By Antony Adshead
Publication Date: 2026-04-22 04:00:00
Service provider Blackbox Hosting has consolidated storage from two full racks to just 8U of rack space following the migration to Everpure FlashArray hardware. The measure has allowed the supplier to deliver “Sovereign” cloud services with a 10:1 data reduction ratio and an 85% reduction in power utilization.
Blackbox Hosting evolved over 14 years from a single rack to supporting over 1,500 virtual machines (VMs) and has data center capability in Canary Wharf with a secondary site in Slough.
The company operates a fully managed sovereign model (see box) for leading software providers, including Iris Software Group, which supports financial and payroll management for approximately 60% of UK academies.
Blackbox previously relied on HPE 3PAR 8400 all-flash arrays. However, as the hardware approached the end of its useful life, the company faced increasing challenges.
“Support renewal costs were significant and we had issues with HPE support,” said Matthew Burden, CEO of Blackbox…
