Forsythe Technology announced that its 221,000-sq-ft Forsythe Data Centers Retail+® colocation facility in Elk Grove Village, IL, is nearing completion and on track to open for client operations in May 2015. Forsythe Data Centers is partnering with T5 Facilities Management (T5FM), a T5 Data Centers Company that provides third-party on-site facilities management services to data center owners across North America.
T5FM applies the same best practices used in all of T5 Data Centers' facilities, including policies and procedures to mitigate risk and eliminate operational concerns with an emphasis on safety, training, and customer communication. T5FM currently operates data center facilities in Charlotte, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago.
"Forsythe has extensive experience optimizing colocation solutions and building data centers, and in providing technology products and services within those data centers" said Steve Harris, vice president, development, Forsythe Data Centers. "We are excited to augment our capabilities with T5FM's proven operations expertise to provide our clients with best-in-class colocation facility solutions."
"We launched T5 Facilities Management specifically to support operations like Forsythe Data Centers," said Mike Casey, president of T5 Facilities Management. "Applying the expertise we perfected managing T5's wholesale data center portfolio, we can now offer the same proven policies and quality of service to Forsythe clients no matter what their data center needs."
Forsythe also announced the piloting of innovative new, beta-stage Lithium-Ion UPS battery technology with its partner Emerson Network Power at the new facility. Forsythe and Emerson have been partners since 2009.
"Lithium-Ion battery technology is a game-changing innovation for stored energy in the data center. It delivers total cost of ownership benefits such as inherently longer life, which results in fewer replacements and lower maintenance costs. Capital efficiency is seen through improved use of space with smaller footprint and no unique ventilation requirements, lowering construction and installation costs, allowing Forsythe to pass these savings along to its own tenants," said David Sonner, vice president, power products, Emerson Network Power in North America.
The Liebert® Lithium-Ion battery cabinets are supporting Liebert NX UPS 300kVA and 500kVA systems in the Forsythe Data Centers facility. These cabinets will be available for the general public in late 2015.
"Forsythe Data Centers is designed to take advantage of the latest innovations in power and cooling technology to provide our clients with energy and space-efficient, high-density, private data center suites that will serve them well into the future. We are excited to have been chosen as the first real-world commercial environment in which Emerson's new Lithium-Ion UPS battery technology will be used," said Harris.
Forsythe Data Centers, which offers 1,000-4,000 sq ft secure, client-controllable private suites, as well as micro-suites and cabinets, will also bring together Forsythe's independent, multi-vendor Technology Evaluation Center, its Integration and Configuration Center and its Executive Briefing Center under one roof. This new integrated technology center will help Forsythe clients plan, procure, build, test, migrate, house, and manage their IT environments in one location. Forsythe Data Centers' clients will have access to all of Forsythe's offerings, including, but not limited to:
- Data Center Migration
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR)
- IT Infrastructure Optimization
- Remote Hands
- Managed Services
Forsythe designed the data center facility to comply with U.S. Green Building Council LEED certification standards. Forsythe also expects to obtain Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute, a certification currently held by 69 data centers in the U.S. and 524 worldwide, few of which are colocation facilities. Once in operation, the facility will apply for SSAE-16 and ISO-9001-2008 certification.
