Skybox Datacenters announced in July that they have begun construction on a new Houston data center in the city’s Energy Corridor.
The company sees potential for the growth in big data use by energy companies that utilize the technology to identify potential locations of oil and gas deposits. The 3-D seismic imaging used, as well as other applications, require high-performance data processing in high-power-density environments. Skybox believes it is able to offer some of the lowest-latency data transfer in the Energy Corridor, allowing information to be easily moved between their customer’s corporate offices and the Houston data center.
“This is the energy capital of the world,” managing partner of Skybox Datacenters Rob Morris said in a statement. “Companies in Houston are changing the way they look at their data center portfolio. The strong preference for these energy companies is to have their (data analysis) teams within their offices rather than at the data center. That’s why they really want a data center that’s close.”
Creating A High-Performance Data Center
The new facility, known as Skybox Houston One, will be situated on a 20-acre site and will have available space of nearly 87,000 square feet. Skybox will be offering its customers wholesale data center space, as well as the ability to lease turnkey data halls to house their IT equipment. The Texas data center will provide four to six private data halls, each providing 10,000 square feet, as well as the option to expand to 12 halls, depending on customer need. The data halls will be column-free and will have direct access to adjacent dedicated power. Cooling distribution galleries will be located close to the server load to maintain an ideal temperature in Texas’ warm climate.
The Houston data center is designed to support high-performance computing workloads and will include 12.5 megawatts of critical load. The facility will be powered by a 300 megawatt, loop-fed electric utility substation that is immediately adjacent to the site.
“Data center users in the Houston market are very sophisticated and require robust infrastructure to withstand the elements,” Morris said. “Skybox Houston One brings this kind of security and reliability right to their own backyard.”
Underground, concrete encased duct banks will provide the Houston data center with A/B utility power feeds, and the buildings infrastructure is protected by a concrete roof deck designed to resist hurricane grade winds of almost 200 miles per hour. Skybox’s newest facility is slated to be completed in November 2014.
