EXPERT OPINION
who offer IT services to more traditional
businesses – basically everything else on
the Internet.
We have MSPs completely focused on SAP
hosting or MSPs very focused on offering
a desktop service to large enterprises.
Then we can still do our technical talk to
the MSP and they translate that more into
business language to their end customer.
What are the key things
customers want?
Eltjo Hofstee, Managing Director of
Leaseweb UK
What are the decisive factors
which determine the locations of
data centres?
We chose to start in London for obvious
reasons – it’s the place where you have
to be. We didn’t have any data centres
in the UK so when we started, we were
immediately able to lower the latency
which is very important for some of our
gaming/video customers.
We will open up another data centre in
the London area this year, mainly for
further growth and not so much for
technical reasons.
And then I can imagine that we will open
somewhere in the north as there’s quite
a big tech community in Manchester, but
that is not scheduled yet.
It’s becoming more and more important
to have a low PUE in terms of
environmental awareness.
But something else we really see is that, a
few years ago, it was almost a religion to
bring everything to public cloud. But now
we see a trend where organisations are
really looking at the requirements of what
hosting is needed.
Then they will probably operate partly
in the public cloud, partly in private on
dedicated servers. We are able to fully
fulfil these requirements of customers and
that’s one of the reasons I believe we are
still growing.
For me, Brexit is a key thing – I am
following the news very closely.
We have prioritised a couple of verticals –
we focus on Internet professionals and IT
professionals. Internet professionals are
companies who exist because the Internet
exists – they are normally, on average, the
more technical focused customers. They
are very technically driven and able to fully
utilise our APIs and all our equipment. We
are a very technical company and have
always been focused on servicing more
technically skilled customers. From a practical stand point, Brexit with
or without a deal will put limitations
and constraints on logistics. Equipment
and parts for data centres are likely to
be slower to import from the EU than
pre-Brexit, putting strain on companies
and customers who work in the ever-
evolving world of IT. Providers should plan
for customs to be backlogged and have a
surplus of stock to ensure UK customers
can get what they need.
Then there are IT professionals, the
majority of which are MSPs and those A post-Brexit world is also likely to
help fuel an even bigger rise in the
Issue 02
WE ARE A VERY
TECHNICAL
COMPANY AND
HAVE ALWAYS
BEEN FOCUSED ON
SERVICING MORE
TECHNICALLY
SKILLED
CUSTOMERS.
For us, this year, the focus is really on
growth and becoming more independent
of the Amsterdam HQ pushed by Brexit
but also our long-term plan to have a
completely independent entity.
Who are your typical customers?
42
use of cloud architecture. From a data
regulation and location perspective, the
flexibility of cloud can allow for rapid
adaptability in uncertain times, while
mitigating the financial risk associated
with long-term physical investment or
expensive migrations. ◊
www.intelligentdatacentres.com