Peak 10, Inc. is in the final construction phase of its new 60,000-sq-ft data center facility in Tampa on Parkedge Drive in the University of South Florida area of Tampa. The new data center is currently undergoing data center commissioning in which all systems and components of the facility are tested both individually and collectively at full load to ensure they remain operational if utility power is lost. The 60,000-sq-ft data center is slated to open this July.
The building is constructed of a two-story concrete precast hardened shell to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Situated outside the area’s flood zone on 6.88 acres in Hidden River Corporate Park, the facility offers 23,600 sq ft of office and support space and 36,400 square feet of data center space. It is the company’s first facility designed and constructed completely from the ground up. Designed, constructed, and operated to meet industry Tier 3 standards, the new Peak 10 data center will provide 99.982% uptime, 72-hour power outage protection and concurrently maintainable systems. Other features include a multi-faceted security system, advanced fire protection, disaster recovery suites and expansion space.
According to Peak 10 vice president and general manager Cheryl Kleiman, who oversees the company’s Tampa operations, the fact that so many area companies have already reserved space in the new facility attests to the growing need for reliable, secure IT infrastructure services to accommodate Tampa’s technology boom.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in the number of technology-centric businesses moving to or starting up in the Tampa area,” Kleiman says. “But they are not the only companies seeking space in our new data center. Organizations across a diverse range of industries are being affected by trends in mobility and Big Data, and by changing regulatory requirements for handling data. They want more security. They want faster, easier connections to cloud services. Our new data center increases our capacity to deliver high-performance, secure colocation, cloud and other services that these companies need to gain and maintain a competitive edge.”
The facility will bring Peak 10’s entire Tampa footprint to more than 129,000 sq ft in three separate facilities, and its total Florida footprint to roughly 230,000 sq ft.
“Commissioning is critical to ensure that our data centers deliver the reliability and availability that our customers contract for,” says David Kidd, vice president of governance, risk and compliance. “It is a rigorous process that validates the overall facility design from a mechanical, electrical and availability perspective, and attests that all design elements and product specifications were adhered to during the construction process,” Kidd explains. “It also ensures that we successfully meet key standards set by industry organizations and critical infrastructure manufacturers. This is particularly important so we can deliver on the requirements of a Tier 3 data center.”
Kidd also added that Peak 10 employs documented, systematic procedures throughout all its facilities. As such, customers of the new Tampa facility can count on Peak 10 to meet many of their own compliance requirements, including a number of regulatory requirements for information technology infrastructure, including those associated with HIPAA/HITECH and PCI DSS.
