Vantage, the data center wholesaler that had a splashing start over the past year in Santa Clara, California, is expanding beyond the Silicon Valley. The company is building its next data center in Quincy, Washington, another high-profile US market.

Greg Ness, Vantage VP of marketing, said entering already mature markets has been a strategic consideration for the young company. "It's one of the world's most competitive data center markets," he said about Silicon Valley.

"If you're going to ... prove yourself, it's one of the great places to do that. You're immediately against a lot of players."

While Quincy is not as big a market for colocation providers as Silicon Valley is, Silver Lake-backed Vantage does have some heavyweight competition to consider there. Perhaps the biggest competitor in Quincy will be Sabey, a long-time player in the state who is building a three-data-center campus in Quincy.

Another Quincy-area competitor, albeit a smaller one, is Server Farm Realty, with whom Vantage is also competing in Santa Clara. SFR is building what at full build-out will become a 136,000 sq ft facility in Moses Lake, Washington.

Vantage says it has bought a 63-acre property in Quincy, where it plans to build a data center campus, starting with a 6MW facility scalable to 9MW.

Phase I of the future facility has been 100% pre-leased. The phase includes a one-story 133,000 sq ft data center. Vantage plans to break ground on Phase I in October and finish it in August 2012.

Phases to follow will include a 105,000 sq ft technology center and 235,000 sq ft more of data center space.