BlackBox Hosting has partnered with Everpure to offer sovereign cloud services in the UK, as organisations seek alternatives to foreign cloud providers.

As part of an overhaul of its legacy infrastructure, the managed private cloud provider has migrated thousands of customer services to Everpure’s platform. BlackBox Hosting supports more than one million end users and has spent more than a decade working with large software companies in the UK.

The announcement reflects a wider shift among British businesses seeking greater control over where data is stored and how it is managed. Concerns over data sovereignty have grown alongside regulatory scrutiny, cyber security risks and unease about reliance on overseas hyperscale cloud groups.

According to BlackBox Hosting, the new arrangement has strengthened its disaster recovery setup and improved resilience for business-critical workloads. It also reported a 12% performance improvement after the migration, along with lower storage latency and the removal of storage bottlenecks.

Customers experienced no downtime during the migration, the company said. It added that the changes were introduced without disrupting existing services, a key concern for businesses moving core systems.

Sovereign focus

Sovereign cloud services have become a more prominent issue for UK technology suppliers and their customers as organisations reassess where sensitive information should reside. For many businesses, the question is no longer just cost or scale, but also legal oversight, operational control and exposure to geopolitical tension.

For managed service providers such as BlackBox Hosting, that shift creates an opening to serve customers that want infrastructure hosted and managed with a stronger domestic focus. BlackBox saw an opportunity to update its platform in response to those concerns and offer services aimed at organisations seeking tighter control of critical data.

Everpure’s role centres on supplying the storage and data management platform that underpins the new offering. The companies did not disclose financial terms, but said the transition involved replacing older disk-based infrastructure with a newer flash-based system.

Operational changes

The overhaul has had a marked effect on BlackBox Hosting’s physical infrastructure. The company reported an 87% reduction in footprint and an 85% cut in carbon dioxide emissions after replacing its previous systems.

That sustainability claim may appeal to customers under pressure to reduce the environmental impact of their IT estates. Data centres and storage systems face growing scrutiny as companies balance demand for more computing power with emissions targets and energy costs.

BlackBox framed the changes as part of a broader effort to meet customer demand for secure, resilient and locally focused services. Its emphasis on disaster recovery also underlines the continued importance of continuity planning as ransomware attacks, outages and supply chain disruptions remain a live concern for businesses.

Executive view

The partnership comes as service providers try to distinguish themselves from the largest cloud groups by focusing on control, compliance and support. BlackBox Hosting’s customer base, which includes large software companies, gives it a platform to pitch these services to organisations handling substantial volumes of sensitive or regulated data.

One executive linked the launch directly to mounting concerns around data handling and risk. “The risks of inaction on data sovereignty are clear. Service disruption, data breaches, regulatory penalties, and financial or reputational damage are all top of mind. We’re excited to support BlackBox Hosting with its sovereign cloud offerings at a time when UK businesses are actively looking for solutions that can mitigate risk in an increasingly uncertain business and geopolitical landscape,” said Paddy Fitzpatrick, VP & General Manager UK&I, Everpure.

BlackBox Hosting expects sovereign cloud services to remain an important area of growth in the UK. “Our tailored infrastructure and platform-as-a-service solutions put us in a prime position to capitalise on the surge in demand for the sovereign cloud solutions we’re seeing across the UK right now. We’re delighted by the speed, ease of management, and quality of the support of the Everpure platform. We have complete confidence that as we grow, our Everpure footprint will continue to grow with us,” said Matthew Burden, Founder and Managing Director, BlackBox Hosting.