We continue our review of the World's 10 Largest Data Centers.
4. NEXT GENERATION DATA EUROPE, WALES 750,000 SF
An exterior view of the Next Generation Data Ltd. facility in Newport, Wales.
The huge new Next Generation Data Europe facility in Newport, Wales recently opened its doors with BT and Logica occupying two large data halls at the 75,000 square meter (750,000 square foot) center. The huge facility was built to house an LG semiconductor plant, but was vacated shortly after it was completed in 1998. NGD has converted the site into a three-story data center facility that will feature more than 375,000 square feet of technical space, enough capacity for more than 19,000 cabinets of servers and storage. The data center is designed to accommodate private data center pods, and also has shell space to accommodate data center container installations. For more see BT, Logica Are New Tenants at NGD.
3. NAP OF THE AMERICAS, MIAMI, 750,000 SF
The six-story NAP of the Americas building in Miami contains more than 750,000 square feet of space.
The NAP of the Americas was huge before huge was cool. This massive Terremark Worldwide data fortress in downtown Miami was completed in June 2001, offering 750,000 square feet of data center footprint just as the dot-com bust was taking hold. The six-story facility not only survived the downturn, but has become a key connectivity hub for the Southeastern US and Latin America, providing critical infrastructure to the U.S. military and the global domain name system. The NAP of the Americas is built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, with its exterior protected by 7-inch thick steel-reinforced concrete panels. Six Hitech rotary UPS systems support the power infrastructure. More than 160 networks converge at the building, creating a major connectivity ecosystem. The three large globes on the roof of the facility house two 16-meter satellite dishes and a 14-meter dish to provide backup connectivity for mission-critical customers should the facility ever lose its fiber feeds.
2. QTS METRO DATA CENTER, ATLANTA, 990,000 SF
A view of the rows of racks packing a pod inside the QTS Downtown Atlanta data center.
The QTS Metro Data Center in Atlanta is a 990,000 square foot building, and when complete will yield 560,000 square feet of data center space. The huge facility is supported by 80 megawatts of power capacity via an on-site Georgia Power substation, and has 19 two-megawatt diesel generators to provide backup power. The facility at 1033 Jefferson was built by Sears in 1954 as the company’s southeast distribution center. MetroNexus and CoreLocation bought the site in 2000 and invested $80 million to convert part of it for telecom and data center use. Quality Technology Services acquired the building in 2006 and built out about 150,000 square feet of raised-floor space. Last fall the company raised $150 million from private equity firm General Atlantic and announced plans to expand the Metro facility with another 130,000 square feet of finished data center space.