From the cobbled streets surrounding the dilapidated Truman Brewery near Brick Lane it is less than a mile to the gleaming skyscraper canyon of Bishopsgate. It has been a long time since beer was produced at what was once the world’s largest brewery. But it could soon be part of a major development providing a new service even more essential to the functioning of the City than a lunchtime pint used to be — digital data processing.
London has rapidly emerged as Europe’s data centre capital, much to the Government’s delight, but locations close to the City, where some of the UK’s biggest data users are based, are rare and much prized. That is because, when it comes to financial trading in the 21st century, milliseconds matter. The shorter the physical distance between trader and data centre, the faster instructions can be processed, creating a minute but crucial competitive advantage.
