Colo Developer Plans National Expansion

The developers of a new build-to-suit colo project in the Chicago market say they are shopping for additional sites and hope to build a network of high-density data centers around the United States. The Cyber Continuity Center is "currently evaluating sites on the East and West Coast as well as in the Midwest for additional sites," with a long-range goal of creating a chain of centers around the country.

The expansion plans were noted in a press release announcing that the new center will use APC's InfraStruXure architecture for high density blade server deployments. The Cyber Continuity Center is under construction in the DuPage National Technology Park, which is owned and operated by CenterPoint Properties.

High-density hosting projects are becoming the key proving ground for cooling technology providers, who are working closely with facility deveopers and operators to optimize the design of the equipment space for high heat loads. APC (APCC), which recently announced that it is being acquired by Schneider Electric, is a primary player in the cooling sector, along with Emerson Network Power's Liebert unit.

The relationship with APC is key to the Cyber Continuity Center's expansion plans, according to chief technology officer Jack Pressman.

"APC's solutions as well as its dedicated service and implementation teams make it possible to expect that each facility will be completed within six months," said Pressman, who noted that "the Cyber Continuity Center will have the ability to support high density applications ranging from 5kw to 25kw per rack. This facility will give our clients the capability to virtualize their physical infrastructure on site."

CenterPoint Properties, the developer of the DuPage National Technology Park, said "significant leasing activity" has already occurred at the Cyber Continuity Center. The project is the latest in a series of announcements of new data center projects in the Chicago market. The new facility will be engineered to meet Tier III classification on the Uptime Institute's facility standards for data centers.

The DuPage National Technology Park (DNTP) is an 800-acre advanced business and research park located in West Chicago. CenterPoint is the largest owner and developer of industrial real estate in metropolitan Chicago with 22 branded business parks.

Construction is already underway 62,000 square foot Cyber Continuity Center structure, with more than 40,000 square feet devoted to the data center. The facility will use a hot aisle configuration that features six APC Symmetra 1.6 MegaWatt UPS systems and 1,000 APC NetShelter SX server racks in individual InfraStruXure Containment System configurations.

"The facility will deploy InfraStruXure from end to end, supporting a complete range of hosting, storage and recovery solutions," said Peter Poulin, APC's vice president, North America. "The center is one of the first facility services providers in the industry to adopt a standardized approach to building large scale data centers."