Mississippi Data Center Market Receives $20 Million Investment from C Spire

C Spire recently announced plans to build a new state-of-the-art $20 million data center in Starkville, Miss.

The new facility will provide customers access to a full suite of cloud solutions as well as support for mission-critical data, infrastructure and enterprise application management.

“Now, more than ever before, businesses need to intelligently manage their data and critical operational processes to handle the explosive growth of mobile, Internet and corporate-based data demands through cloud-based solutions,” Hankins said. “Business is not going to the cloud. Business has gone to the cloud.”

The data center will be housed in a 22,400 square foot facility on 6.5 acres of the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. The center will be located in a low-risk geographic zone, ideal for disaster recovery solutions. Additionally, the facility will be directly connected to the company’s ring-protected fiber network and will be constantly managed by C Spire’s IT staff.

The location also includes local data center tax incentives for C Spire, stated the Clarion Ledger. While these have not been specified, Joey Deason, chief operating officer for a local economic development agency, told the news outlet that the location is in “an outstanding business environment” and that the project is “a great first step for Starkville in building a strong economic future.”

Tier Certification
C Spire plans to begin construction in November 2013 and complete it by November 2014. Once opened, it will be one of 52 data centers in the U.S. with Tier 3 or 4 certification from the Uptime Institute.

The Tier 3 facility will be unique to its region – it will be one of the only centers in a 250 mile radius with available commercial space of this performance capacity. According to the Clarion Ledger, 80 percent of the facility will be open for use by commercial organizations.

Currently, C Spire is following certain standards and requirements during the data center design and construction process to ensure Tier 3 certification. However, Hankins said the company will have the facility officially certified once it is complete.

Mississippi Development Authority executive director Brent Christensen said the company’s $20 million investment in a certified facility will provide local establishments with best-in-class colocation, cloud and managed-hosting services.

“We’re excited about adding a world-class data center to the arsenal of tools that we use to recruit new business and encourage existing companies to expand in Mississippi,” Christensen said.

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