Highly-skilled technical jobs and apprenticeships to be created in the Greater Manchester are over the next five years…”

Sir Richard Leese was the keynote speaker at high profile event in Media City to mark the company’s first anniversary       

DataCentred, a leading provider of next-generation data centre and cloud computing services, provided a significant update to its growth strategy at an event to mark the company’s first anniversary, in which it revealed the creation of 200 jobs in the Greater Manchester area over the next five years and will look at further opportunities to expand operations locally.

The creation of these new positions has been made possible, in part, due to the recent investment by the Greater Manchester Investment Fund, Jon Moulton and the North West Fund.

Due to the growing demand for DataCentred’s unique offering, which combines next generation data centre and open source cloud computing services, the roles will support the rapid growth of the business and will ensure that the first of its data centres in the Greater Manchester area, located at Michigan Park in Media City, is fully operational.

In the first instance, these will include a significant number of highly skilled and technical next generation DevOp positions. These individuals require specific skills, including rapid software delivery, a higher degree of enterprise agility, knowledge of modern software architecture and engineering and the ability to swiftly identify and resolve problems.  These roles will contribute to continuous improvement and cross-functionality, and will enhance the development of DataCentred’s cloud Open Stack platform and software engineering capabilities.

DataCentred has been working closely with a number of universities in the region to ensure that Computer Science graduates are fully equipped with the next generation of modern software engineering and architecture skills required by innovative cloud providers. The company’s software development team already comprises some of the most respected developers in the industry and offers specific and unrivalled solutions to meet the colocation, computing, connectivity and cloud requirements of large corporations, broadcasters, academic institutions and public sector bodies.

In addition to these, a number of site engineering positions, including apprenticeships, will be created to accelerate the completion of DataCentred’s Michigan Park site and support its ongoing development and maintenance.

DataCentred was established in 2012 by Dr. Mike Kelly, a pioneer in the data centre sector. Big Data, Video-on-Demand and compute-heavy applications are driving substantial growth in the demand for compute and storage capabilities.   The company will capitalise on these fundamental market drivers and address the colocation and computing requirements of the 80% of UK businesses who are currently managing their computing estates in-house.

Its unique strategy of providing dedicated colocation capacity as an integrated offering has been designed to support its clients and enable them to evolve their legacy IT systems and enhance their cloud capabilities. Through its partnerships with proven market leaders and innovative players in the development community, as well as with its clients, DataCentred works collaboratively to provide bespoke customer solutions.

At the Dr. Mike Kelly, DataCentred’s Founder and CEO, said:

“In Greater Manchester, our leaders are taking a long-term view to create the right conditions in which ambitious companies can thrive and look to achieve. As businesses we can attract and retain gifted staff and we can work in a City once again thinking entrepreneurially and confidently; we can have public and private sector partners and clients, who have a shared view of what is possible and who expect much to be possible.

It’s hugely exciting to be in Salford and at MediaCity, where Peel and the BBC also contribute to an environment in which much can be achieved by early stage companies, who are attentive and listening, keen to be engaged and keen to solve problems.

We also need to ride industry currents, and the fact that so many UK network operators and content originators are supportive of regional peering and IXManchester, in particular, is highly beneficial to these Cities and to our endeavours.”

Sir Richard Leese, Head of Manchester City Council said:

“Our investment in DataCentred is an excellent example of how the public sector supports cutting edge industries and we will continue to invest heavily in these growth businesses that attract highly skilled individuals and will keep Manchester at the forefront of the digital economy.”