It has been called the “global data centre boom” and until now it has largely bypassed the West Midlands. But that could be changing.

The coronavirus pandemic-driven surge in demand for additional data centres has seen new arrivals and expansions around the UK and now in Birmingham’s backyard.

Stoford Developments has received planning permission to deliver a 51.5K SF data centre on behalf of I&1 IONOS — Europe’s largest homegrown data hosting company — at the Worcester Six business park.

The data centre property sector comes to prominence after 20 years in the deepest shadow. Developers like Segro said that estimates that the data centre market will grow 15% a year in the next four years “don’t sound unrealistic” thanks to astronomic expansion of cloud services, some of it driven by lockdowns and social distancing. Segro cited Microsoft claiming a 775% increase in cloud services in locations with social distancing.

Data centres require well-above-standard power connections and, typically, a large office content. The new Worcester plot will see an energy-efficient, cutting-edge data centre totalling 38.5K SF for IONOS and its subsidiary brand Fasthosts for UK and overseas customers. The development will also include 13K SF of ancillary offices.

“The excellent central location of Worcester Six, plus the availability and diverse routing of services that we have installed to the site, made this a forerunner for IONOS,” Stoford Development Manager Edward Peel said.

The diversification into data centres comes after two years in which the 1.5M SF Worcester Six development has surged a wave of logistics demand. Other tenants include Marmon Food and Beverage Equipment, Siemens, Spire Healthcare, Kimal and Kohler Mira.

IONOS was established in 1988 and is the largest hosting company in Europe, managing more than 8 million customer contracts and hosting more than 12 million domains in its regional data centres around the globe.