Digital Realty Makes Data Suites More Flexible

Datacenter-1

The raised floor area in a Digital Realty Trust data center.

Would you like an extra helping of redundancy with your pod? Provisioning data center space isn't yet like ordering off a menu. But tenants of Digital Realty will now be able to customize more elements of their data center space.

Digital Realty (DLR) today announced the launch of its Turn-Key Flex solution, which lets customers select from a catalogue of components during the design and construction process to meet their data center specifications. The program will be available in new data center space being deployed by the company in markets including Santa Clara, Calif.; Ashburn, Va.; and some New Jersey sites.

"We've created a platform that can have high degrees of configurability," said Steve Kundich, Vice President, Design & Construction for Digital Realty. "During the design phase, we can offer customers a wide variety of options ranging from N+1, 2N and 2N+1 configurations for their electrical systems and efficient mechanical cooling options utilizing airside or waterside economizations optimized for the project's climate zone. On a kilowatt basis, our Turn-Key Flex solution offers IT capacity ranging from 240 kW to multiples of 1125 kW in the U.S. and from 240 kW to multiples of 1440 kW in Europe and Asia Pacific."

Turn-key Datacenter program offers customers finished "plug and play" raised-floor data center space, which shifts the data center development costs from the tenant to the landlord, and allows for much quicker deployment than if the customer built a new facility on its own. The Turn-Key Flex program may be attractive to enterprises weighing several deployment options.

"We have found this to be particularly important for enterprise customers who have traditionally built their own data centers and are now migrating towards an outsourced solution with a proven data center provider," said Jim Smith, Chief Technology Officer for Digital Realty.

Kundich said the offering was a way for Digital to take advantage of its experience and supply chain.

"It's responsive to the customer need," Kundich said. "There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes (in data center development). What we've tried to do is focus on our partnerships and a good, repeatable process. We've invested an enormous amount of time exploring the best combinations of equipment to achieve uptime and the best cost scenario. That experience is valuable for customers. That allows us to offer a catalog with a flexible range of solutions."

"Our data center experts have designed, developed and currently manage over 3.6 million square feet of enterprise-quality data center space throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, with over 500,000 square feet of additional, fully improved data center space under construction," added Michael Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty. "Our team's experience goes into every data center we build and has ultimately resulted in this next generation Turn-Key Flex solution."