Expedient Data Centers is now pushing southward into the US market, with the recent purchase of an existing site in Memphis, Tennessee. Built in 1991 and expanded in 1994, the approximately 35,000-sq ft facility is located at 3180 Players Lane in Memphis, and was formerly the global data center for Hilton Hotels.

The firm plans on investing US$6 million in startup funds at the site – including improvements – resulting in 7,500 sq ft of raised floor computing space to start, with room for future expansions. Expedient said it expects to have the refurbished data center ready for customers by July 1, 2015, with plans to hire some immediate support staff and up to 20 IT professionals over the first two years.

Other notable facilities near the new Expedient data center site include FedEx’s world headquarters, corporate headquarters for power solutions provider Thomas & Betts, and the TPC Southwind Golf Course.

“We believe the Memphis market will be a great complement to our existing network of interconnected data centers; it will bring an additional geographically diverse option for our current client base, as well as a local market solution for the attractive and growing Memphis commercial sector,” said Shawn McGorry, Expedient president and COO, in a statement.

McGorry added that his company, when contemplating market expansion possibilities, seeks locations where Expedient can become a “trusted advisor” for cloud computing and IT infrastructure solutions. “After considerable due diligence, we are convinced that by providing Memphis customers with an excellent experience, we can establish Expedient as the leading colocation and cloud computing provider in the market”, he noted. “We look forward to adding Memphis to our network of regionally diverse data centers, all offering a full host of managed services and connectivity as part of our growing product suite.”

Expedient is a provider of data center (colocation) and managed data network services. The company currently operates 10 data centers in six US metropolitan markets, including Boston, Baltimore, Cleveland, Columbus (Ohio), Indianapolis, and Pittsburgh.

This is the second data center addition for the Pittsburgh-based company this year. Back in September, Expedient announced that it would build a second data center facility in the Columbus region; the firm broke ground on the Dublin, Ohio, site on 7 October.

This new facility is the latest in a series of expansions and upgrades by Expedient over the past few years, including locations in the Baltimore metro area and at its home base in Pittsburgh.

The new data center in Memphis, upon completion of upgrades, will contain “top tier features” according to a company statement. These anticipated features will include: dual commercial power feeds; two, 1,250-kVA generators; 450 tons of cooling; four, 338-kVA Liebert UPS; multi-carrier telecommunications infrastructure; multiple levels of security; and a 24/7/365 staffed operations support center.

Expedient said the refurbished data center will meet several industry standards and certifications, including SSAE16 SOC I, II and III reports on compliance; PCI-DSS; and HIPAA.