Huw Owen joined Ark in November 2012 following a recapitalisation process. The first thing he wanted to change was the name. “It was called Ark Continuity Ltd, but nobody could explain to me what continuity meant, so I renamed it Ark Data Centres,” says Owen.
At that point, Ark Data Centres had two sites, one in Spring Park, Bath, near a Ministry of Defence technology site, and another in Farnborough. The proximity to the Ministry of Defence site meant that Ark was not only close to a potential client but also benefited from the fibre-dense, power-dense network in the area, as well as a million-square-feet of underground space originally intended to shelter the government in the event of nuclear war.
Together, Ark Data Centres set about trying to create the company that its team had always wanted to work for.
A Partnership of Public and Private
Ark’s strategy was to pursue big commercial clients, while also leveraging Spring Park’s convenience for government work. The company went on to win the Crown Hosting contract in 2014, becoming a joint venture partner with the UK government. Under this contract, anyone who receives government funding has the right to pre-costed, fully certified data centres.
“We sort everything while offering a 66% like-for-like saving,” says Owen.
At the same time, Ark was able to win a contract from a major FTSE 40 company undergoing an extensive transformation. Ark Data Centres’ team took over the client’s old sites in what became a very successful venture for the brand.
From there Ark Data Centres acquired facilities at Longcross, Meridian Park in Enfield, and a further seven sites, bringing it to nine sites in total. The company’s supply chain has been defined by a strategic and proudly local approach to the market. 98% of its supply chain is British, and Ark’s team has developed alliances with key names such as BladeRoom. It has proved to be a valuable partner that enables the Ark Data Centres team to get things done within budget and on time.
“BladeRoom is at the heart of our build, and it provides an efficient, agile system that we build our data centres around,” Owen says. “They are competent, capable people who we know how to do business with, enabling rapid growth.”
It is abundantly clear, looking at Ark Data Centres, that this is a company that places high value on quality people, and this is reflected in the way it treats its valued team. The company’s leadership keeps itself informed on how its people are doing by working with a company called Mindalpha, which does detailed surveys of staff distinguished by gender and age groups. It means that Ark Data Centres maintains a finger on the pulse of the organisation, understanding where its people are coming from and what their concerns are. Every five weeks the company holds a ‘Tea and Cakes’ event, with the whole company on a call, as well as an annual in-person get-together.
As Owen says, “We treat our people as people.”
Through Mindalpha, Ark Data Centres uses psychometric testing to create an essential tool for managing company interactions. It means that when Ark Data Centres’ team members engage with each other they have access to that data, granting them an understanding of how best to engage with one another.
“It is ongoing training, not just to make them good at what they do but equipping them to manage conflict and have difficult conversations and negotiations. That is leadership,” Owen insists.
Every year Ark Data Centres puts out ten priorities that have been workshopped by the entire company, and every individual in the team knows what they are doing to aid those priorities. It is a disciplined approach that means nobody is working on anything that is not essential to the company. It means that Ark Data Centres’ team members have a unique sense of mission and of working for a company that values, challenges and rewards them. The phrase “Human resources” is never used at Ark, instead, they talk about people, leadership, and training.
“People aren’t resources – people do business with people,” says Owen.
A British Success Story
As a joint venture with the UK government, Ark Data Centres is not only a great example of a British success story but also a valuable contributor to the country.
“That is the thing that strikes me time and time again,” Owen says proudly. “As a team we have attracted billions in investments, 98% of our supply chain is British, and we have provided employment, construction work, and world-class British engineering and design. It is what Britain should be doing, engineering growth and jobs. That is something we are immensely proud of.”
It is an achievement that would not be possible without the group of valued people who have been major contributors to Ark Data Centres’ success. People are drawn to work for the company precisely because of the opportunities it provides to make a real difference.
“We do things that matter, which enables us to get people who really want to come to work,” Owen tells us. “If you think about what a data centre is, it is a building with power and fibre with security, humidity, and temperature control. You are essentially looking after a building, so making that appealing is a challenge. If you talk to our clients, what they like about us is that our people care about what they do.”
Facing the Future as a Team
Data centres have traditionally had a culture of being a highly transactional industry, but at Ark Data Centres this attitude is not considered good enough. The team behind Ark Data Centres includes people who have been on the boards of many big tech companies, meaning that Ark’s culture is permeated with a rich understanding of its clients’ issues.
The company’s high, team-wide level of understanding will prove vital as demand for data centres is soaring, and that is before the growth in AI technology is taken into account. This new influx from the AI sector has already changed the market.
It is made up of two key components. There is the inference component, which will remain largely in the operating zones the industry is seeing today. There is also the work of training these new AIs, which necessitates the housing of vast quantities of data. That storage will be more remote. Ark Data Centres’ team is already looking to win business in this new arena, entering the European market with its new Brussels site to better serve it.
“I’m originally from Africa, and I’m not a fan of arriving at watering holes late,” Owen tells us. “We have got sophisticated spreadsheets tracking country population, e-commerce saturation, and infrastructure to help us predict where the next big emerging market for AI platforms is going to be.”
Today, Ark Data Centres’ challenge is ensuring that its rules, tools, and processes grow in sync with the company as a whole. The firm will need to retain its agility and culture as it grows from 20-odd employees to over 100 team members and a community of contractors taking it to more than 300 people. It is a big task, but Ark has managed this before.
“I joined an untested company, saying that we were going after the Crown Hosting contract and FTSE 40 companies and convincing them that if we did things with the right mindset, we could win deals at that sort of scale,” Owen recalls. “It was about getting people into a room, working in a directed manner with clear targets and clear outcomes.”
At the end of the day, this is the lasting impression Ark Data Centres leaves us with. They demonstrate just what can be achieved when you bring a strong team together with a clear goal.
