Today, Paul Bryce, Business Development Director of Node4 who are a data centres specialist set to launch their new data centre in Northamptonshire early next year will be a key speaker on the Northamptonshire Economic Forum. The panel will be discussing their views on the future. Paul will be discussing Node4’s reasons for choosing Northamptonshire as a location for his fourth data centre including the proximity to good transport links and the fact that the area is connected with major financial services companies which are set to be one of the industries to be making the most out of the increased efficiencies and reduced costs offered by the new data centre. Next year is set to be the year of the cloud, with a high percentage of businesses expected to be outsourcing data to secure data centres, according to Gartner.
One of the other topics up for discussion will include whether or not the shift in focus to developing town centres rather than suburban areas has been true in the case of Northampton and the impact that the new data centre is set to have on the local community. Paul will draw on his own experiences as a Midlands based employer and businessman of areas where there has been a strong policy to redevelop the urban hub of the local community in order to support businesses and attract new talent into the area.
Bryce says, “The new centre is designed to meet the needs of SME’s and corporate who are trying to keep to strict budgets for managing and implementing IT. The data centre will be around twice the size of our Wakefield site at approximately 41,000 sq ft making it our biggest facility to date with an impressive planned capacity of 720 racks. The Northampton centre will increase the company footprint further south and will be especially valuable to SME’s in the region who often want to ‘touch and feel’ the experience and who are keen to come and view the physical facility which will be housing their most valuable asset; their data. The Northampton site will boast high specifications by combining the latest in power, fire control, security, cooling and humidification technologies.”
At the forefront of today’s debate will be the ways in which the proposed housing boom can be filled including attracting a new set of skilled workers to support the local economy which Paul hopes to be able to contribute to by opening the new data centre which will require a strong workforce to support the business development of the Midlands fastest growing technology company. Paul will be keen to see the region produce a good crop of skilled talent and he would like to see the education sector work with local employers such as himself to fulfil the needs of the local economy. Paul will express his views on this subject, stating that education has an important role to play in equipping graduates for the world of work. In this round table debate Paul will be discussing the importance of better preparation for the world of work for graduates.
As a new business owner in the local area, Paul will be discussing his views on what lies ahead for Northampton in the next decade. The area is set to attract a strong cluster of companies in a variety of sectors including transport and logistics, retail, construction and financial services. Node4 aims to work with both large corporations and SME’s to help companies in the area maximise their efficiencies, productivity and reduce IT running costs.
