Interviewed on 12 Mar 07
Matthew Edgley , Sales Manager
IFL (Internet Facilitators Limited) run two Manchester based Data centres in the UK. Our focus & experience is purely colocation, we do not venture into areas such as managed services or dedicated servers, crucially ensuring we do not compete with our own customers – we are the first to recognise that as our customers grow, so do we. We are fiercely independent of any telco or ISP, ensuring carrier neutrality in the purest sense, offering greater choice, flexibility and pricing. Being wholly owned by the University of Manchester we are able to offer stability in an industry which has seen many fall by the wayside; indeed we continue to grow from strength to strength, and, with our third facility due to open in Q3 2006 we will now be in the position of providing more data centre space than any other provider in the region.
What unique selling points do you offer?
A major factor in the success of IFL over the years has been our true independence from any ISP/Telco. We are carrier neutral in the strongest sense, offering connectivity from 10+ carriers within our facilities. Being independent also allows each and every one of our customers - many of whom are competing ISPs - to provide their services on a level playing field with no influence from the data centre owner. We offer the flexibility for our customers to grow, working with them to provide payment plans to suit their growth projections, never over charging & never over selling.
Describe the services you offer?
We are not in the actual business of web hosting, however we do understand the business needs of those who are. IFL strive to offer the very best in facilities, network resilience, internet bandwidth, redundant infrastructure & technical services to ensure that Web Hosts and ISPs have the best platform from which to deliver their services to customers.
In my view the best web hosts not only acknowledge the need to eliminate downtime, but act upon that need. Using a data centre facility such as ours goes a long way to achieving this, with redundancy built into everything from UPS provision, fibre connections & server cooling systems. We are an integral part in the success of many web hosts & ISPs, being the foundation for their successful delivery of services. A virtual tour of our facility is available on our website at www.internetf.co.uk which illustrates the lengths IFL go to in order to provide the optimum server environment for web hosts and ISPs.
Describe your target market?
Our target markets are mainly ISPs and SMEs in the Manchester region. Until recent years Manchester has not been able to offer the ROI in terms of providing colocation services – this has changed completely with the continued fall in bandwidth prices and carrier availability; which IFL has played a major part in - being the primary host of the Manchester Commercial Internet Exchange (MCIX – www.mcix.co.uk). Manchester based companies who have chosen to collocate in London in the past are now seeing a more than viable option on their own doorstep and returning. Of course we also attract clients who are looking for a second facility outside of UK capital for a secondary location in a state of the art facility & we also provide mirror sites to US & European based companies.
How is your company planning for the future?
IFL will continue to provide colocation, and continue to grow. We expect to fill our latest facility within the next 2 years, at which point our plans for a fourth Manchester data centre should be well underway!
What benefits can you offer your customers?
The standard of the IFL facilities is second to none with redundancy built into every aspect of our infrastructure – from network & power provision to fire protection & cooling systems. We acknowledge that it is our purpose to provide our customers with their own technical space and the optimum server operating environment. We work with every prospective customer to provide exactly the right solution for them, offering tailored growth plans and a price point which is more than competitive – with ROI in mind every step of the way.
How do you support your customers?
We provide 24x7x365 helpdesk & remote hands support services. As we provide technical space for our customers, rather than managed services, most of customers carry out their own maintenance and configuration on their equipment, but at the same time are safe in the knowledge that our experienced staff are only a phone call away in the event of an emergency incident.
