ISWest is to build an additional 16,500ft┬▓ facility to house staff, server collocation, managed server hosting and data center products and services in anticipation of reaching full data center capacity by the end of 2006.
"With so many great companies taking up residency along the 101 Corridor, it makes dollars and cents for ISWest to create a world class data center that companies can come to for their Internet and offsite data needs, said Drew Kaplan, ISWest CEO/CFO.
In partnership with Tony Principe, a local developer, ISWest broke ground in June on a new building in Agoura Hills. The build-out of the data center and corporate offices will cost ISWest between US$2.5 and $3 million. The facility will have enough power to run a small city when it opens in May/June 2007.
"If for some reason the power goes out, our customers will not be affected as massive generators will be installed to ensure maximum uptime. Why have one generator, when you can have two: one for each power supply to our customers' equipment. We will also have double UPS systems, double power distribution and double network drops to each customer cabinet or cage," said Kaplan, adding that ISWest also contracts with the top eight backbone providers, giving customers unmatched connectivity to the Internet for applications or business solutions. The new ISWest facility sits on an AT&T; dual SONET fiber ring - like the big carriers in downtown Los Angeles - giving customers multiple fiber paths to the Internet. The site is also connected via gigabit fiber to ISWest's current data center, giving even more redundancy and flexibility between the two facilities in the same city. "This will allow our customers to place equipment at both locations and load balance traffic between them, giving them total piece of mind."