The Isle of Man is home to four datacentres, each with resilient cooling, power, and security systems. Typical services include colocation, cloud, IP transit and managed hosting. The Island benefits from several fibre links connecting the Isle of Man to the UK and Ireland for onward connectivity.
Datacentre List
- Continent8 – Isle of Man DC
- Domicilium – Ronaldsway
- Manx-Telecom – Douglas North
- Manx-Telecom – Greenhill
* For this blog post, I would define a datacentre as a facility with more than 50 racks capacity. It must also have the typical infrastructure components (fire suppression, UPS, generators, security, etc.). Many Isle of Man ISPs and network operators have Points of Presence, but they are out of scope for this article.
You can view each provider’s specifications and service offerings on their respective websites.
There is one underlying feature across all the datacentres; they all benefit from the Isle of Man’s reliable power and communications infrastructure.
The Isle of Man Government prides itself on its “can-do” approach to business and providing the right environment for digital businesses to flourish. It is no coincidence the Isle of Man is home to some of the world’s leading blockchain, digital, e-gaming and financial services organisations.
Choice
Each datacentre (and operator) has its particular strengths, USPs, service portfolio and commercial model.
Typical services include:
- Colocation (IaaS)
- Dedicated Servers
- Cloud and Virtualisation
- Platform services (PaaS)
- Online backup and DR
- Managed services
- Network connectivity, WAN services, and IP Transit
Navigate the Isle of Man Datacentre market
We have over a decade of experience working with clients who have opted to locate their infrastructure in the Island’s datacentres. Our customers include established Isle of Man businesses, alongside the UK, European and international businesses.
Whether you have a new hosting requirement or are contemplating a change in your existing hosting arrangements, MTG can help.
We can provide the following services:
- Understanding your business, regulatory and technical requirements.
- Evaluating each vendor and hosting facility.
- Formulating a tender or RFP relating to your project.
- Approaching each vendor, arranging tours and commercial proposals.
- Isle of Man IT Support and Managed Security.
- Evaluating bids and proposed solutions.
- Contract and solution management.
- Remote hands
- Hardware procurement, technical build and ongoing service management.
Our expertise in hosting, networking, telecoms and the Isle of Man market all ensure you will benefit from our vast experience in this field. Our technical experience covers a broad range of scenarios, including e-commerce platforms, Isle of Man IT support, managed security, VDI, private cloud, DR/BCP, replication and high-density computing.
Communications
None of Europe’s Tier-1 Transit providers has a POP on the Isle of Man. However, the Island is well served by several ISPs and network operators. Each provider operates its own ASN and transit networks.
- Continent 8 – AS14537
- Bluewave – AS201898
- Domicilium – AS15766
- Manx Telecom – AS13122
- Sure – AS8680
- Noventre – AS42455
There are other operators with PI space or networks that do not form part of a service provider offering. You can view these on the IP Geolocation website: – https://ipgeolocation.io/browse/asn/countries/IM
Optical transport and WDM services are available directly from operators such as Aqua Comms.
Isle of Man Internet service providers (ISPs)
Several other ISPs offer various niche services, depending on your requirements. A full list of licence holders is available on the Communications and Utilities Regulatory Authority website.
Broadband services
A full range of broadband services is available, including VDSL, FTTP, Fibre, Microwave, Starlink, and WiFi technologies.
Internet Exchange
Despite several datacentres and a mature internet environment, the Isle of Man was slow to adopt the concept of an Internet Exchange. The not-for-profit Manx Internet Exchange was formed in 2016, but despite interest from some operators, an IXP was never built.
In 2020, ManxIX was formed to enable providers and businesses to exchange internet traffic. As of 2022, ManxIX has no active peers on its peering network.
Latency
Latency from the Isle of Man to Manchester is ~2ms and ~8ms to London. Inter-ASN latency between IOM operators can be 1-30ms, depending on network path/service/etc.
Typical latency depends on the service, carrier and routing; always test from your intended operator and service.
Service Options
All the providers offer IP transit, WAN and network services.
Pricing
Bandwidth pricing
Bandwidth pricing can vary greatly between providers, subject to the usual parameters such as CDR, burst, DDOS protection, and diversity. We would not expect you to get IP transit or MPLS rates that you would receive in Manchester or London; however, some providers are known to be competitive.
Power
The power infrastructure on the Isle of Man is deemed very reliable. While there is no mass availability of green power, the Isle of Man Government recognises renewables must feature going forward.
The standard rates of power from the utility company are available on their website.
The price you pay in a datacentre would be higher when you factor in the overhead of UPS, generators, diversity, etc.
Are you developing an Isle of Man Datacentre Presence?
We regularly work in all four Isle of Man datacentres on behalf of our client base.
If you have a requirement to host in the Isle of Man, whether for esports, crypto, AI, e-Gaming, or a Digital Business application – then get in touch to see how we can assist. We can supply hardware, rack and configure, provide remote-hands or network consultancy.
Isle of Man AI Datacentres
There are no widely marketed hyperscale-style GPU campuses on-island; smaller GPU deployments may be viable subject to rack density, power, cooling and upstream capacity.
Buyer checklist (quick due diligence)
- Power: per-rack kW, metering/billing model, PUE (if available), redundancy
- Cooling: max rack density, containment, failure modes, maintenance approach
- Network: carriers on-net, diverse entry paths, BGP options, DDoS services
- Security: access control, CCTV retention, visitor process, logging
- Ops: remote hands SLA, spares handling, change windows, reporting
- Contracts: cross-connect fees, power commit terms, notice periods, exit/portability
Compliance & data residency (what to confirm)
- Data location (incl. backups/DR copies) and any cross-border transfers
- Regulatory obligations that apply to you/your sector (and how the provider supports them)
- ISO certifications and scope (e.g., ISO 27001 – and what services/sites it covers)
- Audit rights (your ability to request evidence, reports, or conduct audits)
- Incident reporting expectations: notification timelines, RCA, and escalation routes
Connections to Azure/AWS
Several operators offer private connectivity/backhaul to UK/IE hubs, which can be used as part of an ExpressRoute/Direct Connect design (subject to provider capability and chosen termination location).
Find out more
Contact MTG today to see how your business can benefit from our experience in the Isle of Man hosting market. Whether you want to review your existing arrangements, or evaluate your existing technical environment – we can help.
Call us on +44 1624 777837 or e-mail sales@mtg.im
