Ex-3i veteran joins board at ScoLocate

ONE of Scotland’s biggest data centre operators has appointed investment veteran Mike Pacitti as its first non-executive director and unveiled contract wins totalling more than £15 million.

ScoLocate, which was set up by Royal Bank of Scotland at the height of the dotcom boom, has also stepped up investment as it moves to double capacity as its site on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Last year, the firm said it was likely to spend between £7m and £8m on its expansion drive – a figure that has since been extended to £10m as it ramps up capacity and secures new business.

Managing director Roy Maxwell said the appointment of Pacitti – a former director of private equity group 3i – would bring fresh blood on board at a crucial time for the company.

Pacitti has represented investors on the boards of more than two dozen companies over the past 14 years, prior to which he ran 3i’s Edinburgh office for nigh on a decade. He is currently a non-executive director on the board of Highland Group Holdings, the owner of department store chain House of Fraser.

Maxwell said: “This is our first non-exec. We were looking for a skill-set that the board didn’t currently have and someone with a broad experience outside of IT. Mike’s name came up.

“He immediately saw the potential for our business and was interested in what we do. Like all non-execs, he will have a different view and ask different questions of us.”

Chairman Iain Pittman added: “We look forward to his assistance and guidance in taking the organisation forward as the demand for ScoLocate’s services increases.”

The company, set up in 1999, is already the largest of Scotland’s so-called “internet hotels”, providing businesses and public sector bodies with remotely hosted computer services. Having survived the tech crash and a management shake-up in 2001, the firm now turns over more than £6m. It remains majority owned by RBS.

Maxwell said a single deal for a ten-year period accounted for the bulk of the latest £15m worth of contract wins. Typically, contracts run for between three and 16 years, he noted.

Three staff are also being taken on as part of the expansion, pushing the headcount at ScoLocate to almost 30.

Data centres draw large amounts of power, partly to cool the vast arrays of computer servers and storage devices.

ScoLocate has vowed to make its South Gyle operation the UK’s most “eco-efficient” data centre, aided, in part, by Scotland’s colder climate, giving it an advantage over rival facilities in the south of England that require more cooling.

The firm said the trend towards remote hosting of applications, or “cloud computing”, allowed far more efficient use of servers, thereby reducing power demands and achieving a “minimal carbon footprint”.