Image Gallery: Cyxtera Launches Second Arizona Data Center
Cyxtera just opened its second data center location in the Phoenix area.
The data center and colocation provider welcomed employees and partners to the grand opening of its office in Tempe, Arizona. The “PHX2” location joins Cyxtera’s other data center in Arizona, which is located within the Iron Mountain facility.
Chief marketing officer Simon West said partners will enjoy on-demand plug-and-play and colocation capacity. Around 20 carriers and network providers are working with Cyxtera in the region. West called Cyxtera a carrier-neutral provider.
“We believe in network density,” West said at the welcoming ceremony last week. “We believe in bringing tier 1 carriers to the facility as well as attracting cloud on-ramps and cloud direct connects and the latest generation of software-defined WAN providers, to make sure that customers within our facilities who need to get to public cloud are just a few hops away.”
Cyxtera emerged following the sale of CenturyLink’s data centers to a consortium of investors in 2017. The company announced in March that it was expanding data center operations in Phoenix, Silicon Valley, New York Metro and Toronto.
Cyxtera launched its Extensible Data Center (CXD) platform last year and said it would expand the platform into new markets. The CXD computer nodes let users “dynamically configure connectivity and dedicated hyperconverged infrastructure on demand” via a web portal, according to Weiss.
Randy Rowland, Cyxtera’s president of data center services, said colocation is enjoying increased popularity for its ability to reduce cost and use modern infrastructure “without sacrificing control or security.”
“In addition, increased demand for cloud and hybrid services is driving service providers to consume our data center capacity. Our expansions enable us to meet growing customer demand in these key markets,” Rowland said. “We’re also pleased to continue to expand our CXD platform to more markets to meet demand for this innovative on-demand offering.”
Cyxtera owns more than 50 data centers and is a member of our 20 Top Colocation Providers list.
Phoenix is a hot spot for data centers, owing to the growing economy and stable (although hot) weather conditions. SAP built an office in Tempe in 2016 to host more than 300 employees and PlanetOne this March launched a bigger-and-better office in Scottsdale.
We visited Cyxtera’s ribbon-cutting ceremony last week. Scroll through the pictures below to see what you missed.
The new location is nestled into the Arizona State University Research Park, where GoDaddy and Avnet also reside. Both Cyxtera facilities in Arizona qualify for tax relief from the state, thanks to a law enacted six years ago.
Photo courtesy of Cyxtera
Attendees took turns touring the facility. PHX2 offers 145,000 square feet of raised floor space and 30 megawatts of utility power. It also boasts a growing list of 23 unique service providers.
Photo courtesy of Cyxtera
Cyxtera employees and partners gathered upstairs for hors d'oeuvres and drinks.
Attendees paused for two brief speeches from Cyxtera and the Arizona Technology Council before embarking on several rounds of tours.
Cyxtera's chief marketing officer greeted the crowd with a brief speech.
West, who joined Cyxtera after a stint at Virtustream, explained his company's rational behind its Phoenix expansion.
The company has a global data center footprint but aims to invest more in tier 1 markets like that of Phoenix. He cited availability of fiber networks in the region as well as the "great local business climate." The new location's presence will give Cyxtera a total data center area of 140,000 square feet in Phoenix
"It's a very important market for the data center industry in general and a very strategic market for Cyxtera," West said.
Steve Zylstra, president and CEO of the Arizona Tech Council, welcomed Cyxtera employees and partners to the new location.
Zylstra described the Phoenix region a key hub for three important technologies: internet of things, autonomous vehicles and financial technology. It also contains more than 80 incubators, accelerators and co-working spaces.
"Economic prosperity is dependent on our ability as a culture to continuously innovate," he said.
Zylstra and West posed for the camera as they formally launched the PHX2 location with a ribbon cutting.
