Latisys to Expand Chicago Data Center

LatisysChicago

An illustration of what the Latisys data center in Oak Brook, Ill. will look like upon completion.

Managed hosting provider Latisys will expand its Oak Brook, Ill., data center campus to meet a growing need for data center space in the greater Chicago market, the company said today. The expansion will provide an additional 10,000 square feet of high-density raised floor space and 2.5 megawatts of additional power, and be available to customers in June.

The expansion space will be built in a 48,000 square foot building adjacent to Latisys' existing data center in Oak Brook. The property was acquired in August 2010, around the time that Latisys restructured its senior credit line to free up capital for data center expansion.

"With a relative absence of natural disasters, and geographic positioning as a major transportation and high speed connectivity hub, Chicago has become an optimal market for enterprises to deploy their IT infrastructure," said Len Salva, Regional Sales Director, Latisys. "With this newly commissioned space, Latisys is positioned to meet a market need for high density power, space and cooling capacity, while our data center-as-a-service offering provides enterprises with the flexibility, reliability and scalability they need to succeed."

Demand in the downtown Chicago market has remained strong in recent years, but the suburban market has had a different profile, with more supply available due to the completion of several large data centers built by Equinix and DuPont Fabros. In 2010 those providers leased much of their space, bringing supply back in line with demand.

In 2010 Latisys established an east coast presence with a new 123,000 square foot data center in Ashburn, Virginia, and completed significant facility expansions at existing facilities in Chicago, Denver and Irvine, California.