zColo Establishes Chicago Presence

zColo, a Zayo Group Company, announced the opening of its first data center in Chicago, located at 600 S. Federal St., in the city’s downtown financial district. The newest zColo facility will provide carrier-neutral colocation and interconnection services to cloud, enterprise, financial, carrier, media and other connectivity-focused customers.

The data center is zColo’s 20th site and its first location in Chicago, the third largest market in the U.S. and home to leading global financial institutions including the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The Chicago data center will provide access to Zayo’s new ultra-low latency northern route between Chicago and Seattle.

The new interconnection-focused data center features 12,200 square feet of carrier neutral colocation space and supports up to 200 watts per square foot for high-power density applications. Twenty percent of Phase 1, or 5,300 square feet of raised floor space, is currently pre-leased. The raised floor space features redundant power and cold aisle containment. The data center will house zColo’s complete set of connectivity options, providing in-suite cross connects, connection to 32 carrier networks in the building and expanded metro presence through ZColo’s Metro Interconnect product that provides access to Zayo’s 68,500-mile international network.

According to zColo, Metro Interconnect will offer connectivity to 18 key buildings in the Chicago metro market, allowing customers to maintain a virtual presence across key carrier hotels and data centers including 350 East Cermak, the premier mission critical data center and telecommunications facility in the Midwest. Customers can establish a physical presence at 600 South Federal to support larger applications and increased power densities, while maintaining a virtual presence at 350 East Cermak through dark fiber cross-connects.