The UK hosts a significant number of data centres, with concentrations in several key areas including London and the Home Counties (particularly Slough, which is home to one of Europe's largest data centre clusters), the London Docklands, Hayes, Uxbridge and Park Royal.
Other significant locations include Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Leeds and Reading. This briefing will explore which factors determine data centres' location, looking at both general factors and the specific concerns of importance to different types of centre.
UK data centres
General factors
As a rule of thumb, the factors of key importance when deciding where to locate a new data centre are:
- Low latency and proximity to users: For applications requiring high speed (e.g., banking, real-time trading), data centres must be close to customers, which drives the concentration in London and other regional business hubs.
