AXA Plans $100M Atlanta Data Center

AXA Equitable will invest $100 million in two data centers in the Atlanta area, according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle (print subscription needed), which uses the news as an opportunity to take a broader look at the metro Atlanta data center market.

AXA, a New York-based financial services company, is relocating work from six East Coast data centers to about 200,000 square feet of data center space in Suwanee and the downtown Atlanta area, CIO Kevin Murray said. The company will process business transactions and backup data at the Atlanta facilities, and. Expects the consolidation to save AXA about $50 million.

The BizJournals story includes an interesting data point from Nick Masino, vice president of economic development at the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, who told the paper that metro Atlanta has the most data center jobs, as a percentage of the workforce, of any city in the United States.

Atlanta is benefiting from solid fiber connectivity, relatively inexpensive power, and an inland location that is rarely affected by hurricanes. Companies operating major data centers in the Atlanta area include E*Trade, Google and IBM Corp. HP recently built two new data centers in the area as part of its consolidation, while Switch and Data has leased a large downtown space for future development as a data center.