TDS Telecommunications Corp. has announced the start of a $14 million data center expansion at its TEAM Companies data center in Madison, Wis. The project, slated to begin this spring, will double the capacity of the facility and bring total sellable square footage to approximately 15,000 sq. feet, making it the largest commercially available Tier III data center in the region.

“Our investments will help other high-tech businesses grow as they look to secure important elements of their IT infrastructure,” commented David Wittwer, president and CEO of TDS Telecommunications Corp. as he addressed attendees at the Governor’s Conference on Economic Development in Madison earlier today. “A strong data center like ours enhances the region’s ability to maintain and attract new businesses.”

The building expansion design will maintain and improve upon its SAS 70 Type II certification, including special features, such as: biometric iris scanners for personal identification, the ability to withstand an F4 tornado, 14- to 24-in. concrete and steel reinforced walls, a fire detection system that can identify smoke molecules present at 1/100th of a percent, and multiple levels of redundancy and backup (built upon an N+1 schema methodology). In addition to being fail-safe facilities, TEAM data centers are designed from the ground up for energy and cooling efficiency.

“We are executing plans originally outlined as part of TEAM’s strategic growth initiatives,” adds Wittwer. “We understand the long term success of our data center strategy will require investments and we are prepared to maintain our leadership in this growing market.”

TDS Telecommunications’ parent company Telephone and Data Systems Inc. of Chicago acquired TEAM Technologies, LLC (dba TEAM Companies) for a purchase price of $47 million in Dec. 2010. TDS Telecommunications Corp. in Madison, Wis. has full management responsibility for the TEAM data centers located in Wisconsin and Iowa.

Businesses are outsourcing the management of core IT infrastructure at an accelerating pace with colocation, cloud computing and disaster recovery needs creating high demand for secure data center facilities.

Wittwer concludes, “As more companies strive to manage massive amounts of mission critical data and comply with growing regulatory requirements, partnering with data center experts such as TEAM and TDS, will be a critical element of success.”