RIM to Open Data Center in Texas

By The WHIR, June 09, 2008
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By Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com

June 9, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- According to reports on Friday, Research in Motion (rim.com) has purchased a tech facility in Plano, Texas for use as a data center for its Blackberry network.

Developed by Stream Realty Partners, the building sits on 20 acres and is 150,000 square feet in the Legacy Business Park area. It is believed the facility has been designed to expand to as much as 350,000 square feet.

According the Dallas Business Journal, RIM has declined to confirm or discuss the purchase but an undisclosed number of North Texas real estate sources have confirmed the property was indeed acquired by RIM.

Although the reasons behind this purchase remain unconfirmed, it is believed this expansion will help RIM reinforce the infrastructure and diversify the network for its popular Blackberry device, something the company has been criticized for in the past.

In April 2007, RIM faced a widespread network outage that left users without email for more than 12 hours. Then this past February, the Blackberry email network suffered a network outage that left 12 million North American users offline for four hours. Both times the company was in the hot seat for relying on its data center in Waterloo, Canada to handle all of its North American messaging traffic.

The move to add a Texas data center will enable RIM to shift network services should it encounter problems at its Ontario facility, according to Data Center Knowledge. Texas is also known to be a popular site for backup data centers because the state has its own power grid.

In December, RIM reported it would locate its US headquarters in Irving's Las Colinas area and eventually hire as many as 1,000 new employees over the next few years. It is believed the company currently employs around 7,500 worldwide.

Tags: Asia Research In Motion