TierPoint Doubles Down On Data Center Strategy, Aims To Expand Cloud Services, Partner Revenues
While many service providers are exiting the data center business, TierPoint is doubling down on its data center strategy with a new facility planned for Texas, and a newly-completed $12 million expansion of one of its data centers in Pennsylvania.
The St. Louis-based cloud provider and data center operator has been actively investing in the data center space through acquisitions, as well as organic growth. TierPoint's Tuesday announcement of its expanded Breinigsville, Pa.-based TekPark data center has solution providers excited about the provider's focus on its data center business as it becomes a more formidable data center operator.
"TierPoint is really becoming a national player," said Darryl Senese, vice president of carrier services for Atrion, a Warwick, R.I.-based IT solution provider and TierPoint partner. "Now, more customers who wouldn't have been able to consider [TierPoint] before due to location will be able to consider their great cloud and data center services and flexible pricing."
[Related: TierPoint Makes DRaaS Magic Quadrant Debut As Provider Evolves Cloud, Data Center Strategy]
The newly-expanded TekPark site, located just outside Allentown, Pa., now includes an additional 14,000 square feet of high-density data center space, bringing the data center's size to nearly 43,000 square feet. The facility is SSAE 16 SOC1/SOC2 Type II, and PCI-DSS compliant, TierPoint said.
The completed expansion will not only allow TierPoint to provide more cloud and data center services -- such as IT security services -- within the Pennsylvania market, but the recent addition has also established the baseline infrastructure that will support the next phase of expansion within the facility, the provider said.
"This expansion provides an excellent opportunity for our partners to grow with us by providing their customers additional access to our colocation, disaster recovery and IT security services," TierPoint's vice president of channel sales Bob Buchanan told CRN.
The expansion says that unlike some service providers that have sold off physical assets, TierPoint is serious about its data center business, Atrion's Senese said.
"They are capitalizing on other providers getting out, and as a result, becoming one of the major players domestically for data center [services]. That strengthens our position with our customers, too," he said.
Exeter, R.I.-based solution provider Carousel Industries announced in June that it would acquire Atrion. The soon-to-be-closed acquisition is expanding Atrion's coverage area, and having a cloud and data center partner that's building out its facility footprint will help the solution provider add more recurring revenue, Senese said.
"For us, TierPoint has become a really strategic partner, and with this expansion, we'll be able to do more with TierPoint. [Carousel and Atrion's combined customers] will benefit from us bringing them more solutions," he said.
TierPoint's recent moves in the data center arena include scooping up telecom provider Windstream's data center assets in October 2015 for $575 million, and acquiring regional cloud and data center provider Cosentry in March 2016.
Tierpoint, which currently operates six data centers in Pennsylvania with an overall footprint of 39 data centers across 20 markets, also announced last week that it would build a new data center in Allen, Texas, a Dallas suburb.
According to TierPoint, the new 90,000-square-foot facility will include 16,000 square feet of raised floor space for disaster recovery use cases. The carrier-neutral data center is expected to be up and running by spring.
The new facility will be TierPoint's second data center in the Dallas area. The provider established its first data center in the Lone Star State when it acquired colocation provider Colo4Dallas in 2010, which included a 68,000-square-foot facility.
’Our decision to invest in this second facility in the area is based on strong, regional demand for hybrid IT services and is a testament to the unique blend of world-class products, top-rate professionals, and superior customer service," Jerry Kent, TierPoint’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement.