SunGard Builds Out Data Centers

In a case of demand for managed IT services and colocation outstripping supply, SunGard Availability Services has announced a major expansion of their three data centers in the greater Atlanta area. Here’s the scoop.

The Pennsylvania-based SunGard Availability Services is the disaster recovery and managed services arm of the $5 billion dollar software and service company SunGard. Their three Georgia-based data centers are about 15 miles apart, which SunGard says makes them ideal for local companies that need to operate out of multiple locations.

They claim that while their data centers and operations space already have five million square feet to utilize, the power density requirements of the technology companies in the Atlanta area mean they have to overhaul their setup to support more and more servers. Some nitty-gritty directly from SunGard’s press release:

The SunGard Midtown Atlanta facility is undergoing a large-scale power upgrade designed to support an additional 350 cabinets of IT space for customers. The upgrade includes adding 2.5 megawatts in utility power, doubling facility capacity. The infrastructure will also gain an additional two megawatt generator, one megawatt in UPS power and 300 tons of cooling capacity.

The plan for the Smyrna facility is to add 25,000 square feet of raised floor for colocation and managed services with 16,000 square feet delivered in phase one. The upgrade also includes adding six megawatts of utility power, 2 N utility power redundancy (accessing power from separate utility substations), UPS power with N+1 redundancy and 700 tons of cooling capacity.

There are two major things to learn from this announcement: One, never underestimate the demand for managed services or colocation. Two, Atlanta is where things are happening in the technology world. If the enterprises there need so many data centers, the opportunities for the savvy MSP are potentially limitless.