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THE TIMES
Data Guardian
23rd September 2010
Suggest to Simon Taylor that Newport is an unusual place to base Europe’s largest data centre and you will get short shrift. For the otherwise genial co-founder of Next Generation Data (NGD), the notion of the city as a business backwater is a source of great irritation.
“I do get terribly annoyed that Wales is often talked of as a secondrate location for business,” Breconborn Taylor despairs. “I think people like myself, Laura Tenison and Terry Matthews (clothing entrepreneur and owner of Celtic Manor) prove that you can do great business here.”
Taylor, 44, has put Newport firmly on the map of digital Britain. Since March this year, NGD Europe has provided data storage services to some of the world's largest IT and telecoms firms, including BT and Logica. “We set out to be in a rural area, away from security threats. I knew that South Wales could offer us what we needed,” he says.
Based out of an old semi-conductor plant, NGD sprawls over an area the size of Heathrow Terminal 5. The secure facility has its own power plant, which sources its energy from 100 per cent renewable supplies, and easy access to the highspeed fibre connectivity so crucial to its business. “Plus we have access to a fantastic talent pool for a fraction of the cost,” Taylor says.
He worked closely with the Welsh Assembly Government to find the site and plan the £200m project. It is testament to the success of that relationship that NGD is already looking for a second site in the area.
He feels enormous pride at the area hosting the Ryder Cup: “The kudos is phenomenal. I just hope that visitors will return home having revised any negative impressions about the area.”
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