Global Switch London East GS2 | High-Density Colocation & Infrastructure Expansion

Status: Upgrade/Reconfiguration - Underway   |   Location: London Docklands (East India Dock), United Kingdom

Project Overview

The Global Switch London East (GS2) High-Density Upgrade is a crucial project in the UK's capital, focusing on modernizing one of Europe's original and most critical carrier-neutral data centers to meet the demands of the AI and next-generation cloud era. Opened in 2002, London East has historically been a massive, connectivity-rich hub in the Docklands, but is now being reconfigured to handle substantially higher power densities.

The core rationale for this project is to increase the total IT capacity from the original design to a modern target of 74 MW, specifically by leveraging nine floors of technical suites for high-density workloads. The upgrade involves significant internal and external structural changes, including extensions to provide new plant space, fuel storage, and water storage, accommodating the heavy infrastructure required for increased power and cooling. The goal is to provide a higher specification space for new customers, particularly those deploying power-hungry AI/GPU clusters that require densities far beyond traditional enterprise setups.

The facility's inherent strength lies in its location and connectivity. Situated in the heart of the London Docklands, it is adjacent to the UK's main international fiber routes and benefits from direct access to major subsea cables. It features a robust, highly resilient power infrastructure, including the largest private high-voltage network in the UK, drawing from a 132kV National Grid connection and utilizing a minimum N+2 redundancy on its Diesel Rotary UPS system. This resilience is paramount for mission-critical financial and cloud services.

By undertaking this massive upgrade, Global Switch is reinforcing the London Docklands as the UK's premier interconnection hub. This repositioning allows it to cater to the explosive demand for high-performance computing, ensuring that London remains competitive as a Tier 1 global data center market, capable of hosting the next wave of digital transformation.

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