Recently, IT infrastructure provider Forsythe Technology announced plans to break ground on a 221,000 square foot Chicago data center in the suburb of Elk Grove Village. The facility will serve to provide resources for organizations seeking solutions in both the retail and wholesale data center colocation markets. The new structure is scheduled to be completed in early 2015.
Illinois Data Center Details
The new Elk Grove Village data center will be a considerably large facility, with interior space equal to that of four football fields. The planned structure also includes capabilities for future expansion of up to 300,000 square feet.
The initiative will be completed in phases, with the first phase currently underway after a $50 million investment from Forsythe. This step in construction will see the establishment of the front office areas, reception spaces, certain security measures and eight client suites.
The data center project will have a unique focus on the 56 1,000 square foot clients suites available for tenants. These areas will provide many of the benefits found in much larger wholesale suites, as well as the advantages of flexible, modular retail cages. Each suite will include scalable power densities and UPS, physical security and the ability to maintain individual climate control.
“Electrical (2N UPS) and mechanical (N+1 precision air conditioning) control options will be combined to provide tenants with density choices ranging from 200 to 300 watts per square foot,” Forsythe stated. “With a denser environment, tenants will be able to optimize their IT configurations, thereby reducing their facility footprint and associated operational costs.”
Data Center Certification
In addition to focusing on client requirements and suite space, the new facility has also been recognized for data center sustainability. The structure has a number of pending certifications which will be awarded upon project completion, including a Tier III certification for reliability from the Uptime Institute.
Furthermore, the Chicago area data center will also receive recognition from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, as well as SSAE-16 and ISO-9000 certification.
A Bridge Between Market Offerings
Forsythe noted that within the current data center colocation industry, there are facilities focusing on shared, 10,000 square foot wholesale client space, or 200 to 300 square foot cage configurations for retail clientss. However, not many data centers aim to address needs in between these marks.
“There is really a missing component in the middle,” Steve Harris, Forsythe data center development vice president, told The Chicago Tribune. “It became apparent to us that we should look at something that bridges the gap between wholesale and retail.”
This is where the new Elk Grove Village data center, with its 1,000 square foot customizable client suites, comes into play. The company calls this customer space approach a “data center within a data center.” Harris said the way the suites are set up will allow tenants to feel as if the space is their own personal data center, completely usable for IT infrastructure support.
