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Before the threat of terrorism, London had been the hub for most disaster recovery or business continuity facilities, especially data centres – buildings that support mission-critical computer systems and associated components, and run the applications that handle the core business and operational data of the organisation.

However, London is fast reaching 100% hosting capacity, both in terms of space within existing data centres and land on which to build new facilities. It has been estimated there will be 0% availability by 2009, according to Andrew Jay of CB Richard Ellis, one of the UK’s leading commercial real estate advisers. And this is one of the factors that is driving businesses to look outside the capital, with many considering Kent.

Kent has an emerging cluster of data centres offering business continuity services, as well as companies that have their own business continuity facilities at such locations as Kent Science Park near Sittingbourne; Kings Hill near West Malling; Crossways, the business park adjacent to the QEII crossing; and Chatham Maritime in Medway.  

At Kent Science Park, IT services company Sota operates two state-of-the-art data centres, one at 95% capacity, and a workplace recovery facility. Located 40 miles from central London, Sota’s data centres are strategically placed to serve the business community of London and Kent. In addition to its standard portfolio of IT services, Sota provides clients with individual business continuity expertise.

The Bunker, a former Ministry of Defence command and control centre in East Kent, now offers ultra-secure data centre facilities within an 18-acre high security site that addresses every potential threat that can compromise the availability of a business’ critical applications.

As expected, the industry that continues to drive demand is the heavily regulated and global financial services sector. It was these companies, more than any others, that after the terrorist attacks in New York, recognised the City and Canary Wharf could be paralysed – a threat emphasised by the attacks on London.  Financial groups were ordered to create backup data centres by their regulatory bodies. Many already operated business continuity space in the Docklands, but this was considered too close to potential targets.

“London can also be unsuitable for today’s computer servers, which demand vast amounts of power,” according to Jay. “The big banks were forced to look further afield, but not too far, as signals along fibre optic cables degrade over distance – a phenomenon known as fibre latency.” As a result, many operators are looking for locations within close proximity of the M25, which has led many banks and institutions to search for sites and cable hunters whizzing around the motorway looking for likely locations.

“When domestic services start in 2009, Ebbsfleet, between Dartford and Gravesend, will be 17 minutes away by rail from central London. This will significantly strengthen Kent’s business continuity credentials yet further,” said Jay.

It’s not just the threat of terrorism that’s driving the move out of London, it’s also the policies laid down in the London Plan that are demanding new developments, wherever feasible, to generate a proportion of the site’s electricity or heating needs from renewable sources. As a result, the requirement to install low-carbon energy production equipment to power these developments means new data centres in London are becoming prohibitively expensive.

Disaster can strike a company in many different guises, with varying levels of severity. In the ideal world, diligent business managers will have a pre-prepared response to any given scenario. In the real world, planning for disasters is regarded as a low priority task and often overlooked. A company will either be well-prepared or purely reactive.

Whatever the response, business managers have a duty of care to maintain business continuity to safeguard the future of their business. Beyond the immediate concerns of health and safety, the primary objective is to recover from disaster as quickly as possible by restoring operations. The faster that service to customers can be restored and profitable trading resumed, the higher the chance the business will survive the disaster.

For more information and to take advantage of Locate in Kent’s free, confidential relocation service, visit www.locateinkent.com or call 01732 520700.