growing city in the UK!

Manchester is famous for its street art, including this bird created by Faunographic.

Manchester has many claims to fame, including being the birthplace of the industrial revolution, but perhaps the most recognized symbol of Manchester is its world-famous football club, Manchester United! Mancunians (that’s what you call someone from Manchester) are rightfully proud of their Premier League team and the Museum & Stadium Tour at Old Trafford is not to be missed!

Manchester is also a major hub for business connectivity. During my tour of Online Tech’s cloud node, I learned that Manchester is right in the middle of the UK’s “figure of eight” fiber optic network, which supports dense connectivity to major UK cities, the U.S. and Europe. Its location makes it the perfect spot for companies that have or plan to expand their operations on a global scale.

An exterior shot the data center in Manchester (photo courtesy of Equinix)

Like the node in Melbourne, the data center here in the UK is owned by Equinix and part of the cloud exchange fabric (IBX).

Some of the other fun facts and figures I learned about this center:

1. It is the UK’s most network dense facility outside of London
2. The Manchester IBX data centers consist of four buildings totaling more than 80,000 square feet of colocation space
3. Each Manchester IBX data center is highly accredited, including ISO 27001 (security management), ISO 22301 (business continuity management) and PCI DSS (card payments specific accreditation) certifications
4. All IBX locations offer flexible power densities that can scale up to 20kW per rack–whoa!

With all those certifications, Online Tech really takes the security and privacy of their partners and clients seriously! The data center offers scalable technical space, leading operational resiliency and world-class security for any business with global operations and is definitely a must see.

I’m now headed stateside again to wrap up my World Tour on American soil! Check in with me next week as I visit our cloud node in Las Vegas, Nevada. Viva Las Vegas!