Data Centres Europe, the annual industry content driven event for business leaders in the sector, last night held a gala awards ceremony at the InterContinental Park Lane Hotel in central London.

The awards were presented by Tim Anker, vice chairman of the Judges Panel, in front of industry executives attending the 4th annual event.

eBusiness Reliance Centre (eBRC) of Luxembourg won the award for Best Data Centre Operator Europe. The shortlist had also included Capgemini, COLT Telecommunications and Data Electronics (Ireland).

The highly contested Best Managed Services Provider award was won for the second year in a row by specialist Internet and enterprise applications operator, Attenda. Other runners up included Baltic Data Center UAB, Capgemini and easynet.

The Best Disaster Recovery Provider award was won by network-neutral data centre and interconnection services provide, Equinix. Companies in the short list included eBRC and Mainroad (Portugal).

In the best Power Product category, data centre solutions firm, Validus LLC (USA) won the award. Runners up included APC and Raritan.

Best cooling product was won by APC with the shortlist including Chatsworth Product and HP.

This year included a new category the Data Centres Europe Green Award, which was won by Equinix. Runners up included Smartbunker and TelecityGroup.

One of the most prestigious awards, the Outstanding Leader in Data Centres Award 2008 (CEO Award) was awarded to Michael Tobin, CEO, TelecityGroup. Mr Tobin won the award for the second year running against considerable international competition. The shortlist included Michael F. Faust, CEO and Director, Digital Realty Trust and Bill Clifford, CEO, Aperture.

The Judges Panel comprised of Ashley R. Davis, Managing Director, JP Morgan Chase (chairman), Tim Anker, Founder, The Colocation Exchange (vice chairman), Andrew Harrison, Associate Director, ARUP, Steven Berry, Associate Director, ARUP, Greg Sherry, European Chairman, BICSI and Nicola Hayes, Vice President, BroadGroup.

Sponsors include BCS, Migration Solutions, Equinix, Citadel100, Datacenter Luxembourg/Inexio, Cellwatch, ARUP, Active Power, BICSI, Lamda Hellix Data Centers, VMWare, Tyco Electronics, the Colocation Exchange, Armstrong, TelecityGroup, CBRichard Ellis, Ni2, CNet, SandIT, eBRC and GVA Grimley. Media Partners include the Web Hosting Industry Review, Data Centre Solutions. TheDatacenter Journal and Data Centre News.