Member Article

North East technology company ITPS invests £2 million in new data centre

Technology solutions company ITPS is investing £2m to create the North East’s biggest data centre and combined business recovery space, in a move that will create 25 new jobs and cement the company’s position as the biggest independently-owned IT company in the region.

The expansion is being supported by a £242,000 grant under a programme that is part of the government’s Regional Growth Fund, and which is operated by BE Group in partnership with UNW LLP.

Andrew Frost, project advisor with the BE Group, said “We are delighted to be supporting ITPS in their expansion plans. This project is another great example of a business investing in its future and creating new highly skilled jobs here in the North East.”

A former IBM business continuity and recovery centre, the 33,000sq ft premises in Chester le Street include 500 fully equipped workspace recovery seats to allow clients to quickly relocate their businesses in the face of disaster or interruption to service.

The new building will become Gateshead-based ITPS’s fourth ISO27001-certified data centre and form the hub of its Network Operations Centre.

ITPS’s managing director Garry Sheriff said: “This investment comes on the back of a raft of new contract wins in and outside the region, and increasing demand for our data centre services portfolio such as hosting, backup and recovery, and cloud services.

“As an IBM Premier Partner we knew the building was to become available, and its location and infrastructure presented the ideal opportunity to support our growth plans.

“This is the culmination of a three-year search for new premises with a very specific set of prerequisites, and business advisers Baker Tilley were instrumental in introducing us to the support fund, with whose backing we closed the deal.

“We are initially installing high speed, large capacity communications to add the data centre to our network, and refurbishing the site to meet our ISO27001 security certification to transform it into the ideal platform from which to expand our data centre services client base.

“After listening to what clients wanted we included facilities such as dedicated customer space plus project preparation and build space, and we are particularly pleased at having taken our workspace recovery facilities from 60 to 500 seats and our server rack capacity to 400 at this site alone, which will make it the largest facility of its kind in the North East.

“The extra client workspace, meeting and drop in areas we have gained gives us the much-needed space to expand the business, and to be able to offer our clients day to day use of the facilities whenever they need them.

“The world is becoming an increasingly small place, and we already deliver data centre services to a rapidly-growing number of clients across the UK and mainland Europe. With the new premises as our data centre hub, we will build on that success to drive our expansion plans and create new jobs. This is a big step and an exciting time for the business.”

Tony Edwards, a partner at Baker Tilly North East who has advised on more than 30 successful Regional Growth Fund applications said: “We are delighted that ITPS were able to secure this grant funding which will help the company to significantly expand and in the process create 25 new jobs in the region.

The latest Government report shows that the number of small and medium-sized enterprises supported through the Regional Growth Fund has trebled over the past year to 5,100, helping to deliver 69,000 jobs outside of London. This is just the latest example of the positive impact that this programme is having on businesses in the North East.“

ITPS specialises in ICT consultancy, data centre services and unified communications, as well as support services and disaster recovery. Its clients range from blue chip corporates and SMEs through to local authorities and research organisations.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by ITPS Ltd .