US data center provider QTS has partnered with military IT operations expert i2 Sentinel Associates to establish a lab within the provider's massive Richmond, Virginia, data center campus that will serve as testing grounds for cloud-infrastructure solutions the US Department of Defense, intelligence and other federal-government agencies. QTS announced formal opening of the lab Friday.

The majority of federal-government agencies in the US are under pressure to rationalize and consolidate their sprawling IT and data center infrastructure. Deploying applications on modern cloud infrastructure is highly encouraged when not mandated, but agencies, especially defense and intelligence, are hesitant about sharing infrastructure not only with non-government organizations but also with each other.

“With industry and more federal players looking for cloud computing, physical and logical security in this area will continue to be a critical element,” Thomas Preston, CEO of i2 Sentinel, said.

A lab where agencies can build and test private-cloud solutions may become an effective tool in attracting them to host this cloud infrastructure within the Richmond data center.

Federal agencies are a big target market for data center companies in Virginia, which neighbors Washington, D.C., where most of those agencies are headquartered. Few vendors, however, have the knowledge and connections required to navigate the federal services procurement bureaucracy to get government business, so many providers team up with partners that have experience and track record of work with the feds.

i2 Sentinel says it has spent nearly 40 years working in technology and operations in military, the intelligence community, industry and academia.

QTS has won government business before by partnering with other providers. In May 2011, the company announced that Planned Systems International would use its Richmond data center to host IT infrastructure for the Defense Department.