The enquiries have come primarily from the financial services industry, although organisations from other sectors have also been calling. Many of these organisations currently have their disaster recovery positions located in areas that are suffering from flooding such as Slough and Reading and, although the data centre facilities they are in have so far been unaffected, they are very concerned about the potential risk of flood or the impact of flood in the area on critical infrastructure such as power.

“The phones have been exceedingly busy", says Migsolv CEO Alex Rabbetts, “companies are worried about the floods and their impacts and, in many cases, with good reason." The main worry is that with a disaster recovery position at risk it would be a difficult conversation to have with either a regulatory body or an insurer to explain why an organisation chose a location that was ultimately a victim of flood. “We have a huge advantage", says Rabbetts, “we are not even in the 1000 year flood plain. And being less than 2 hours from London with excellent connectivity, many organisations are coming to the conclusion that a disaster recovery position needs to be sufficiently far away from the capital to be realistic and needs to be somewhere that offers the same quality with far less risk from natural disaster."

Migsolv’s data centre, located on the outskirts of Norwich, is not at risk of flood, is not in a terrorist target and offers higher levels of both security and environmental credentials than is possible to achieve in London or the surrounding areas. Since Migsolv offers 24 hour free remote hands and eyes, customers rarely need to visit and see the location and lower costs as major advantages.

“The number of enquiries has quadrupled in the last week", says Rabbetts, “the most pressing question has been, ‘How soon can I move in?’ In the majority of cases the answer has been straight away. The first new customer, a large financial company, is due to move in during the next week. “The flooding is not good news for anybody", says Rabbetts, “but at least we can offer an immediate solution to help alleviate some of the problems."