A delegation from the Tianjin Federation of Industry and Commerce in China was given a guided tour of Manx Telecom’s Douglas North data centre as part of a visit to the Island organised by the Department of Economic Development. The delegation was led by Mr Geng Wei, Vice Chairman of the Tianjin Federation of Industry and Commerce, and Mr Zhang Yunsheng, Director of the Tianjin Commission of Commerce, and included representatives from many of Tianjin’s high tech industries and its financial sector. During their trip they also visited the ICT University, and had time to find out more about the Island’s economy, history and culture. The main purpose was to seek new opportunities for further co-operation between the two jurisdictions. Tianjin is the primary industrial, commercial and economic centre in northern China, and is home to the state-sponsored Tianjin Economic/Technical Development Area. It is also part of the second pilot Free Trade Zone in China.

The delegation was accompanied on the data centre tour by Steven Beevers, Head of Special Projects at the Department of Economic Development; Grace Tu-Cook, the Department’s Country Strategy Operations Support Officer; and Yang Xu, one of the Department’s representative in China. After the visit, Mr Geng commented that he was very impressed with the Isle of Man, Manx Telecom’s Douglas North data centre and the ICT University, and added that he will be encouraging more industries in Tianjin to visit here. After leaving the Island, the delegation was due to attend the International Festival for Business in Liverpool.

The Douglas North tour, which took place on June 14th, was led by Stephen Kane, Manx Telecom’s Head of Hosting and Managed Services, and Dan Walker, Business Account Manager. Mr Kane thanked the delegation for their interest in Douglas North and Manx Telecom, and the Department of Economic Development for arranging the visit. As it is a Tier 3 data centre, Douglas North is operated under very strict security restrictions, and access to the site for tours is only granted on rare occasions to VIPs from industry or visiting dignitaries. In 2013 His Excellency Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was given a guided tour of Douglas North during his three day visit to the Island.

Manx Telecom’s twin Tier 3 Data Centres at Douglas North and Greenhill are the Isle of Man’s only purpose built data centres, designed and constructed specifically to meet world class standards of reliability, resilience and redundancy. Tier 3 specification requires that a data centre has the highest level of technical expertise, power, cooling, security, connectivity and resilience required to deliver guaranteed 24/7/365 operation. Both Douglas North and Greenhill have been designed to protect the informational assets and operational viability of the Isle of Man, including all government and emergency services networks, and private sector clients such as world leading eBusiness and eGaming companies, and businesses from the finance sector. Douglas North opened in 2005, Greenhill in 2014.

Photo - The Tianjin Federation of Industry and Commerce delegation at Manx Telecom’s Douglas North data centre with representatives from Manx Telecom and the Department of Economic Development.