SCC has today said it has taken a “substantial share” in London-based Fluidata, a provider of high speed data connectivity solutions across a variety of sectors, including the public sector. SCC has not disclosed the financial terms of the deal or the precise size of the share it has taken.
The move forms part of SCC’s strategy to build its data centre services business with this additional capability meaning the firm can now directly provide connectivity between data centres. Fluidata specialises in Layer-2 and Layer-3 delivery using technologies including DSL, EFM, Fibre, VPLS/MPLS, Wireless and failover/aggregation technology. Being able to buy both the data centre services and the ‘link’ between/to data centres from the same provider gives certain customers peace of mind. Indeed, in SCC’s target market (the mid-market and public sector) this capability is especially attractive.
The Fluidata investment follows SCC's October acquisition of SSE Telecoms’ flagship Hampshire data centre, which became SCC’s second Tier 3+ DC alongside its original facility in the midlands.
It has to be said, SCC’s strategy to expand its service business has been determined. Alongside the investment in Fluidata and the SSE acquisition, the company also acquired managed print services firm, M2 Digital (see here) back in February 2014. SCC has also ploughed millions into its existing faciltiies and created its own cloud platform.
The company is indicating that for the full financial year, its services business will have increased 25% (which we assume includes those acquisitions) to £165m. We’ll have to analyse the numbers more closely of course, but SCC is now edging closer to becoming a Top 20 player in the UK infrastructure services market. We expect to gain sight of the official full year numbers in May.