Orlando-based global data center provider HostDime is planning a new $25m, 88,000 sq ft (8200 sq m) head office and data center, which will feature overnight beds and security drones. The company hopes to complete it by the end of 2016.

Construction of the new 110-ft tall, seven story building, designed by local company Baker Barrios Architects, is expected to start soon after the land purchase is completed at the end of 2015. It will accommodate all of HostDime’s 130 US employees, as well as three floors of international class data center space, most of which will be available to HostDime’s client base.

A night at the data center…

Clients will be able to take advantage of on-site executive suites for overnight visits, including full bathrooms, showers, and beds, which HostDime believes to be an industry first. Clients also have access to private client cage space, a private mini data center room, on-demand client offices, and a mix of services which include ultra-fast 10Gbps internet access.

The ability to stay within the data center, HostDime suggests, will save clients the time and expense of finding hotels in town, and give them immediate access to their equipment during their stay, should they feel the need to rummage in the small hours. 

The facility will also feature a 36-foot-high temporary storage warehouse that clients can use as they wish.

According to a HostDime news release guests will be greeted by a three-story-high atrium at the front of the building with a grand roundabout entrance. This atrium will also house an one of the world’s biggest mosaic video displays, spanning 36 feet tall and 10 feet wide.

On the top floor will be a large conference room and training center with a hybrid indoor/outdoor floor plan with approximately 3,500 sq ft of outside terrace. It is designed to host national and global hi-tech conferences for up to 200 people. Staff amenities will include a games room, break room, cafeteria, quiet room, small fitness gym, and the entrance to the two-storey sports court.

HostDime’s current flagship data center in Florida, is nearing capacity. The new facility will allow it to expand existing products for global customers and also house government data. It is designed to be a major peering/connection hub for networks in the Southeastern United States and for South American companies. The facility will meet and exceed certifications including Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), The Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Report, and The Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA).

Disaster recovery

IT will have over 100Gbps of network connectivity, as well as dark fiber connectivity options to all the major facilities in Miami, and will be rated Category 5 hurricane resistant, so it can operate as a business continuity and disaster recovery site for South Florida businesses. 

The facility will have space for over 35,000 servers, a dozen or more Tier 1 bandwidth providers connecting in three full-sized meet me rooms, full Tier IV equivalent redundancy, and in-line hardware-based distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack protection.

HostDime says this will be the most connected facility in the Orlando Metro area. 

A three-tier electrical power design will allow the facility to sustain two consecutive system failures and still be operational, taking it beyond standard N+1 redundancy. The facility will also have over 10MW of electric power capacity from Duke Energy. Backup generators will contain enough reserve fuel to run one week at 80 percent load without any commercial power available. At full capacity, the facility is designed to support 8MW of fully redundant power. Solar panels on the roof mean that up to 25 percent of the facility will be powered by the sun. 

Patrolled by drones

The site will have facial recognition access control, over one hundred 360 degree security cameras throughout the site, man-trap doors and car-trap access to enter and leave the facility. HostDime will use camera-equipped drones to monitor the campus perimeter.

The site will provide cloud servers, colocation services, fully managed or unmanaged bare-metal dedicated servers, virtual private servers, and private and public cloud environments. 

Manny Vivar, CEO and VP of Global Operations said: “Back in 2003 when HostDime was a ‘startup’, many people would ask us, ‘Why are you building a data center in Orlando?,’ and I would reply ‘Why not?’. Fast forward to today and Central Florida is seen as a major technology epicenter in the Southeastern United States. This facility will be a major peering connection for companies to connect in a fast growing Central Florida region. We are taking a unique approach with this facility to be a marriage of client hospitality and data center infrastructure services. You will be able to step into this facility and never think about having your services elsewhere again with all the client amenities we are offering.” 

The new facility will be less than half a mile from HostDime’s current data center, and will be fully owned, operated, and occupied by HostDime.