31 January 2018

T5 Data Centers, headquartered in Atlanta, has entered the European data centre market with announcement of its new joint venture with JCD Group of Cork to develop the T5@Ireland data centre campus. The company, who specialises in providing secure, customisable, hyperscale computing environments for enterprise companies is to build its first data centre outside the United States in Cork and will look to take advantage of the coming political changes in the European Union (Brexit and associated EU data sovereignty laws), and the telecom and power infrastructure advantages in Cork to serve a growing need for companies seeking new data centres serving European and U.S. customers.

 

The new T5@Ireland campus is a 32.5-acre located in Little Island, Cork with access to a 60MW electrical grid connection in the adjoining substation. The campus has full planning in place for two 7MW enterprise colocation facilities and a cloud targeted 323,000-square-foot, 32 MW data centre facility. As with all T5 facilities, each data centre can be customised to accommodate any enterprise-grade or cloud computing deployment. The buildings have been designed by US Architectural firm Corgan and UK Engineering firm Cundall, who both specialise in the data centre design.

 

T5@Ireland will have unrivalled fibre connectivity with direct access to Ireland’s five largest domestic fiber carriers including Aurora Telecom’s new national backhaul network. The location will also offer the lowest latency between Europe and the US via the GTT Express cable, which landed in Garretstown, Co. Cork in September 2015 and will be connected directly to the site. The first data centre will be a 7MW, 84,000 square foot facility and is due for completion in Q1 2019, which will coincide with the landing of the Ireland France Subsea Cable (IFC-1). This will be the first cable to directly link Ireland to Mainland Europe and will connect directly to T5@Ireland. These connections provide the location with faster onward connection speeds than Dublin to cities like London, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. Given the vast amounts of data traveling between Europe and the US. The new connectivity and high-speed access, makes Cork an ideal location for the transfer, storage and hosting of International data.

 

“Now is the perfect time for T5 to build T5@Ireland as our springboard into Europe,” said Pete Marin, CEO & President of T5 Data Centers. “Cork is a growing technology hub with a great talent pool and robust infrastructure. We expect T5@Ireland to attract European customers seeking a new location for their enterprise operations, and for U.S. companies seeking a European data centre presence. This is the next phase of T5’s global expansion strategy and shows our commitment to serve our customers wherever they need us.”

 

In addition to new EU data sovereignty laws which could drive data centre traffic from the UK following Brexit, construction of T5@Ireland comes at an opportune time relative to power availability and telecom connectivity within Ireland. Dublin has historically been the preferred data hub of Ireland, but the growth is now expected to slow due to the lack of availability of suitable sites with power available. Both Eirgrid and IDA Ireland have been actively marketing locations outside of Dublin for this type of investment. T5@Ireland is fed by 60 MW of power from an adjacent dual fed substation and can deliver this power within expedited delivery deployments of new facilities. These and other market factors will give Cork the opportunity to compete globally for these strategic investments.

 

Speaking about today’s announcement, An Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs & Trade, Simon Coveney said, “This is a very welcome investment by a world leading Data Centre owner and operator in Cork. With the landing of the GTT (Hibernia) Express cable in Garretstown in 2015, which provides the lowest latency between Europe and the US, and the planned delivery of the Ireland France Subsea Cable (IFC-1) in Spring 2019, Cork has now become a strategic European location for the storage, hosting and processing of data. Cork as a region is also well served from a power perspective, and this substantial investment by T5 Data Centers and JCD Group will further increase Cork and the region’s attractiveness from a Foreign Direct Investment perspective.”

 

Cork County Mayor Cllr Declan Hurley, echoed the Ministers statement and said “I am delighted to welcome T5 to Ireland and especially to Cork in their joint venture with JCD group. We are internationally recognised within the technology sector through our highly skilled and educated workforce while we continue to position and strengthen Cork as a destination for such developments. T5’s selection proves this.”

 

T5@Ireland Building I is a Class A data centre designed to meet LEED Silver requirements. It features block-redundant 1.75 MW electrical line ups and can accommodate more than 750 equipment racks at 10 KW per rack. The Cork location also offers ideal climate conditions for indirect, free air cooling, and the building is equipped with a cooling system that allows for modular deployments. The development value of Building I will be €70 million and will sustain 125 construction jobs, while it is being developed. As with all T5 data centres, T5@Ireland will be managed by the T5 Facilities Management (T5FM) team. T5FM is responsible for T5 Data Centres’ record of 100 percent uptime, and serves as an extension to customers’ IT staff, offering facilities operations and management, remote hands, and IT consulting services.

 

John Cleary, CEO of JCD group added: “Together with T5 we are in detailed discussions with a number of potential end user clients and are very encouraged by the level of interest in the T5@Ireland campus. We expect to start construction soon with the delivery and commissioning of the of the first data centre coming in early 2019. Cork has an excellent track record for supporting foreign direct investment, being home to some of the world’s largest Technology and Life Sciences companies. Given that global data centre IP traffic is expected to grow three-fold over the next five years, this is a huge growth area and represents a strategic opportunity for both Cork and Ireland.”

 

Garrett McClean, Executive Director of CBRE commented that “it’s a very exciting project to be involved in given the high calibre of both the operator, T5 Data Centers, and the local JV partner, JCD Group. We’re expecting strong levels of interest from multiple sectors given the flexibility T5@Ireland data centre campus offers with over 500,000 sq ft of full planning consents over 3 buildings, 60MW of power secured and superb fibre connectivity”