DC Thomson, owner of Aberdeen Journals limited, is set to invest £5million to establish a data centre in the Granite city.
Brightsolid, the Dundee publishers’ cloud computing company, said the new data facility will position Aberdeen as a “global tech hub”.
The firm plans to build the data centre at the Press & Journal’s offices on the Lang Stracht.
The site will initially comprise 200 high density racks with a second phase build doubling the facility to 400 racks.
Brightsolid said that the site will hold the equivalent computer power of 100,000 Macbooks and will have the ability to store the same amount of data that Facebook currently holds on a global scale when it is at full capacity.
The build is scheduled to commence during October 2014 and the facility due to open in April 2015.
Richard Higgs, chief executive of Brightsolid, said: “Aberdeen is the energy capital of Europe, and as such requires a global technology link for the market.
“We see our new state-of-the-art, tier III Aberdeen data centre as an opportunity to help position the city as a global tech hub by contributing to, and providing the means for, a growing digital economy across all sectors in the north-east of Scotland ensuring continued growth in the region.”
The data centre will provide a large-scale digital asset compatible with a variety of business sizes within both the public and private sector in Aberdeen.
It will allow for connectivity across the UK and globally. For the energy industry, the centre will link Aberdeen to the world’s other major energy cities.
“For the last 18 months we have been expanding our customers and knowledge in this vital sector. The new facility must and will enable outstanding operational excellence whilst driving down cost. We will also be bringing our full innovation and cloud range directly into Aberdeen, so this commitment is significant,” Mr Higgs added.
The technology firm will work with data centre construction specialist Keysource on the build.
Mike West, Managing Director Keysource said: “We are delighted to be working with Brightsolid to develop this high performance facility in such an exciting market. We’ve been able to bring our experience of working with organisations across all sectors but particularly within oil & gas to provide a highly efficient, flexible solution which caters for the latest high density IT.”
Brightsolid is also working in partnership with some of the UK’s leading network providers to connect with their local, national and international networks, with a particular focus on the major international energy hubs.