Continent 8 opens ninth global facility in Dublin
News on 9 Oct 2013
News on 9 Oct 2013
Irish prime minister Enda Kenny officiated at the opening of the international Internet technology, products and services provider Continent 8’s new facility in Dublin this week.
The centre – Continent 8’s ninth such plant – has been operational for the past five months and will be also be home to Continent 8’s EMEA Service Operations Centre.
Continent 8 chief executive Michael Tobin accompanied the Irish prime minister at the opening, and told reporters:
“When Continent 8 decided to invest in Ireland and expand our global data centre footprint we looked for a facility that had comprehensive and diverse connectivity, whilst deploying the latest in data centre cooling technologies to drive overall efficiency for our customers.
“This facility allows us to deliver on these requirements and continue to develop our global portfolio of managed services and solutions to the online gaming industry.”
The Dublin launch follows the completion of a major expansion of Continent 8’s Isle of Man data centre earlier this week.
The company, which has been headquartered on the island since 2006, has increased the capacity of the facility as part of its diversification strategy and in order to answer growing demand.
A company spokesman said that having been successful in delivering data centre services including Co-location, Managed Services, Distributed Denial of Service protection, Disaster Recovery, MPLS services and Content Delivery to online gaming companies across the world for more than 15 years, Continent 8 now plans to use its expertise to reach out to new sectors.
Head of product at Continent 8 Stephen Trimble, commented: “The data centre upgrade, alongside an aggressive product development roadmap, is key to showing that not only is Continent 8 truly global, but we are also investing heavily in and committed to the Isle of Man.”
Members of the Isle of Man Department of Economic Development, including Minister John Shimmin, and key project contractors visited Continent 8 Technologies’ upgraded Douglas data centre this week.
The upgrade programme has doubled the capacity of the Isle of the data centre and includes the introduction of fresh air cooling via a dedicated air handling unit (AHU).
Trimble explained: “The Isle of Man is the ideal climate for this type of super-efficient cooling system given that, in general, outside air is cooler than the temperature required in the data centre.
“Using the latest hot aisle containment technology, heat is extracted directly from the rear of the equipment racks, drawn out of the room and across the heat exchanger system in the AHU. The fresh air from outside is brought into the AHU is filtered, mixed with as much warm air as required, if any, and supplied into the room. During high external ambient temperatures, the AHU systems are assisted by an evaporative adiabatic cooling array.
“All systems are fully redundant, meaning that no failure of any individual component would affect the system’s operation.
“We have built a fantastic asset here on the island, to world-class levels, which is already being used by leading international businesses and can now be utilised by other sectors too,” said Trimble.
“While we are looking forward to continuing our leading technical and visionary reputation within the online gaming industry, we are now diversifying outside of this niche sector – it’s an exciting time.”
Continent 8 Technologies delivers Internet technologies, products and services to the global online gaming industry; providing companies with secure and reliable facilities from which to host their online operations. The Isle of Man headquartered firm has operations in London, Paris, Dublin, Montreal, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Malta, and Singapore, with further additions planned and imminent launches in USA, Canada and the Far East.
