(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Software as a service provider SAS (www.sas.com) announced on Thursday it is investing $70 million in building a 38,000-square-foot data center facility on SAS’ Cary, North Carolina campus to expand its on-demand offerings and hosted solutions.
Though the press release specifies the data center as being a cloud computing facility, it does not explicitly state what defines it as being one.
However, after browsing the SAS website it is clear that the company offers a range of cloud-based solutions.
As the need for hosted solutions grows, the company will create new research and development jobs at its Cary world headquarters, which houses the majority of its more than 1,400 R&D employees.
“This project is proof that, despite the down economy, SAS continues to grow and innovate,” says Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. “The growing demand by our customers for hosted solutions has given us this opportunity to invest even further in North Carolina and the Cary community.”
The new facility will be built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards for water and energy conservation.
Like the Executive Briefing Center SAS is currently building on the Cary campus, the new data center will encourage the recycling of materials.
SAS’ opened its first LEED building, SAS Canada’s headquarters in Toronto, in April 2006.
Additionally, about 60 percent of the project’s construction and equipment spending will be in North Carolina, with its design and construction involving about 1,000 people.
The facility will include two 10,000-square-foot server farms.
The company expects Server Farm 1 to be online in mid-2010 and support growth for three to five years.
Meanwhile, Server Farm 2 will be built as a shell and will be populated with mechanical and electrical infrastructure once Server Farm 1 reaches 80 percent capacity.
According to the press release, SAS provides business analytics software and services, and is considered the “largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market.”
The company offers an interactive tour video of its services here.
