RagingWire Data Centers, a premier U.S. data center provider, and its parent company NTT Communications (NTT Com), the ICT solutions and international communications business within the pubicly traded NTT Group, announced that the companies investing $160 million to build the new Ashburn VA3 Data Center in the heart of the famed ‘Data Center Alley’ in Ashburn, Virginia, widely cited as the top data center market in the world.
The Ashburn VA3 Data Center represents phase one of RagingWire’s massive Ashburn Data Center Campus development, which can accommodate six buildings on the 76.5 acre site. The VA3 Data Center with 245,000 square feet of space and 16 megawatts of power is scheduled to be available by the end of 2017. RagingWire and NTT Communications made the announcement of the new facility at the 2016 Gartner Data Center, Infrastructure, and Operations Management Conference, held in Las Vegas last December 5-8. Last year was RagingWire’s fifth as a sponsor of the Gartner conference.
According to a press release, "the VA3 Data Center will realize new levels of availability, flexibility and global reach. The facility features a new flexible electrical design that builds on RagingWire’s patented and award-winning 2N+2TM power delivery architecture to offer wholesale customers that purchase an entire vault the option of dedicated electrical solutions including N+1 and 2N. Vaults will be available in increments of two to four megawatts, and there will be space and power available for multi-rack cages that can grow over time. The campus will have three diverse fiber entrances, reliable and cost effective utility power from Dominion Virginia Power, a high-security gated entrance and anti-climb perimeter fence, and world-class customer amenities including lounges, breakrooms, a game room, a gym, locker rooms and showers, conference rooms, and office space. VA3 will also offer extensive, carrier-neutral network connectivity services to other data centers and cloud providers."
“The Ashburn VA3 Data Center raises the bar for data center colocation in the largest data center market in the world,” said George Macricostas, chairman, CEO and founder of RagingWire Data Centers. “VA3 offers mission-critical performance, flexible configurations for hyperscale cloud and enterprise deployments, exceptional customer amenities, and global integration with NTT Com’s growing portfolio of over 140 data centers around the world.”
The VA3 Data Center joins RagingWire’s VA1 and VA2 data centers, which also are in Ashburn. The company notes that the combination of VA1, VA2 and VA3 creates a data center footprint of over a half million square feet of space and 44.4 megawatts of power, and includes on-site security officers and multi-layered security systems, highly efficient cooling and carrier-neutral telecommunications, and direct connectivity to top cloud providers and other data centers in Data Center Alley. On a wider scale, VA3 will grow RagingWire’s existing 1.2-million-square-foot U.S data center platform, which includes CA1, CA2, and CA3 in Northern California and TX1 in Dallas, Texas, as well as NTT Com’s global data center services platform operated under the company's Nexcenter brand.
“NTT Communications is proud to be investing in RagingWire’s VA3 Data Center and Ashburn Data Center Campus,” said Tetsuya Shoji, president and CEO of NTT Communications. “Virginia is the top data center market in the world and a strategic location for NTT Com, as we expand our data center capacity. RagingWire’s VA3 Data Center will be a key platform for the NTT family of companies to deliver global information and communications (ICT) solutions that enable our customers to digitalize their businesses.”
The companies note that the investment in the VA3 Data Center by RagingWire and NTT Communications is significant for the Virginia economy, not only for the jobs it creates, but also because it supports the exemption from the Virginia Sales and Use Tax on qualified equipment purchases by RagingWire and its customers. This exemption has resulted in millions of dollars of savings for RagingWire customers and encouraged companies to establish or expand their IT and business operations in Virginia.
“Thank you to NTT Communications and RagingWire for this major investment in the Ashburn VA3 Data Center, and their commendable economic growth in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” commented Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “Virginia is the top data center market in the world. Together, NTT and RagingWire are bolstering Virginia’s leadership in the data center and high technology sectors, supporting a diverse economy in the Commonwealth, generating tax revenues, and creating valuable job opportunities. I recently met with company executives in Tokyo on my Pacific Rim Marketing Mission, and look forward to strengthening this important relationship as we build the new Virginia economy."
For more information visit www.ragingwire.com.
