IBM Leases Paris Space from Digital Realty

IBM has signed a lease for "plug-n-play" data center space in a Digital Realty Trust facility in suburban Paris, the two companies said today. IBM says it will establish a new hosting data center in the property, which was leased through Digital Realty's Turn-Key Datacenter program, which provides tenants with finished raised floor data center space.

IBM is one of the world's leading data center builders, managing more than 8 million square feet of raised floor space. The Paris lease raises an interesting question: given its in-house capabilities, why would IBM lease pre-built space from Digital Realty? The answer: to bring space online quickly to meet customer demand in a hot market.   

"In terms of speed to market, with our Turn-Key Datacentre product based on our POD Architecture we are able to meet the datacentre requirements of customers such as IBM in six to eight weeks from the time we come to an agreement - well ahead of current industry standards," said Bernard Geoghegan, Senior Vice President, Europe of Digital Realty Trust.

Digital's pod architecture that divides each property into compartmentalized data centers of between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet. IBM has recently announced a similar program to build Enterprise Modular Data Centers, which are essentially 5,000 square foot pods. These modular data centers are designed to make it cheaper and quicker for customers to expand their data center space, saving money through energy efficient equipment and a “repeatable” design. IBM and Digital Realty Trust (DLR) have been among the leaders in this industrialization of data centers,  

Speed to market is especially important in markets with robust leasing activity, such as Paris. "Even in today's challenging economic climate, the Paris market is seeing constant and steady demand," said Geoghegan. "The price of power in France combined with our energy efficient design makes our Paris facility a preferred infrastructure solution for many large customers and system integrators."