Infomart Data Centers has completed commissioning of a new private colocation suite within its Infomart Dallas facility, the company said today. The new space may not be huge, supporting 500 kilowatts of IT capacity. But it’s incredibly wired, offering carriers and service providers easy access to the carrier-neutral Building Meet-Me Room (BMMR) at the Infomart, which connects tenants with more than 75 networks flowing through the massive carrier hotel.
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The new suite is the latest in a series of rolling upgrades at the Dallas Infomart, which are likely to continue for some time to come, adding as much as 30 megawatts of additional capacity in the downtown Dallas market.
“Infomart Dallas is home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of carriers, colocation providers, and cloud applications. Given the growing value for latency-sensitive edge computing, we are delighted to add a second Infomart-operated suite within the facility,” says John Sheputis, the President of Infomart Data Centers. “Our expansion is one of several that will be completed this year, either by our team or one of our tenants. Every new network connection and new application launched will continue to solidify Infomart’s position as one of the nerve centers for the digital economy.”
Long-Term Expansion Plans
The newly commissioned 500kW private colocation suite is the second project completed in a series of strategic infrastructure investments planned for the building by Infomart Data Centers over the next 10 years.
Infomart hopes to add more than 500,000 square feet of data center space and 30 megawatts of additional capacity by adding a second building on the campus, which is surrounded by large parking lots. Sheputis says Infomart has the ability to build a new parking deck and then use the existing real estate to add more generators and a second building.
Infomart is a major player in one of the nation’s busiest and most competitive markets. The Dallas data center market is home to 2.5 million square feet (SF) of commissioned data center space, representing 278 megawatts (MW) of commissioned power, according to market research from datacenterHawk. That makes Dallas the third-largest market for data center space in the U.S., trailing only Northern Virginia and Silicon Valley. The Dallas/Fort Worth region is poised for a data center building boom, with more than 200 megawatts of potential capacity in the pipeline.
Some of that expansion activity is focused on the Infomart, one of the city’s oldest carrier hotels. Built in 1986 by legendary Dallas developer Trammell Crow, the building’s distinctive glass facade was designed as a replica of the Crystal Palace built in London in 1850 as part of the first World’s Fair.
The 1.58 million square foot property struggled for years to fulfill that vision, but found a niche in the early 1990s when it began leasing space to telecom tenants. The Infomart quickly developed into one of the major carrier hotels in Dallas, along with 2323 Bryan (the Univision Center).
A Connectivity Hub
Carrier hotels became the early cornerstones of the Internet economy, and some of the most successful properties in the colocation industry. A key piece of the business model is the meet-me room, a common area where providers can make connections between their networks. Interconnection facilities can be operated by building owners, non-profits or commercial service providers.
Infomart Dallas has experienced rapid growth of connectivity options within its Meet-Me-Room. Tenants connecting through the Dallas BMMR can access carriers,including Level 3 Communications, Unite Private Networks, InnerCity FiberNet, Cogent Communications, WireStar Networks, Fibernet Direct and ServedBy the Net, as well as DE-CIX Dallas at no monthly cross-connect fee. The Meet-Me-Room also enables connections between more than 75 network carriers and all colocation customers within the building.
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Infomart Data Centers was created in a 2014 merger that has brought new investment and energy to its flagship 100-megawatt connectivity hub on Stemmons Freeway. Infomart developed itsr own 3 megawatt, 24,000-square-foot wholesale suite in the building in 2015. In the third quarter of 2016, Infomart began heavy, facility-wide security renovations, greatly improving the monitoring of the infrastructure, tightening door access, and adding a Security Operations Center expanding security staff.
In addition to Dallas, Infomart also offers wholesale and colocation facilities in San Jose, , Hillsboro, Oregon and Ashburn, Virginia.
And for further coverage, check out Data Center Frontier’s page dedicated to the Dallas Data Center Market, that will provide the latest stats and info on this quickly growing area that is continuing to experience a data center boom.
Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution.