Cloud Computing Data Centre To Emerge In Inverness

IT Firm Alchemy Plus and Microsoft are coming together to build a £20 million "cloud computing" data centre that should be operational by the end of 2010 and which has been billed as the country's first eco-friendly data centre.

The project, which will be used primarily as a storage hub, is set to create 400 jobs in the area; Northern Scotland was chosen mainly because of the chilly weather which rules out the use of massive amount of energy to cool the huge number of servers.

The 20,000 square feet building will also help heating neighbouring areas and could potentially be the first of many, if Cloud Computing usage ramps up as expected in 2009.

Steve Chisolm, Chief Executive Officer of Alchemy Plus , said that "Much thought has gone into developing an environmentally-friendly solution that reduces energy consumption and waste while satisfying a rapidly growing demand for cheaper and more flexible IT services that enhance business value."

Cisco has also signalled its intention of building new data centres in Scotland, joining the ranks of IBM, Dell and HP, which have been using the country as a vital springboard for European markets.

One year ago, another grand data centre project is the one initiated by Internet Villages International in the north of Lockerbie which will house 20 data centres and cost £600 million.

And Microsoft will also open a Massive data processing centre in Russia at a cost of $500 million while Google is planning to launch sea-borne Data centres.