NGD has opted to only hire qualified ex-military personnel for its on-site guard force, which will be at the facility 24 hours a day.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle for NGD is the site's location in Newport, about an hour and 45-minute train ride from London. Some server-hugging IT administrators don't like their equipment being very far away from their offices. But Taylor said those concerns are less relevant given that data centers are typically managed from afar anyway.

NGD is hoping to sign up companies for long-term contracts. The facility has a total of 18 halls on three floors. The building will have a special section for small to medium-size enterprises and one for companies that are a bit larger. Those companies could either bring their own equipment or use hosting services offered by NGD.

Hosting space starts at 2,500 square feet. For large enterprises, the facility has 10,000-square foot and 20,000 square-foot halls. NGD said it can provide 1.5 kilowatts per square meter or 4 kilowatts per rack up to a maximum of 8 kilowatts per rack.

NGD is in a race against others to get its facility up and running, as there are two to three other large data centers planned in the U.K. and more throughout Europe, Taylor said. NGD's first clients should move in around March 2009 on the facility's ground floor. So far, NGD has commitments from clients for about 10 percent of the data center's 400,000 square feet of usable rack space and aims to fill the whole center in three years.

Since other data U.K. data center projects are less further along in their development and companies are desperate for more space, "I think we got our timing right on this. It's just about getting to the point where they're using the broom cupboard," Taylor said.