Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, and Carpathia Hosting, a provider of complex, compliant managed hosting services for government agencies and enterprises, today announced plans to build a 64,000 square foot data center in Dulles, Va. aimed at supporting industry-specific compliant solutions for healthcare companies, federal agencies, and commercial industries. The project is already reflected in Equinix's guidance.
Under the terms of the agreement, Carpathia has signed a build-to-suit agreement with a joint venture comprised of Equinix and Digital Realty Trust to build the IBX® Vault, a Platform Equinix™ facility. The new data center will be built adjacent to the existing Carpathia Vault in Dulles, Va. and built to the current standards as other newly constructed Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX) data centers. The IBX Vault will have multiple tier 1 telecommunications carriers and will be connected to other DC-metro area IBX data centers via a secure, private fiber connection enabling customers to easily cross-connect between the IBX Vault and Equinix D.C.-metro area IBXs, providing access to more than 690 providers for internet, peering, Ethernet and wide area network (WAN) services across Platform Equinix. Equinix intends to manage the facility, while Carpathia will provide armed, physical security at the new IBX Vault site. Carpathia will be the exclusive provider of complex and compliant managed hosting and cloud services in the IBX Vault.
"We are very pleased to be working with Equinix and Digital Realty to build such an impressive facility for our enterprise and federal agency customers," said Peter Weber, CEO of Carpathia Hosting. "With the new IBX Vault, our customers get access to an unparalleled combination in the industry; a data center built to Equinix's rigorous standards as well as our industry-leading complex, compliant managed hosting and cloud services."
The IBX Vault will be a highly secure, Tier III data center with a full range of managed, cloud and compliant services to support healthcare, commercial and government compliance standards including HIPAA and HITECH for healthcare, FISMA and DIACAP for federal agencies, PCI for the credit and payment card industry, and SOX for enterprises. The new facility will support 7.3 megawatts of N+1 block redundant power.
"We continue to see strong demand for Platform Equinix in the Washington, D.C. market, and we are investing in the new IBX Vault facility to support the secure, compliant hosting requirements of our federal and commercial customers in that metro," said Charles Meyers, president of the Americas for Equinix. "By expanding our partnership with Carpathia, we will be able to provide even more extensive solutions for federal agencies, healthcare companies and enterprises that require higher levels of security and compliance."
The IBX Vault offers 'defense-in-depth' that includes perimeter fencing, armed guards, IT and network security, as well as multi-level biometric scanners. This comprehensive security strategy, combined with multiple levels of facility and network redundancy, ensures that customer data is secure and highly available.
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"Combining the expertise of three separate companies, underscores the true complexities of delivering high-compliance hosting, cloud, and data center services to the market," said Doug Toombs, research manager at 451 Research. "We expect that more workloads will come under compliance requirements as the market for cloud computing continues to grow, and that service providers will need to continue to innovate to deliver comprehensive end-to-end solutions for their clients."
"We believe that providing a variety of data center solutions, such as this important build to suit project in partnership with Equinix for Carpathia, is key to meeting our customers' long term data center needs, which in turn supports the growth of their business," said Michael F. Foust, CEO of Digital Realty.
"This joint project by Equinix, Digital Realty Trust and Carpathia is great news for Loudoun County and the regional economy. Along with a significant financial investment, this project will create many good jobs in both the construction and operational phases, including many positions with highly sought after IT skills and security clearances," said Tony Howard, president and CEO, Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce. "The partnership's decision to create this project here is a testament to their confidence in Loudoun County as a great place to invest, create jobs and to build a successful business."
"It's a great story to see three of Loudoun's biggest data center operators partnering on this incredibly unique project," said Buddy Rizer, business development officer, Loudoun County Department of Economic Development. "Equinix, Digital Realty Trust and Carpathia all are significant players in the industry, and their further investment in the Dulles Corridor highlights the continued success that technology companies have had in Loudoun."
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