Don't allow a disaster to destroy your data... Node4 has the answer

Featured in this week's Derby Evening Telegraph Business Weekly is a double-page profile on Node4...

IF fire reduced PCs to a gooey mess, flooding caused servers to fizz and crackle or a terrorist attack damaged IT equipment beyond repair, data would be lost forever, potentially costing businesses millions.

Our growing reliance on computers to conduct business over the last decade has meant that storing information securely off-site at data centres is a growing trend to hedge against the risk of catastrophic IT failure.

Sitting behind high-security fencing on Pride Park, there is a company that makes sure that its customers can get back up and running and carry out business as usual even if their premises are hit by a meteorite.

Node4 is at the forefront of data co-location an area of IT that has seen huge growth in the last five years.

Managing director Andrew Gilbert said: "People are so reliant on IT that they have to have disaster recovery systems in case of fire or flooding.

"Businesses with more than one site often have a head office which provides their IT infrastructure so there are wide-reaching implications if there are any serious problems."That has meant a growing demand for our services," said Mr Gilbert.

Hosting data for other companies means that every day when they switch on their PCs at work, thousands of people across the country are reliant on Node4's data storage – most of them oblivious to the fact that the unusual-looking building on Pride Park provides them with a nerve centre.

Local companies who work with Node4 include Ennstone, Interfleet, Orchid IT, PX-Tech and the Mortgage Advice Bureau. On a national level, Node4 has contracts with blue-chip firms including Dixons and Provident Finance.

"What we do is try to eliminate risk and provide a kind of insurance for information,'' says Mr Gilbert.

Now in its sixth year, Node4 expects to turn over between £7.2m and £7.5m this year and growth shows no sign of slowing.

The company has just invested a total of £5m to open its second data centre in Wakefield and a quarter of the space for business data and information has already been taken.

"We built the Wakefield site from scratch over the last 18 months and things are looking good," he said.

The Pride Park head office is reaching full capacity and further investment will see it grow further this year. Another site is being sought for a third data centre, possibly in Milton Keynes or Northampton.

The driving force behind the business is 28-year-old Mr Gilbert, who doesn't fit the stereotype of the head of a high-growth multi-million pound company, having left school at 16 with no academic ambitions. He said: "I wanted to get out to work and had no desire to do A-Levels or go to university so I started out at PC World as a technician fixing computers."His interest in computers can be traced back to when his father bought him a Commodore computer when he was 10. It offered a mighty 64 kilobytes of random access memory data storage.

Today, Mr Gilbert and his colleagues at Node4 measure the flow of information in and out of its data centre in 1,000s of terabytes, each one equivalent to 1,000 gigabytes.

Staff at the Derby base have moved on to a mezzanine floor to make way for further equipment to store and send information.

Mr Gilbert said: "There are about 250 racks here which each do the work of between 30 and 40 servers."People were moved upstairs to create space for 80 more racks that will be in use by the end of the year. It is the final squeeze on space here in Derby."

The additional space is expected to be full within six to 12 months by which time Andrew's thoughts will have already turned to a second site in or around the city.

While working at PC World and then Mastercare repairing PCs, he taught himself computer programming and web design.

"I was lucky in that the jobs that I had gave me the chance to use my own initiative," he said.

He was involved in e-commerce sites, gained experience working on the Freeserve project and was doing well from a financial point of view for a man in his early 20s.

That said, he was not satisfied in his work and being an employee was never part of his game plan.

"I had ambition and never liked working for other people or being told what to do.

"At the end of 2003, I decided to do something for myself and in 2004 I got stuck in without really thinking about it too much," said Mr Gilbert.

Node4 initially provided internet protocol telephony, a means for business to get cheaper calls by routing them over the Internet.

In those early days, unable to afford to pay for a sizeable account management team, Mr Gilbert worked long hours and also found himself on a steep learning curve as far as running a business was concerned.

"I used to be more hands-on in terms of the technology but now I have a very good team who take some of the pressure off," he said.

As time went on, the IP telephony service was overtaken by hosting and data solutions for which there has been more demand and, noticing the trend, the business invested accordingly in both premises, technology and personnel.Last year the company employed around 30 people, this year the head count has grown to nearly 40.

"It has been a hard time for many people and I have friends in business who have struggled but fortunately the services we provide are the last thing that companies are going to cut back on," said Mr Gilbert.

According to Mr Gilbert, there is not much competition out there for Node4 at the moment because larger companies with data centres like BT, Telecity and IBM are only interested in big accounts.

"It has been really hard work and I feel like I'm about 45. Some days are still very long but I'm still passionate about the business," said Mr Gilbert.

"I suppose it would be easy enough to say that's enough and sit back but that's not really what it's all about and there are still goals I want to achieve."

Published: 21/08/2009