Cambridge UK Emerging as European Tech Hub

U.K. Business Secretary Vince Cable announced in mid-November that more than $125 million is being invested into infrastructure to improve the stance of the technology and industrial hinterland in Cambridgeshire. The initiative has the potential to create more than 5,000 jobs in the area.

Cambridge and its surrounding cities have shown themselves to be major European technology hubs in recent years, playing home to innovative startups and offices for some of the world's biggest players in the tech industry. IdeaSpace, an entrepreneurial collaborative associated with the University of Cambridge, is creating a variety of new technology companies that are serving to increase the role the city plays in the future of the industry.

Major Tech Companies Show Interest in Cambridge
?Chinese telecom giant Huawei recently made a deal to take over a sizeable space in the area to create a Cambridge data center in the wake of acquiring Internet of Things networking firm Neul. Huawei is currently shifting its focus toward creating IoT compatible products. Spotify also has substantial technology space in the city. The music-streaming service has operated a contact center in Cambridge for a few years now and is planning to expand its footprint in the area in order to back up its operations in London.

High-profile technology companies are also beginning to call Cambridge home. Amazon currently has a variety of operations based in Cambridgeshire, including activity related to the company's autonomous delivery drones. Apple also announced recently that its new Cambridge offices will be ready to open at the beginning of 2015. At the same time, the California-based tech giant revealed that it is considering establishing a Cambridge data center to take advantage of its other operations in the city.

Data Center Developers See Potential
As Cambridge's stance within the technology industry continues to improve, a variety of businesses have begun to show interest in moving their data center operations into the area. Data center construction firm Lasercharm received approval to begin building a Cambridge facility earlier this year and launched the first phase of construction in late July. When fully complete the facility will feature nearly 700,000 square feet of net technical space on a 45 acre campus.

"…[W]hat makes this site truly exceptional, aside from its secure landscaped location, is its exclusive proximity to the leading scientific and technological center in Cambridge," said Lasercharm CEO Tim Gwyn-Jones. "It can also from this point provide a direct link with London just 45 minutes away and with the commercial centers in the north and others in the south."

Customer are expected to be able to use space in the Cambridge data center in January 2015.

With proximity to London data centers and connection to a vast network of fiber, Cambridge is establishing itself as one of the foremost technology hubs in Europe. In the coming years, Cambridge is only going to become more popular as a destination for technology companies and data center operations as the industrial infrastructure improves and more major players move into the area.

Brought to you by WiredRE, the nation's leading cloud, colocation, and data center advisory firm.