OVH has opened its new datacentre in south east London for the first time.

The French cloud provider’s datacentre aims to provide better reliability, speed and security for customers invited by OVH to use its 40,000 servers and facilities.

OVH received €400million in funding from nine banking companies in June 2017 and a €250million investment from investment firms KKR and TowerBrook in October 2016.

OVH’s head, Hiren Parekh, said to Computer Weekly: “The UK market interfaces with international businesses, not only in Europe but around the world.

“So by having a physical presence in the UK, OVH is not only addressing the local market at SMEs or even large companies, we’re also supporting international trade through new and substantial export opportunities.”

Although its datacentre opening was delayed by several months, and external factors were given the blame, the company is planning to introduce two other datacentres, this time in the United States.

“Like all projects of this scale, there can be delays due to external causes, which are beyond OVH’s control. Because of the size of the project, it can be related to any works around the building – there are many different factors,” added Parekh.

Parekh also noted that he is hoping to open new facilities in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands by 2020.

By Leah Alger