28th November 2011 – Marion Kindermans (Ile-de-France)

At the end of last week, Global Switch, the British developer of data centres, launched in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine) the biggest carrier neutral data centre in France.

Opened ten years ago, the first data centre based in Clichy was ”nearing full occupation in 2009”, said Yves Tavernier, Global Switch’s Managing Director, Paris. Construction started two years ago on an extension with a total gross space of 17,000 sq m, located in the middle of the city, including 10,000 sq m of technical space.. With this “150,000 to 200,000 million Euros extension, the data centre is now the biggest in Europe, after Global Switch’s one in London”, specifies Yves Tavernier.

Like a wholesaler, Global Switch leases its technical space (from 100 to 4,000 sq m) for long term contracts to IT integrators who in turn host their customers, typically companies in the banking sector as well as other CAC 40 companies. Hence the location in Clichy, in the West of Paris, close to La Défense and the centre of Paris. “This extension provides a secure environment an essential requirement of our customers who need two separate areas in the event of an incident (fire, etc.) in one of them”, explains the Managing Director.

Global Switch defines itself as the “leading European carrier neutral data centre operator”, in other words is able to offer its customers the connectivity to over 20 networks of their choice. To ensure an ongoing and sufficient power density, there are two separate incoming feeds of 24 MW each. “We offer a 48 MW capacity that is equivalent to the consumption of a city with 120,000 inhabitants; this capacity can also be generated on-site, ie independently from EDF”, underlines Yves Tavernier.

The new building has been designed over six floors and all environmental aspects taken into account. “For example our waste heat energy output will feed the tropical greenhouse that the Council is about to build in the Parc des Impressionnistes. And we are studying the way we could, together with the CPCU (Paris urban heating company), heat the Council swimming pool”, says Yves Tavernier.

To keep control of the 30,000 monitored points of the data centre, 80 employees will work on a 24/7 rate on the site. Eventually, integrators will need about 100 people to ensure control of their own equipment. Global Switch operates seven data centres in the Europe (Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Paris) as well as Sydney and Singapore, totalling 290,000 sq m of space.