Datum Datacentres has announced the official launch of the Datum Cloud Hub, the co-location data centre ecosystem that helps service provider and enterprise clients accelerate business opportunities and enable hybrid infrastructures with direct access to cloud-based service platforms.

Through the Datum Cloud Hub, registered clients have access to a value added service that enables co-located businesses to leverage each other's services via direct interconnection. The Cloud Hub builds on Datum's ethos of providing clients with a superior co-location experience, offering co-located organizations the opportunity to discover and connect to other potential partners, suppliers and clients within the data centre. Datum's FRN1 is the most connected co-location facility offering the broadest choice of service providers in the fast growing London-edge data centre and business continuity cluster in Farnborough.

The Datum Cloud Hub incorporates the Datum Business Connect directory, an online marketplace where registered providers present a storefront listing and where clients easily discover service platforms and secure gateways to major public cloud providers for secure and direct interconnection.

One of the first to benefit from the ecosystem was managed service provider Vissensa. Its CEO Steve Groom notes, "Vissensa offers a range of solutions that can support the journey to cloud with a unique client-flexible service wrapper. One of the key decisions to invest in the Datum data centre and ecosystem was our requirement for dense computing to support our agnostic cloud platform using X86, Power and IBM Z mainframe technology. Datum both supported this requirement and plugged us into the ecosystem which has already accelerated our business growth by bringing us new business for our managed service."

Andrew Carr, CEO UK and Ireland, Bull Information Systems, commented, "When we were looking to establish a new Managed Services Platform and High Performance Computing (HPC) environment in the UK, an exhaustive selection process led to the choice of Datum as our Data Centre partner. Our aim is to become the trusted operator for enterprise data which means we set and demand high standards from ourselves and from our partners. Not only does the facility offer leading-edge efficiency and power density but Datum understands the enterprise journey to hybrid computing and the valuable role that cloud platforms and service providers such as Bull can play."

Attenda, positioned in the Leaders quadrant, Gartner Magic Quadrant for European Managed Hosting 2013, also commends the value of the Datum Cloud Hub. According to Mark Fowle, CEO Attenda, "We excel in keeping our clients' critical applications transacting, with the flexibility of being platform agnostic, thus delivering them peace of mind. We value being part of Datum's fast growing ecosystem of direct connect cloud services and along with our clients, we recognise the importance of its competitive choice of carriers."

Summing up, Dominic Philips, managing director of Datum Datacentresexplains, "Our experience shows that a community or ecosystem which is built on expertise around IT performance demands and cloud trends allows everyone to benefit. As a specialist co-location provider which is both carrier and service provider neutral, we focus on our core proposition and make sure we do it exceptionally well. So when our clients need other specialist services, the Datum Cloud Hub is an ideal way of enabling them to discover co-located providers to mutual benefit with the added speed, security and convenience of direct connections. It's a win-win for all."