As it commissions the company's new modular data center near Phoenix, Arizona, eBay's data center team has started a search for a contractor to design the second phase of its data center near Salt Lake City, Utah, called Topaz.

Dean Nelson, eBay's senior director of global data center strategy, wrote in a blog post that the company will follow the same process with Phase II of Topaz it used in the Phoenix area: issue a request for proposals (RFP) and have contractors place competing bids for the contract.

The RFP process yielded one of eBay's most innovative data center designs to date, Nelson wrote about the modular data center in Phoenix. That was the first project the company had tried the approach with.

"The goal was to unleash the creative minds in the design and consulting arena by outlining the business and technical challenges then letting them tackle the 'how'. I am proud to announce that the process works."

Nelson expects to release the RFP on 19 August through his blog Data Center Pulse. The second phase of Topaz will also be modular.

A consulting and design company called EDI and its partners AHA Consulting Engineers and Windstreet Architects won the first Phoenix contract in December 2010. Named Mercury, the facility was built to support 12 40 ft containers and provide a total of 4MW of power.

Phase I of Mercury is bringing online an initial 2MW.

eBay announced the launch of Topaz, Phase I, in May 2010. Nelson said at the time that the US$287m data center was the largest infrastructure project the company had undertaken to date.

The first phase of Topaz – designed by RTKL and built by Skansa – consists of three 20,000 sq ft data halls. The 240,000 sq ft two-story building can accommodate four phases.

The data center supports the company's core online property eBay.com online auctioning site and the online payment processing service PayPal.com.