About us | Our story

This is our story

Founded in 2009, with a genesis story stretching back further still, Netwise started life as a passion project by two school friends with a love for technology. Fast forward nearly a decade, and we are now one of the UK's leading colocation service providers, with private facilities designed and built entirely in-house, delivering end-user content on a truly global scale.

In a little over 15 years, Netwise has grown from a simple dream into one of the UK's most acclaimed data centre operators.

Here's how we did it...

2005 Early beginnings

In the summer of 2005, high school friends and founders of Netwise, Matthew Butt and Matt Seaton, decided to give game server hosting a try.

Starting life as an after-school passion project, Matthew sourced 12 old IBM servers from a clearance company and created a small hosting platform in the loft of his parents home.

2007 An era of traction

After securing private commercial premises, we evolved into a credible hosting business and fully-featured service provider.

Netwise became a limited company in 2009. This marked an era of real traction for us - developing the brand and the service set, and building a solid base of high-quality enterprise customers.

2011 Our first data centre

In order to maintain total end-to-end control, we elected to build our first private data centre in 2011.

This bespoke facility, named London South, enabled us to grow dramatically over the following three years, with the facility reaching capacity in 2013.

2014 Our second data centre

After reaching capacity in our London South facility, we began the design and build of data centre two; London Central.

We upscaled enormously, moving to an 11,000ft² facility in Bermondsey, our new flagship data centre and HQ.

2016 London Central opens

After a two year design and build phase, London Central opened in early 2016.

As our second fully-featured build project, London Central quickly became one of the UK's most applauded privately operated data centres.

2020 Our third data centre

In early 2020, we began the build of our third private data centre, London East.

Constructed in Canning Town - a short distance from the major Docklands data centre hub - London East is the largest facility designed and deployed by Netwise to date.

2022 London East opens

After reaching completion on phase one, London East soft-opened to a waiting list of clients in early 2022.

London East represents our most state-of-the-art facility to date, using only the very latest in super-efficient technology, resulting in a design PUE of 1.10.

2024 London East expands

Throughout 2024 we expanded our London East facility, as part of our phase two schedule.

This saw the deployment of a further three data halls, as we prepare for further expansion works into 2025 and beyond.

2009

Established

2 Mins

Average ticket response

21%

Average annual growth

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Netwise has been supporting the Edge network since the early days of prototyping and testing, so it is a logical evolution for them to formally lend their expertise as advisors during our continued growth and development.

J. Denne, Edge

Our people

We're a company that believes in having a good time while doing what we love, and we really do love what we do.

Matthew Butt

Managing Director

Since founding Netwise in 2009 at just 19 years of age, Matthew's entrepreneurial spirit, expertise in electrical engineering and business operations have paved the way for the company's success over the years.

Matt Seaton

Director

Matt has been with Netwise since the very beginning. His creativity and ability to turn his hand to anything made him an invaluable asset to the business in the early years, and Matt continues to play an integral role today.