In perhaps what is technically the biggest product launch yet at CES, data center operator Dataplanet has announced the opening of Blue NAP Americas, a 55,000 sq ft (5,100 sq m) facility in Curaçao.

The Tier IV facility targets customers in Latin, Central, and North America, but with Curaçao being a constituent country of the Netherlands, it will adhere to European data protection laws. It was launched at CES, the Las Vegas gadget show normally focusing on pocket-sized kit or gear for the living room. 

Built to last

Curaçao, just north of Venuzuela, also comes with certain tax benefits. The data center is located in an e-commerce free fiscal zone with a 2 percent profit tax, and there will be no customs tax on customers’ imported IT equipment.

“At Blue NAP Americas, not only do we provide you with a secure, reliable, carrier-neutral facility with state of the art technology, we also cultivate an ecosystem of collaboration with our clients,” Paul De Geus, Dataplanet’s CEO, said.

The data center features 10,000 sq ft (929 sq m) of white space, has a roof slope design built to handle rainwater in excess of 100-year storm intensity, and is designed to withstand a Category 5 hurricane. The structure has approximately 12 million pounds of concrete roof ballast. 

The facility uses VCE’s Vblock converged-infrastructure hardware. VCE was originally formed by EMC, Cisco and VMware in 2009, before being fully taken over by EMC in 2014.

EMC itself was acquired by Dell last September, with The Converged Platform Division of EMC now known as the Converged Platform and Solutions Division of Dell EMC.