Lunar Digital Saves Equinix’s Manchester MA2 Data Centre from Closure
Back in early 2022 we reported on the impact of major data centre closures to UK full fibre broadband ISPs and other operators, which included mention of Equinix‘s plan to close their MA2 IBX data centre in Manchester by June 2023 (here). The good news today is that Lunar Digital has saved the data centre from its fate.
The reality is that end-users rarely notice the impact of data centre closures because network operators – of various different types – simply have little choice but to stomach the surprise expense and move their links into a different building. The data centre operator will often do this automatically for some customers, such as managed clients, but others will not enjoy having such an unwanted additional headache to contend with.
At the time, Equinix informed its customers that they had been evaluating their “real estate portfolio“, which included “determining which assets are strategic to our business … and the cost/benefit analysis of continuing to operate specific sites” (i.e. the impact of rising lease and power costs etc.). As a result, the firm ultimately concluded that MA2 “no longer meets our criteria for continued operation“, although specifics were in short supply.
Advertisement
The good news is that Lunar Digital, a UK based data centre and managed services provider, recently embarked on a new venture in the Manchester data centre industry and have just completed on the acquisition of the Equinix facility in Manchester, now “formerly known” as MA2.
The acquisition of the 22,500sq ft 3MVA (expansion to 4MVA) facility is being seen as highly strategic for Lunar Digital and will bolster their data centre footprint in the UK. The business also has an existing Tier3 European facility in Norway.
Robin Garbutt, Lunar Digital Group CEO, said:
“We’re very excited to announce that we’ve completed the acquisition of the Equinix data centre in Reynolds House. The acquisition will ensure client colocation capacity in the most highly demanded markets within the UK. The demand for premium data centre capacity in Manchester continues to be highlighted and we are proud to be playing our part in supporting its continued growth.”
The operator added that they will be able to offer services immediately within the facility, providing “stability and peace of mind to existing clients” who had previously been informed that the site was due to close (we suspect some of them may have already moved).
The acquisition will also add notable additional capacity to Lunar Digital’s current data centre network, allowing them to strengthen their private and virtual cloud solutions. In terms of the old MA2 name, the facility will now be rebranded as Lunar1 & Lunar2, due to the fact there are two self-contained facilities within the site, offering highly connected, carrier neutral data centre capabilities in Manchester.
Advertisement
We should point out that there’s a lot of demand for data centres in this market, thus closures are often less about a lack of demand and more about ensuring the most cost-effective approach to take in a competitive market.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
« Welsh Full Fibre Broadband ISP Ogi Enhance Customer Support
The First 6G Mobile Broadband Networks Could Surface in 2028 »
“Saves from Closure” is a bit of a stretch!
Jisc and iomart both have presence in Reynolds House and negotiated lease extensions, while Equinix did not.
Lunar Digital will be challenged by the fact Equinix gave everyone their marching orders already. I doubt there will be many customers left in there now – maybe a few who still haven’t gotten around to planning to leave, or who just hoped someone would swoop in and buy it off Equinix.
On top of that, Rob and Paddy have got a huge amount of work to do to bring MA2 up to modern standards, as much of the internal infrastructure (especially air handling system) dates back to the original installation during the days of Internet Facilitators, when it was known as IFL2.
But on the whole, good luck to them – the Manchester market needs independent players.
I think the truth seems to be that they’ve signed a lease for the ex MA2 space but I’m actually really struggling to see the play here. That building urgently needs an absolute minimum of £8m spent on it to refresh plant/infra and bring it somewhat more in line with modern density/efficiency/resiliency – about 75% of that spend attributable to the MA2 area.
Some of the underlying site plant is shared between the various tenants (e.g the energy center with the transformers and gens), with the notable exception of chillers, distribution and UPS.
You’d need a 10-20 year lease to make upgrading the bits that you could make sense which they won’t have as it wouldn’t be sensible vs to buy the building outright.
I can only assume that the landlord is going to refresh the plant (doubtful) or more likely that Lunar plan to upgrade as little as possible as cheaply as possible and focus on selling space. Later on they could shift the customers to another site or wear the landlord down and pick it up for somewhere in the region of £11-14m at some point down the road.
Very interesting. Looking forward to see how it develops.