Communications company Level 3 has opened its latest facility in the US state of Virginia and has awarded the data center its highest rating as a Premier Elite facility.

The rating was given to the Herndon new build as it offers fully redundant, high-density power and cooling systems, multi-tier security and its direct connectivity to Level 3’s global network.

Level 3 said these features will provide enterprise and government customers with the necessary capabilities to manage rapid data growth and ensure business continuity – which it said are key elements to deliver today’s mission-critical business applications in a secure and efficient operating environment.

Level 3 operates more than 350 data centers worldwide.

Ovum Global Enterprise Services principal analyst Mike Sapien said the Northern Virginia market is one of the top three data center markets in the world - according to Ovum's global data center tracking information.

"Enterprise customers are seeing improved economics in using outside data centers, as well as avoidance of the capital to upgrade their aging private data centers,” Sapien said.

“The use of external third-party data centers are necessary to address expanding their global coverage, increased use of cloud services, and improving application performance."