FOCUS NEWS FOCUS
Issue 14, February/March
FORGET SILICON VALLEY
London’s Shoreditch is being touted as the place to be if you want fast connections and close proximity to the country’s new darling media companies, not to mention a drink in a trendy bar. By Penny Jones
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f the streets surrounding our DatacenterDynamics office in London could talk they would have a very interesting story about connectivity to tell. Layers upon layers of bitumen can be seen dug up, cut through and steaming in parts of the locale each day. Being just outside of London City’s border, and the financial heart of the nation, seems to mean requirements here change constantly.
The cables in the area tell the history of the region’s connectivity – and the real story behind why the UK government has pitched the area (now to be known as Silicon Roundabout) as the home of a new burgeoning technology industry. But is it all that new?
OPPORTUNISTIC SHOREDITCH
In the last three years London has seen its number of tech companies grow by 700%. It is a story the UK is proud of and wants to promote around the world.
With a dwindling manufacturing industry, something has to create skills and its seems like technology could be just the thing to do it.
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In recent months the government has been trying to entice some of the savviest names in the industry to London, from Facebook to Twitter and Google, with the lure of a trendy well-connected setting. Rumour has it Silicon Roundabout itself – an actual roundabout above Shoreditch’s Old Street station – is where the local fiber connections all meet, and in some cases end.
Brothers taking a whole floor of space here. They had security guards and all...
At one stage we had Lehman
Content management firm Company Content and Code was here long before the roundabout had any association with silicon.
It originally came to Shoreditch because of its city proximity, which would be likely to attract travellers willing to work hard in return for sponsorship (and play hard in bars around in its edgy cobbled streets), and customers from the Square Mile who could walk to the location in minutes. It also had
cheap rent and great connectivity – not only the people in Shoreditch have good connections it seems.
“I think the whole term Silicon Roundabout is now going to showcase the area – it will mean clients we get from around the world will understand what this region is about, that we are serious and that will help the companies working here. It really is well connected,” Tim Wallis, CEO and cofounder of Content and Code says.
Data center operators have taken to the area for much the same reasons. The area also falls short of the city’s exclusion zone – an imaginary security grill that locks down the city in the case of fire, attack or flood, meaning no one can get into their City offices. For some customers, having data center operations here has also meant that when accidents have happened in house, staff can easily walk to facilities to ensure activities remain uninterrupted.
“At one stage we had Lehman Brothers taking a whole floor of space here. They had security guards and all,” Roger Keenan,
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