Category 5 Hurricane Resistant Facility near I-75 Business Sector Enables Peak 10 to serve up to 600 More Customers
National IT infrastructure and cloud services provider, Peak 10, Inc., announced today the groundbreaking and construction of a new 60,000-square-foot data center facility in Tampa representing the company's first facility designed and constructed completely from the ground up. Central to the I-75 business sector, the new facility located on Parkedge Drive in the University of South Florida area will support Tampa's budding economic development and enable more businesses to benefit from Peak 10's secure, tailored cloud and data center services. The new facility will bring Peak 10's entire Tampa footprint to more than 129,000 square feet with three separate facilities, and Peak 10's total Florida footprint to roughly 230,000 square feet.
"Supporting our mission to continue expanding our robust national presence, we are excited to see the construction of our newest generation of data centers underway," said David Jones, president and CEO of Peak 10. "This facility will meet hurricane weather ratings for the Tampa region, making this a very sound facility for the IT business community. Adding a new facility across town from our existing Tampa data centers provides additional redundancy, and is connected via Peak 10's reliable network to our nine other major metropolitan locations."
Enabling Peak 10's Tampa presence to serve up to 600 more customers once complete, the facility will sit on 6.88 acres in Hidden River Corporate Park, offering 23,600 square feet of office and support space, and 36,400 square feet of data center space. The project will be built out into three separate data centers over time with the first data center (phase one) expected to open in early 2015. Phases two and three will be built out over a five-year period.
"When a business makes a multi-million dollar investment in Tampa, it sends a pretty clear message about the economic strength of our community," said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. "We're leading Florida out of the recession, and companies like Peak 10 are helping us do it. We congratulate them on their latest expansion, and look forward to future growth in the years ahead." According to Mark Sharpe, chairman of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners, "This investment speaks volumes about our potential for IT growth, and supports recent community developments like the establishment of the Florida Center for Cybersecurity at the University of South Florida."
The new two-story facility is located outside of the area's flood zone at a high elevation and will be constructed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. Offering many unique security and performance features, the office windows will employ a high-impact glazing system to protect against 150-mph winds. It will boast six-point physical security and 25,000 square feet of potential expansion space.
"After researching the area, we determined that a facility to meet our standards was not already built, and as part of our commitment to the Tampa Bay market and community, we decided to move forward on a custom build," said Cheryl Kleiman, vice president for Peak 10, overseeing Tampa operations. "This third facility is special for us – it is the first time that we are building our own data center from the ground up."
Peak 10 solutions scale and adapt to changing business and technical needs, enabling Florida businesses to increase agility, lower costs, improve performance and focus internal resources on core competencies. "We continue to experience great demand for our services as Tampa Bay businesses seek secure, hybrid IT infrastructure solutions without having to sacrifice security, supported by exemplary customer support," continue Kleiman. "This facility will add several jobs at Peak 10 while allowing us to continue serving as a hub for business growth."
"With its latest expansion, Peak 10 strengthens our already robust IT infrastructure," said Allen Brinkman, Chair of the Tampa Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation and Chairman, President and CEO of SunTrust Bank Tampa Bay. "The new facility will provide us with another significant tool to market the community, as we work to attract and retain companies that depend on reliable data security and compliance, like those within the financial services and life sciences industries."
Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Peak 10 operates 24 data centers in the U.S., including six in Florida, providing secure, tailored cloud computing and information technology infrastructure solutions to a diverse base of mid-market businesses. To learn more, visit www.peak10.com.
