IT firm InTechnology plans data centre powered by household waste

The firm, which has a data centre in Harrogate and is building another in Reading, said it is in early negotiations to create a third building, which would be powered by household waste.

Sales director Natalie Duffield said: “We are talking to a company which is looking to build a number of these data centres and is talking to power stations about how to make it possible.”

The location of the centre has not yet been decided but InTechnology, which has over 800 clients including Barker and Stonehouse, McDonald’s and Towergate Insurance, said it will seek planning permission in the next 12 months with a view to building the centre in two or three years.

The project was put on hold during the recession but the firm believes now is the right time to move it forward.

Ms Duffield said: “Surely it won’t be long before companies start to get taxed on their carbon footprint. We have all got responsibilities around power and infrastructure. Being a responsible company, this would help the environment rather than using power we have already got.”

InTechnology, which employs over 200 staff and has a turnover of about £50m, has already invested £7.5m this year on upgrading its infrastructure in Harrogate and Reading.

The new Reading facility, which is due to open in January, will include energy-efficient technology and equipment. It will host data which was previously kept in London.

Ms Duffield said: “We have invested a lot in the company this year and Reading is the last piece in our jigsaw. We had a London data centre but it was part of someone else’s infrastructure. We now own all our own infrastructure.”

She added: “There are lots of old data centres around. If people aren’t continually investing in making sure they are up-to-date there could be a problem as a result of things being too old.

“We wanted a new facility to take the best advantage of things out there for customers. We haven’t realised as a country how much power we are consuming and it’s really important to be as green as we possibly can be. There is really good technology coming out there now that uses less power.”

Features of the new centre include new cooling technology to keep the building at a certain temperature and bring in cold air from the outside to reduce power consumption.

The company has already sold half of the space in the centre before it opens. “We are thriving in that way,” said Ms Duffield. “The people who come round and see it are very impressed with the facility.”

InTechnology believes the centre will boost its fourth generation cloud infrastructure. “There is a lot of hype around cloud services and a lot of people are trying to jump on the bandwagon of that,” said Ms Duffield. “A lot of them are suppliers who are selling someone else’s equipment and they won’t have 24/7 support.

“We have a big team in the UK so if there is a problem, it can be fixed during the night. We fix 70 per cent of faults while people are asleep, and that is what good managed service providers do.”

Unified communications systems are becoming more popular to combine voice and desktop activity.

“By managing data and voice together there are cost savings to be had,” said Ms Duffield.

InTechnology has also invested in its disaster recovery services and now boasts four layers of resilience to protect customers against multiple problems such as fire and flooding.

Ms Duffield said: “We have spent an absolute fortune making sure that even if there are three failures in the system there is a fourth back-up.

“We are going to be operational throughout all these different disasters and not a lot of people would be.”

InTechnology has also created over 20 new jobs so far this year, including 18 new graduates. The company is on an aggressive growth plan to add 20-30 per cent to its turnover in 2011. “The sky is the limit,” said Ms Duffield. “We are in the right place at the right time.”

The main challenges, she said, are around differentiation. “We need to make sure people know exactly what they are buying. We have invested so much into what we are doing, our services are rock solid but that’s not the case with everyone.”

She added: “The sales cycle is longer than it used to be because people are taking longer to make decisions but I would encourage people to be careful like that.”