Wipro Confirms North Carolina Data Center

The data center cluster in western North Carolina continues to grow. Just days after unveiling plans for a new Facebook data center in Rutherford County, state officials today confirmed that managed hosting provider Wipro Infocrossing will open a data center in Cleveland County. The India-based outsourcing and IT infrastructure provider Wipro (NYSE:WIT) plans to invest $75 million in the new facility.

Infocrossing will develop its data center in Kings Mountain in a 215,000 square foot shell building that was previously used by Chris-Craft Inc.  to manufacture power boats.  T5 Partners purchased the property earlier this year, and is marketing the campus as T5@KingsMountain. The Infocrossing lease has been noted by some North Carolina media outlets, but T5 has declined comment.

“Google, Apple, Facebook and now Wipro. North Carolina continues to be a prime location for growing and expanding global technology companies,” said North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue.  “Technology leaders recognize that we have a talented workforce, comprehensive infrastructure and a low cost of doing business – a winning formula that has led them to expand operations and make investments to North Carolina.”

Wipro selected North Carolina after an extensive search using the codename "Project Blue Ridge." Wipro plans to build out 80,000 square feet of raised floor in the Kings Mountain site, and create 17 jobs.

“At Wipro Infocrossing, we are always looking for ways to increase the value we deliver to our customers," said Sameer Kishore, President of Wipro Infocrossing. "Our vision for our Cleveland County site is to not only increase our data center footprint, but build a facility that brings the best infrastructure technology to our clients,”stated Sameer Kishore, President of Wipro Infocrossing.  “We look forward to becoming a part of the Cleveland County community and tapping into its talented pool of technology experts to build our state-of-the art data center,” continued Mr. Kishore.

Wipro plans to construct the data center to meet the Uptime Institute’s requirements for a Tier III facility and says it will pursue LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification as a sustainable building.

T5 Partners is already moving ahead on the design and construction of a "powered data shell" of at least 150,000 square feet, with the potential for expansion to as much as 480,000 square feet. The T5@KingsMountain campus includes more than 260 acres of land, with 120 megawatts of power available from Duke Energy at prices of about 4 cents per kilowatt hour.