2e2 datacentre administrators hold customers' data to £1m ransom

2e2, the datacentre service provider and systems integrator that went into administration in January, is asking its customers for nearly £1m in funding if they want uninterrupted services and access to their datacentre facilities.

The stricken datacentre company’s administrators have asked for a total estimated funding of £960,000. 

While administrators have asked 2e2's 20 enterprise-level users to pay most of the datacentre costs, smaller businesses are being asked to pay £4,000 plus VAT.

In a warning letter to customers, the administrators from FTI Consulting said: “In the event that you do not provide a commitment to pay by 5pm on Friday 8 February 2013, we may be unable to continue to provide services to you with immediate effect.”

The funding will be used to meet the costs of operating and maintaining the datacentre infrastructure and key IT professionals to ensure smooth migration of the data and systems, the administrators said.

If customers do not pay, “We will be unable to maintain the datacentre infrastructure and we will have no alternative, other than to cease all operations without any managed wind-down of those operations,” it warned.

"We will have no alternative"

FTI Consulting

The administrators have also made 2e2's UK staff redundant and closed services such as flexible resourcing, business application services, unified communications and field support services.

When 2e2 went into administration, many customers wanted to gain access to their data immediately to migrate the data and applications to another service provider.

“The levels of data held in the companies’ datacentres are such that this process could take up to 16 weeks and we will need to ensure that the integrity of third-party data and security is maintained,” the administrators wrote.

They calculated the £960k funding to cover employee costs, utilities, carriers, rent, rates, administration and other central expenses, including legal costs and administrators’ fees.

2e2 customers include Vodafone, NHS Trusts, Citigroup, O2 and Kellog among others.