(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Colocation and data center provider VegasNAP (www.vegasnap.com) recently opened its 14,000 square foot data center and headquarters in the heart of Las Vegas.
The new VegasNAP facility has been in the works for the past year, with a nine month construction cycle.
Located less than five minutes from McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Strip, the facility is now a part of a thriving data center services market that includes the likes of Switch and Data and ViaWest, along with Switch Communications’ SuperNAP.
The new facility offers colocation, disaster recovery and other data center services aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and enterprises.
In an email interview with the WHIR, Rob Tyree, vice president and CTO of VegasNAP discuss the new data center including its design, range of available services, and clientele.
WHIR: In the press release it specifies that the new facility is 14,000 square feet, but also mentions it includes a 6,500 data center. Can you clarify these specs?
Rob Tyree: The facility includes our new corporate headquarters and staff offices as well as our 6,500-foot data center. The total size of the facility is 14,000 square feet, of which approximately 10,000 square feet is either data center space or is used to directly support the data center (power room, meet-me-room, NOC, etc), the remainder being office space, meeting facilities, storage, etc.
What kinds of services is VegasNAP offering out its data center?
RT: VegasNAP offers three primary services. First, we offer cabinet-based colocation, starting at 1/2 cabinet and up. VegasNAP is a carrier-neutral facility, so customers are welcome to purchase IP transit from one of the providers who have established POP’s in the facility (currently Cox Business and AFS/Zayo, with more coming soon), bring in their own IP transit using one of the fiber providers we have available, or they can purchase BGP multi-homed IP transit/bandwidth directly from VegasNAP. Second, we offer disaster recovery solutions ranging from simple off-site data backup services to fully-redundant hot site solutions with failover capabilities and everything in between. Finally, we offer managed IT services, which allows customers to offload all or just a portion of their IT infrastructure to VegasNAP, realizing better performance, increases in efficiency, and significant cost savings in the process. Our IT-as-a-service approach also allows our customers to grow their IT infrastructure without the significant capital expenditures normally associated with that type of expansion.
Does VegasNAP have any eco-friendly features in place?
RT: Many aspects of our facility were designed with efficiency as our first priority. First, VegasNAP utilizes high-efficiency Carrier HVAC units equipped with air-side economizers, which allows for fresh-air cooling when outside temperatures allow. We estimate that this feature alone will reduce our cooling power demand by 35 percent or more. Second, VegasNAP selected Mitsubishi Electric to provide our UPS systems. We selected Mitsubishi largely due to their IGBT-based design which is able to achieve extremely high efficiency under normal operation and also allows for 1:1 generator pairing, which means we are able to utilize smaller standby generators than were required with many of the older SCR-based UPS systems employed by existing data centers, which require over-sized standby generators. Running smaller, non-oversized generators in the event our primary power fails or during our bi-weekly generator testing means that we emit less carbon and use less fossil fuel. Third, we also utilize custom-manufactured server cabinets that allow us an incredible level of flexibility when it comes to laying out our cooling systems, since we are able to more carefully control the flow of hot/cold air within the facility. Finally, we have a company-wide initiative to utilize servers and PC’s built with high-efficiency components, such as 80-Plus certified power supplies and low-voltage CPU’s, and we encourage our customers to do the same. These are just a few of the eco-friendly features we have in place, and we will continue to innovate to make our facility as efficient as possible.
What is the colocation and data center services market in Las Vegas and greater Nevada area like?
RT: Las Vegas has a thriving data center services market, having had a number of high-profile facilities open recently. Las Vegas offers many compelling benefits when it comes to selecting a data center location – it is one of the few locations in the US that is disaster-free. There are no earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes, and the city is in close proximity to multiple large power generation plants, including Hoover Dam, which provides the city with a clean, reliable supply of power. Las Vegas is also a major hub for long haul fiber optic transport, being one of the main egress routes out of Southern California for many national and regional fiber optic network providers. This unique combination of geography and infrastructure makes Las Vegas one of the premier locations for growth in the data center industry.
What kind of companies comprise your main clientele?
With the demand for power in both Southern California and Silicon Valley continually driving prices upward, many companies are looking for locations in close geographical proximity to either relocate or expand their data center infrastructure. For example, Oracle, a company synonymous with Silicon Valley, recently selected a Las Vegas data center to host SunCloud, Oracle’s cloud computing division – and that is just one example. However, most of the recent expansion has been into facilities that service primarily large enterprise and government customers. At VegasNAP, we saw this as a great opportunity, so we built a facility that allows small and medium businesses to leverage the advantages of colocating in Las Vegas – advantages that were basically inaccessible to them previously due to cost or other factors. Apparently our idea was pretty solid. We are now working with clients in a wide range of industries such as Web hosting, technology, medical, legal, manufacturing, and more.
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