Wholesale data center developer Sentinel Data Centers, LLC, will build a 420,000-square-foot facility in Durham, NC, the first multi-tenant data center to be built in the region.
North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue announced Sentinel's selection of the Raleigh-Durham area for its NC-1 facility following a two-year site selection process, which is being built on 29 acres in the Research Triangle Park area and will be ready for occupancy in early 2013 after the company completes and commissions the first 120,000-square-foot phase.
"North Carolina companies will benefit greatly from this project and the bottom line is it will lead to job creation and investment in our state," Gov. Perdue said.
The data center will ultimately supply 200,000 square feet of net computer room space which can be divided into turnkey suites of various sizes and configurations.
Sentinel, founded in 2001, has developed over 1.4 million square feet and 120 megawatts of data center solutions. The company intends to target users both within and outside the Raleigh-Durham region.
Sophisticated companies in the region have historically built their own data centers as there were no major third-party alternatives for large users, said Todd Aaron, Sentinel co-president.
"As has been the case in more mature data center markets, we expect that North Carolina enterprises will welcome a simple, transparent and flexible model in which they can benefit from the resiliency and economies of a mega-scale facility without giving up the autonomy of a dedicated solution," Aaron said.