EvoSwitch, an Amsterdam-based data center provider, on Monday revealed plans to enter the U.S. data center market this January.
Their entrance into the United States is not based on a build-it-and-they-will-come thesis, but rather is driven by customer demand. EvoSwitch will open its WDC1 data enter with 27 percent of the first phase already sold to customers.
Having signed a long-term lease for a data center facility in Manassas, Va., phase one of the new data center build out will include 3 megawatts of power with a foundation to expand as growth dictates. In later phases, EvoSwitch said that it can grow up to 100,000 square feet.
Locating the data center in Manassas, which is close to Washington, D.C., aligns EvoSwitch with one of the Internet's major interconnection hubs. Data centers located in this area have become an attractive option for a number of traditional service providers, cloud and media companies needing colocation and interconnection services.
Inside Virginia, EvoSwitch should be able to attract a growing bevy of incumbent and competitive providers such as Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Sidera Networks, which has begun a large-scale network expansion effort throughout the state.
Given the growing competition in the data center market segment, what will set EvoSwitch apart from the competition? One element that EvoSwitch thinks it has over the competition is its dedication to energy efficiency. EvoSwitch's AMS1 facility in Amsterdam has a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.2, while the WDC1 is scheduled to operate with a PUE rating of 1.3.
While EvoSwitch will face a number of well-established data center providers in Virginia, including CenturyLink's (NYSE: CTL) Savvis, Terremark and Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), the demand for cloud and virtual services is facilitating the need for more data center space. Besides offering straightforward amenities like space and power, EvoSwitch will need to aggressively start attracting area service providers to interconnect with them where they extend services to their customer base.
For more:
- see the release
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