As part of its corporate evolution, Atcore was reviewing its existing dual-site IT infrastructure and wanted a flexible, secure colocation service that would provide future-proofed reliability for its leading technology solutions.
A focus on ESG and top-class support for the Atcore Group
Posted on in Case studies
The Atcore Group is a technology group specialising in software and services for the leisure travel sector.
The impetus – superior security and resilience
When Atcore first approached Datum, it was looking for an off premise data centre to replace its legacy facility. The management of data centres was not part of its primary business, so Atcore wanted to migrate its IT infrastructure and workloads to a specialist data centre so it could focus on its core business activities. Atcore investigated potential providers and ultimately selected Datum having visited our site and reviewed the quality of our facilities and operational processes.
Atcore realised Datum would offer significantly greater availability and resilience than it could achieve from its own self-managed data centre, coupled with competitive commercial terms.
The company also recognised it would benefit from superior security infrastructure and processes from Datum’s enterprise-grade data centre, and that this partnership would help the company achieve compliance with necessary standards.
The benefit – superior service and environmental efficiencies
A significant factor in Atcore’s decision to partner with Datum was the synergy between the two organisations in terms of their mutual focus on environmental efficiencies. As a provider of software and services to the leisure travel sector, a sector that is under pressure to reduce its environmental impact, Atcore was keen to do what it could to keep its carbon footprint as low as possible. Datum’s purpose-built and state-of-the-art facility offers power efficiency (a PUE of 1.25), uses industry-leading, energy-efficient cooling methods, and sources energy from renewable sources (a power contract that includes full carbon offsetting). This has helped Atcore to meet its own environmental targets.
Another key factor in the success of the relationship between Atcore and Datum has been the responsive and flexible service offered by Datum. We put considerable emphasis on our ability to offer a fully bespoke solution, which appealed to Atcore, having found that other providers were less well equipped to tailor their solutions to its specific requirements. Furthermore, Atcore can get easy, direct and immediate access to the right people at Datum, something that isn’t always possible with larger organisations, and which facilitates an easy working relationship.
By locating its IT estate to our resilient and secure facility, Atcore gets easy access to the expertise of third parties through our partner network. For example, Datum’s partner network gave Atcore a wider choice of dependable and vetted providers of connectivity to comms providers, permitting Atcore to offer its customers an improved choice of providers and more control over implementation timescales.
The solution – a bespoke, secure caged environment
Atcore chose a secure cage for its racks. These racks were lifted, moved and installed by Datum. Prior to the migration, Datum’s engineering team visited Atcore’s site to ensure that the existing racks would fit within the cage design.
The incumbent cooling system differed from Datum’s cooling method, so custom-built rack chimneys were set up by Datum’s engineers to integrate the racks with Datum’s efficient adiabatic system.
“The choice of Datum came down to the quality of their facilities, their first-class client service and their genuine interest in wanting to help us address our business data needs.
Why Datum?
Datum is a proven platform for digital transformation for enterprise clients and a trusted pure-play colocation partner with an impressive client list including FTSE 250 and Fortune 500 companies. Our partner network delivers the additional services required by our clients to ensure they are supported at every stage. Datum was acquired by the infrastructure fund UBS Asset Management in 2021, a move that supports Datum’s ambitions for future development of its operations, including the further development of its Farnborough campus. Get in touch to find out more, or arrange a tour of our facility.