CoSentry opens Lenexa, Kansas Facility

Colocation provider CoSentry has opened a new carrier neutral data center in Lenexa, Kansas. The 60,000 square foot facility has 20,000 square feet of raised floor space, or space for around 1,000 48” cabinets. The facility is fed by three 2.5 megawatt power feeds from KCPL, and has an N+1 electrical service. There are three 2.5 megawatt diesel generators, and a minimum of 24 hours of diesel fuel capacity on site. There’s also three UPS systems with 6.6 MVA of redundant load capacity.

The facility was opened in a ceremony attended by 200, including Lenexa mayor Michael Boehm. Manny Quevedo, VP of Corporate Development, explains:  “With the opening of our new data center in Lenexa, KS, CoSentry is continuing its track record of offering flexible, secure, onshore data center solutions across the country.”

The facility is dubbed a "six nines" data center - meaning it can support 99.9999% uptime - one upping the traditional five nines often seen in the industry. Its concrete walls are rated for 200 mile per hour winds, and there 24/7 onsite staff.

It’s one of the only facilities in the region to support VCE’s Vblock technology, which the company says has already led to demand. Capacity is priced either by cabinet, circuits or power usage. CoSentry offers colo from a few U’s to multiple cabinets/a whole suite. The company offers managed services as well.

A dual cooling system design is inside, the initial system being air-cooled chillers with integral economizers (N+1 configured) and high-efficiency computer room air handling units with N+1 capacity and dual path chilled water piping. The second chilled water system creates a high efficiency water-cooled evaporative chiller system. This system is designed to be implemented as UPS load grows beyond 50% of total capacity. Once this is added, either system can/will be used to cool the data center floor, based on time of year. The overall configuration will provide two completely separate chiller plant systems, each capable of supporting the load.

Silicon Prairie

There’s been somewhat of tech boom in Kansas. Also in Lenexa is mass market hosting giant 1&1 Internet, which houses its primary U.S. infrastructure there. So why Kansas?

The state of Kansas has aggressive business incentive programs to attract and grow business within the state. These incentives can offset up to 100% of state income taxes, sales taxes, payroll withholding taxes and certain property taxes for up to 10 years. In addition, Kansas has job training program incentives for businesses adding employees in the state.

The Kansas City region also attracted single-tenant data centers in the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks in New York, which heightened awareness of the need for out-of-region disaster recovery, as well as the need to address scenarios in which air travel  is unavailable. This gave pause to providers with a "bi-coastal" backup plan, convincing more enterprises and financial service firms to consider locations low-disaster zones in the middle of the country.

There’s a bunch of emerging tech start ups there as well; the wider region is often referred to as Silicon Prairie. Silicon Prairie comprises parts of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Missouri. CoSentry has facilities in Kansas City, MO, Lenexa, KS, Sioux Falls, SD, Papillion, NE and Omaha, NE, putting it right in the heart of the, er, heartland.