IBM Opens Largest U.S. Business Continuity Center in North Carolina

IBM has officially unveiled its newest business continuity center in Research Triangle Park (Durham, North Carolina), which includes data center space and can act as a DR site (disaster recovery). Active since July, the facility already has its first customer, a mobile banking and payment company called Monitise.

At about 4 million square feet, the facility represents IBM Business Continuity and Resiliency Services organization’s largest single-site investment in the country. The company has about 150 other “resiliency centers” around the world.

IBM will provide cloud and traditional data recovery services at the DR site, including services for its SoftLayer cloud customers.

Business continuity services is a major segment of the IT services market. Many providers of data center colocation, managed services and cloud infrastructure services offer business continuity, but IBM is one of the biggest players in the space.

Its new center has 72,000 square feet of raised-floor data center space, an 8,000-square-foot tape pool and 10 suites fully equipped for customer disaster recovery staff.

It is connected to the dedicated BCRS backbone. AT&, Time Warner Telecom, Level 3 and Verizon Business provide network connectivity services at the site.

IBM is currently planning to build more resiliency centers in Mumbai and Izmir, Turkey, Mike Errity, IBM vice president of business continuity and resiliency services, told the Triangle Business Journal.

The company has had a big presence in RTP before it built the new center.

Opened in the late 50s, 7,000-acre RTP is one of the world’s largest research parks and the largest research park in the U.S. IBM is one of nearly 200 companies there.

About 14,000 full-time IBMers go to work at RTP.

In 2010 the company opened a $360 million data center there, providing 100,000 square feet of data center space.