The facility, situated just outside of Washington, DC, will initially offer approximately 30,000 square feet of raised floor space and provides customers with up to 224 watts per square foot of conditioned power delivered by a five bus electrical system and backed up with uninterruptible power supplies and diesel generators. Future plans call for additional expansion of raised floor within the facility.

SAVVIS says that the DC area data center will address the unique IT security needs of federal agencies, like the National Labor Relations Board, by employing support staff with appropriate government clearance and implementing around-the-clock security features including guards, video monitoring systems, vehicle blockades, bulletproof glass and walls, says the company. Entrance pods, "man traps" and a biometric entry system are also being designed to ensure that only fully authorized personnel are granted entry to the facility.

"The federal government and related suppliers such as prime contractors are increasingly demanding secure, flexible, and on-demand hosting and services from their IT vendors," says Don Teague, VP of SAVVIS federal systems. "By specializing in providing an integrated set of high performance IT services, SAVVIS' virtualized and managed IT utility services are playing an increasingly important role in the IT operations of federal agencies and commercial businesses."

Last week, Digital Realty Trust completed lease agreements with SAVVIS for new data center facilities in Boston, Massachusetts and Chicago, Illinois.