Terremark Leases Expansion Space in Dallas

Terremark Worldwide (TMRK) has built huge data centers around the world. But when it needed to expand its data center footprint in Dallas, it opted to lease "plug and play" space from Digital Realty Trust (DLR), the largest provider of wholesale data centers.

Digital Realty said this morning that Terremark has leased 10,000 square feet of space in one of its Dallas area facilities. The location was not announced, but a likely suspect is Digital's huge new campus in Richardson, where it plans to build out up to 800,000 square feet of mission-critical space.

The deal underscores the appeal of Digital Realty's Turn-key Datacenter program, which  offers customers finished raised-floor data center space, shifting the data center development costs from the tenant to the landlord. This approach allows for much quicker deployment than if the customer built a new facility on its own. 

Terremark has been assessing its expansion options in Dallas for some time. The company acquired a data center in Dallas with its 2007 acquisition of Data Return, whose Infinistructure platform provided the framework for Terremark's Enterprise Cloud offering.

"In addition to quickly extending our existing footprint in one of our key markets, this agreement allows us to control operations within a top-tier data center that meets our high standards for reliable physical infrastructure," said Randy Rowland, General Manager of Terremark's Hosting Services.

"When analyzing our options for expanding our presence in the Dallas area, we realized working with Digital Realty enabled our company to provide customers with our full suite of services from a robust facility in a timely and cost-effective manner," Rowland said.

Brent Behrman, Vice President of Global Sales of Digital Realty Trust, said the turn-key program "enables customers to rapidly move forward with datacenter projects using wholesale data center space that enables them to skip the time-consuming and expensive process of identifying appropriate real estate and developing it into usable data center space."

Terremark will begin to move its infrastructure from its current data center in Dallas to Digital Realty's facility during the second quarter of 2010. The deal offers Terremark the ability to lease additional space to accommodate future growth.