Taking the initiative: How Coreix foresaw growing demand for colocation in a burgeoning market

Embracing colo and cloud in the heart of London

Coreix is a dedicated server and colocation firm that saw a market opportunity many years before its rivals, and is now leading the field as the data centre market continues to rapidly change.

"Over the last three years or so, the company has changed direction, essentially," explains managing director Alan Dean.

"We started as a company that was a dedicated server company - 10 years ago, we were trying to replicate the US [service] model. At the time the average company was 9-5 support - we came along just after 24/7 support, and that's what we entered the market to do."

But in the past three years, Coreix realised that 24/7 service wasn't just about picking up the phone at the right time, it was also about offering a fuller service to any customer, be it a large organisation or an SME. Three years ago, Coreix took what it had learned about 24/7 service and moved into the colocation and cloud markets.

"What we felt was that there was a segregation, in my mind, between the wholesale colocation where you were buying large amounts of space and then the retail market, and I've seen a move from wholesale into retail - so wholesale type space where you just receive cabinet and power - but you're not getting much of a background to speak to carriers," explains Dean.

"They're just interested in getting rid of space, getting rid of small chunks to lots of people, rather than large chunks to small amounts of people."

What Coreix decided to bring to the table, Dean says, is certification, connectivity and the full support it's become known for.

"That's the same quality - the same individuals, in fact - that we offer to our dedicated server support," he explains.

"So as a colo client you can be based in Scotland, you can want to have your dedicated base in London, you may have us install for you or not, but a lot of our clients, unless they're very local, send their kit to us and never come to the site again," continues Dean.

Coreix can then easily set up kernels, debug the OS or whatever a customer wants, completely remotely.

"It adds that software layer to colo. That was the core of the service we wanted to offer," he says.

Overall, Dean is proud of the round-the-clock, fully serviced offer Coreix is now bringing to its customers.

"It's a more positive experience than when you call up at night, get put through to a security guard, and he'll push the button you ask him to push, and that's it," he jokes.

"We wanted to bring that managed service, dedicated server level of support to the colocation market."

Coreix partnered with London-based data centre firm Virtus initially, but now "that facility is essentially full" it is having to look elsewhere, choosing Infinity and its new Stratford-based data centre, in the space previously occupied by 2012's Olympic Park - a move Dean is visibly "quite excited about".

The building and data centre forms part of the old communications hub, as well as the current home of BT Sport, and is unusually well-equipped for life as a modern data centre.

"Essentially, it's going to have an operational data centre there, a full fibre network, and keeping the power infrastructure put in place for the Olympics," explains Dean.

The surrounding business hub will also create a very positive home for Coreix's expanding horizons.

"It's the sort of place you'll be able to go out for a bite to eat afterwards," says Dean.

"Data centres of late have been essentially warehouses in the middle of nowhere, so having that social element will be quite interesting."

Coreix is also looking forward to bringing infrastructure to the new businesses due to operate in the area.

The facility boasts 200,000 square feet of space and 16 megawatts of usable power, Dean says. "It's going to be a very interesting site and very positive for us, and working with Infinity's more wholesale-based model, we can provide the service wraparound and connectivity," he says.

Coreix is also moving into DDoS mitigation services, geographic load balancing and "all the other wraparound you get with dedicated services", Dean says.

Computing is proud to welcome Coreix as both gold and research sponsor at its upcoming Data Centre and Infrastructure Summit. To come along to this free conference on 23rd September 2015, please visit this registration link.