FORTRUST Enters Wholesale Data Center Market

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Several IO factory-built data center modules reside in an area of the FORTRUST Denver data center dedicated to modular growth. (Photo: FORTRUST)

Colocation provider FORTRUST will expand its offerings to enter the market for wholesale data center center space, the company said today. The Denver-based provider will deliver its wholesale space using data center modules from IO, which can deploy turn-key space in increments of 200 kilowatts to 400 kilowatts.

FORTRUST says it has been seeing increased demand from enterprise customers for modular data centers. IO's modules have now been certified as meeting the Tier III standard for reliability, a common benchmark for enterprises seeking to outsource their IT operations.

The initiative by FORTRUST continues the blurring of boundaries between "retail" colocation and wholesale turn-key space, adding a modular wrinkle to a landscape that is offering a growing number of options for customers seekinf data center services.

In the traditional wholesale data center model, a tenant leases a dedicated data center suite or “pod” of raised floor space, which usually offers about 1.1 megawatts of power capacity. In colocation, a customer leases a smaller chunk of space within a data center, usually in a caged-off area or within a cabinet or rack.

But in recent years wholesale suppliers have begun competing for deals of 500 kilowatts and below. In response, colocation providers like Equinix have begun offering dedicated suites for larger customers. With its wholesale offering, FORTRUST is building upon the success of IO in offering dedicated infrastructure demised within factory-built modules, rather than data halls within brick-and-mortar buildings.

“FORTRUST, like IO, recognized that DC 1.0 was broken and not serving our key customer, the IT end user," said FORTRUST Senior Vice President and General Manager Rob McClary. "By building out with the world’s most advanced modules, we increased our total data center efficiency by 30% and added more inventory to provide what the world’s most demanding organizations require.”

As the first participant in the Powered by IO program, Fortrust committed to use IO modular data center technology exclusively as it expands its Denver data center, where it offers colocation and disaster recovery services. i/o Anywhere is a family of modular data center components that can create and deploy a fully-configured enterprise data center.

FORTRUST has used the IO designs to add 5.2 megawatts of capacity by deploying modules to the concrete floor inside its Tier III facilities in Denver, Phoenix and New Jersey.