LEEDS, England, January 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --
aql Leeds, the telecoms firm behind Leeds' proposed £43 million data centre, hosted the Lord Mayor of the City of London, Alderman Roger Gifford, on Friday 11 January 2013.
The Lord Mayor of the City of London visited aql's headquarters, Salem Church in Leeds city centre, to meet with the CEO and founder of aql, Dr Adam Beaumont, and Andy Davidson, the Chair of IXLeeds, Leeds' independent Internet Exchange.
The Lord Mayor of the City of London was also joined in his visit to aql by Sheriff of the City of London The Hon Jeffrey Evans along with other delegates from the City of London Corporation.
The Lord Mayor of the City of London visited aql as part of a two-day visit to the North of England during which he travelled to Liverpool on Thursday 10 January and Leeds on Friday 11 January.
The UK is a global financial centre, and outside of London, Leeds is the UK's main financial and economic centre.
There are approximately 40,000 people employed in financial and professional services in Leeds, representing 10% of the city's workforce and 20% of the city's gross value added (GVA) at £3,564bn (source: the City of London Corporation website).
While in Leeds the Lord Mayor of London visited the Bank of England's premises on King Street before attending a meeting at aql's headquarters and taking a tour of two of aql's independent data centres.
As the representative of the City and UK business both domestically and internationally, the Lord Mayor of London visited aql to learn more about the company's plans and how they can benefit business in Leeds, the City and the UK as a whole.
aql are set to play a key part in supporting Leeds' communication infrastructure to create a resilient financial platform within the city via DC4, a £43 million data centre to be built on the former Yorkshire Chemicals site in Hunslet. The proposed data centre sits within plans for creating a connected Media City in Leeds' South Bank.
Once complete, the data centre will be the largest independent data centre outside London and will offer an expansion of aql's existing data hub for the City.
Dr Adam Beaumont, CEO and Founder of aql, said:
"It was an honour for everyone at aql to receive the Lord Mayor of the City London, Alderman Roger Gifford, and it shows what an impression our plans for the future are making on a national scale.
"We shared our strategy to support Leeds financial infrastructure with the Lord Mayor to relay to other parties he'll be meeting with over his campaign in 2013, not only within the City of London and the UK, but also internationally.
"Events such as this show the importance of the work being done by aql and IXLeeds to improve Leeds' Internet and communication infrastructure. London is a leading global financial centre; Leeds is the second largest financial hub in the UK after London and now has the connectivity and infrastructure to increase the resilience and robustness of the UK financial system.
"For example - a failure in London Docklands' infrastructure would have minimal impact on UK plc. if a Leeds-failover strategy were supported, and a viable solution is on the horizon in the shape of DC4.
"The presence of aql's independent, carrier neutral data centres in Leeds along with the benefits brought by the City's very own Internet Exchange, IX Leeds, for the city's Internet and communication infrastructure mean that Leeds can be totally independent of London and is therefore able to provide a geographic "failover" for London-based finance infrastructure."
Andy Davidson, Chair of IXLeeds, said:
"Leeds is the only UK city to host a neutral Internet Exchange organisation other than London, and doing so brings an enormous competitive advantage to Leeds and businesses across Yorkshire."
He continued: "IXLeeds has attracted a dense marketplace of carrier networks in the North of England, who can offer services resilient of infrastructure in London. Internet Service Providers who join IXLeeds can also provide greater bandwidth to local firms by taking advantage of the high-speed connections at the Leeds based Exchange Point."
About aql ®
Any mention of aql should be used in lowercase letters as it is a trademarked name and device of (aq) ltd.
aql is a UK regulated telecommunications and data centre operator based in the centre of Leeds. Established in 1998, aql specialises in providing a wide range of innovative wholesale telecommunications solutions including mobile SMS text messaging and IP telephony.
DC4 is aql's newest high capacity data centre, allowing more companies to access the Internet connectivity which aql has brought to Leeds and Yorkshire as part of existing initiatives such as IXLeeds (http://www.ixleeds.net). Due for completion in 2014, the data centre represents Leeds' latest step on the way to becoming one of the UK's major technological and media hubs.
CEO of aql is Dr Adam Beaumont - a former Leeds-University Lecturer and communications security expert. adam.beaumont@uk.aql.com // +44(0)1133-202-202
About IXLeeds
IXLeeds is a neutral, not-for-profit Internet Exchange Point (IXP) based in Leeds, UK, providing a Layer-2 platform to connect and share IP traffic using BGP-4.
IXLeeds was launched in September 2010 in order to allow public peering in the North of the UK. It aims to help its members increase their network resilience and reduce overall traffic backhaul costs toward London.
About the Lord Mayor of the City of London
The Lord Mayor is elected for one year and the position is unpaid and apolitical. The Lord Mayor spends some 90 days abroad leading delegations to key fast-growing markets and addresses some 10,000 people face-to-face each month (making around 800 speeches a year). The Lord Mayor listens to City and UK businesses and helps the City Corporation advise the Government of the day on what is needed to help the UK-based financial, professional, and business services sector to function well.
The Lord Mayor frequently travels to represent the City and UK businesses; and travels overseas with the status of a Cabinet Minister. On average, the Lord Mayor will meet one head of state a month and will meet a prime minister or finance minister each week to discuss City and UK business, often in conjunction with senior City business representatives. The Lord Mayor, who is unpaid, lives in the Mansion House, for the Mayoral year.
Notes to Editor:
Any mention of aql should be used in lowercase letters as it is a trademarked name and device of (aq) ltd.
Stock Press Photos & Branding guidelines - http://aql.com/press/
Sources used:
Press release: 'Lord Mayor visits Liverpool and Leeds' (City of London Corporation website - http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2013/Pages/lord-mayor-visits-liverpool-and-leeds-.aspx)
aql Press Contact: Steven Reed (Marketing Manager, aql) - steven.reed@uk.aql.com // +44(0)1133-20-40-70
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