Involta planning Minnesota data storage center

MARION -- Involta LLC, a Marion-based developer and operator of data storage facilities, is planning a hardened enterprise data center in Duluth, Minn.

The $10.5 million facility will be a stable, predictable, high-performance data center complete with environmental systems and controls, redundant back-up power, specialized fire suppression, and reinforced concrete building construction. While final approvals from local agencies are still pending, design of the facility has begun. 

The 24,000-square-foot facility will feature 10,000 square feet of data center space that will use the naturally cooler climate of Duluth to increase efficiency.

Bruce Lehrman, chief executive officer of Involta, said demand for the company's services has prompted expansion in the Midwest. The Duluth area offers opportunities in terms of the number of headquarters in the community as well as its proximity to larger markets in southern Minnesota.

Lehrman recognized Duluth area governmental and business development organizations for their assistance in making the project a reality.

"Without the assistance of St. Louis County (Minn.), the City of Duluth and APEX it is unlikely this project would have made it out of the planning stage," Lehrman said. Multiple anchor tenants have leased space in the facility including Essentia Health and SISU. 

Lehrman said the Duluth data storage center should be fully operational by the third quarter of 2012.

The Duluth facility will be the third hardened data storage center for Involta. The company has a $6.8 million, 20,000-square-foot hardened data center at 5055 REC Dr. in Marion that opened in September 2008.

Construction has begun on a $20 million, 46,000-square-foot hardened data center in Akron, Ohio, that Involta expects to have operating in the first quarter of 2012.

“About 50 percent of our customers use Involta as their primary production facility and the other 50 percent use it for disaster recovery,” Lehrman said. “Most of the more local customer use this facility as their primary production site. Some of the companies that we've been able to attract from the outside use this facility for backup.

“If their primary production site goes down, this site becomes their primary production computer.”