Technology infrastructure specialist Switch has signed a 15 megawatt colocation deal, the company said today, continuing a pattern of strong first-quarter leasing for publicly-held data center companies.
Switch said an international streaming media corporation plans to use Switch’s North American PRIME data centers as a worldwide distribution hub for its services. The tenant plans to go live at Switch’s facilities in Nevada in July. Switch has Nevada data center campuses in Las Vegas and Reno. The Nevada campuses provide the client with access to data center tax abatements, 100 percent renewable energy, and access to international cable landing stations via the Switch fiber network.
“We are really excited to have another international technology powerhouse join the Switch ecosystem,” said Chris Donnelly, chief connectivity officer for Switch. “We look forward not only to fulfilling this company’s ultra high-density data center needs but also its global connectivity demands through Switch CONNECT, the world’s only hyperscale telecom auditing and purchasing cooperative.”
The deal with the streaming company capped a busy period for Switch’s Nevada operation, as it also added a new high security government client at its Core Campus in Las Vegas. Switch also reported that it added a large electric utility company and a global consumer goods manufacturer to its client roster at its Pyramid Campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The new tenants filled the remaining available cabinets in the second sector of the Pyramid campus.
Strong First Quarter Leasing for Data Center Industry
The active leasing at Switch builds on what is already a strong quarter for the sector, as seen in the performance of real estate investment trusts (REITs) specializing in data centers. Aggregate leasing volumes in first-quarter reports from Digital Realty, CoreSite, Equinix and CyrusOne were up nearly 30 percent from the first quarter of 2017 and nearly 50 percent from the fourth quarter. Switch doesn’t report its earnings until May 14.
Switch became the newest public company in the data center industry in October 2017, when it raised $531 million in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. Switch is not a REIT, a business format used primarily for real estate companies.
Switch operates one of the largest cloud campuses in the world at its Las Vegas CORE Campus, where it has more than 2 million square feet of data center space. Over the past three years, Switch has been growing in new markets, opening the Citadel Campus in Reno, Nevada and the Pyramid Campus in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and announcing a new campus near Atlanta. Upon completion, these projects will bring more than 10 million square feet of data center space online.
The company has also been leveraging its intellectual property, which includes several hundred assigned or pending patents for technology created by Switch founder Rob Roy. In 2017, Switch licensed several of its patented designs for data center cooling technology to Schneider Electric, and recently signed an agreement that allows Munters to license the patent for the design for the Switch TSC exterior cooling unit.
