Steadfast Expands in Chicago Internet Hub

IT infrastructure provider Steadfast Networks has expanded its presence at 350 East Cermak, Chicago's most prominent data center hub. Steadfast has leased a new Turn-Key Datacenter pod from Digital Realty Trust, which owns and operates the huge carrier hotel property. Steadfast Networks now has more than 1.3 megawatts of power and 17,000 square feet of data center space in 350 East Cermak, as well as office space for its corporate operations.

"This data center expansion enables Steadfast to provide our customers with a complete suite of services," said Karl Zimmerman, Founder and CEO of Steadfast Networks. "We offer companies in the financial services and trading industry a compelling value proposition: our services decrease their capital expenditures while also reducing the workload of their internal IT teams, whether they work with Steadfast just on specific projects or outsource their entire IT department to our team."

Steadfast Networks was founded by Zimmerman in 1998. The company focuses on "transaction-intense" hosting for the financial, and gaming sectors, and just completed a second Chicago data center at 725 S. Wells Street. Last year Steadfast expanded into the New York market and now operates a carrier-neutral new facility at 121 Varick Street in Manhattan.

Digital Realty Trust (DLR) has one pod of Turn-Key Datacenter space remaining at 350 East Cermak, as well as a pod at its other downtime facility at  600-780 South Federal.  The 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.