IBM reveals massive new data centre dedicated to Business Continuity
Mon 22 Sep 2014
IBM has unveiled a formidable new data centre at Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The new facility has been operational since July, and already has its initial client, the mobile banking and transactions company Monitise.
The edifice measures out at 4mn square feet, making it among the largest industrial spaces in the world, and is dedicated to business continuity, data recovery and more generalised data centre capacity. IBM has approximately 150 other ‘resiliency centres’ worldwide, but the new facility will constitute Big Blue’s flagship offering in the field of business continuity.
The new site, which will be followed by further BCRS centres in Mumbai (India), and Izmir (Turkey), utilises IBM’s Business continuity and resiliency services infrastructure, with connectivity and throughput from Time Warner, AT&T and Level 3, among others. It features an 8,000 square foot tape pool, 72,000 square feet of raised-floor data centre capacity and ten suites to accommodate DR personnel.
“It’s all customized, built from within our campus from the ground floor up to the ceiling, all for this particular purpose,” president of business continuity Mike Errity told the Triangle Business Journal. Errity defines the site’s core mission as the protection and accessibility of critical business data.
“The center provides our clients with an alternate location for them to conduct their business in…As we all know, we operate in an ‘always on’ world. Our clients require their systems and data and information and networks to always be available, and, in the event something occurs that disrupts their mission critical business processes, we help them move from one location to our location.”
The site will be operated by three shifts of staff 24 hours, 365 days a year, Errity explained.
Though the unveiled facility is a major new component at Research Triangle Park, IBM is only one of nearly 200 companies at the campus, which covers 7000 acres and has been in operation since the late 1950s.
