IFB Targets International Markets at Major Data Center Conference
ScotlandIS pinned down board member Graeme Gordon, Operations Director of Aberdeen based Internet for Business (IFB) as he stepped off the plane from the Gartner Data Center Conference in Las Vegas.
As part of their international growth strategy he had been at the Las Vegas conference to showcase IFB’s new state of the art data centre to the American market – a key target for the business due to its shared links with the energy sector.
Graeme Gordon said “The US is a definite target for IFB this year. We have a number of oil sector clients in Aberdeen. This new facility will enable us to provide them with an even greater level of service. Businesses of all sizes have already shown significant interest in our new world-class facilities, and we’re determined to translate that into new business.’ Graeme is obviously delighted that IFB’s investment of £10 million in new state of the art facilities is now close to completion. “Our second data centre is scheduled to open in 2011. It will be one of only four in the UK to be accredited to Tier III standard by the Uptime Institute. This accreditation will not only increase our service reach within the UK, but will also help put us on the radar as a hosting partner to organisations across the world.”
IFB was one of a group of Scottish Data Centre operators attending the conference under the Naturally Cool™ banner. Others members attending included ScoLocate, Onyx Group, brightsolid and CloudSoft, and the group visit was supported by SDI.
Graeme continues, “The workshops were hugely informative and sharing ideas and real life experiences with other companies facing similar challenges was beneficial. But the real value for all of us was the networking opportunity held on the exhibition floor where relationships are made and prospects identified. This year’s conference offered the perfect backdrop to highlight our new facilities and services directly to the American market – and our team made some fantastic contacts which we’ll be following up in the coming months.
“We are confident that raising our profile at these types of global sector conferences will help put our services on an international platform – and we’ll be exhibiting at a series of similar events throughout 2011. We also understand that building contacts and securing business in new countries will take hard work and time - we have only just reached the negotiation stage with a major organisation after attending the 2009 Gartner event. This is a very exciting phase for our team and we’re confident that the business is ready to take the next step in expanding internationally.”
IFB’s 14000 sq ft data centre promises to set a new standard for data centre design and customer facilities. The entire design revolves around reliability, sustainability and efficiency, giving it the ‘greenest’ footprint possible. Once complete the development will create ten new jobs and IFB will relocate its headquarters to the new building, which will also house new business continuity suites specifically for clients.
To hear more about the company’s plans for expansion in America click here for an interview held with Graeme Gordon at the event
