Involta building $15 million data center in Tucson, its 7th facility

CEDAR RAPIDS -- Building on the success it has enjoyed in Iowa and several other states, Involta LLC of Cedar Rapids is planning a $15 million Tier III multiple tenant data center in Tucson, Ariz.

Bruce Lehrman, Involta chief executive officer, said final approvals from local agencies are still pending, but design of the company's seventh facility is underway. Involta is buying an existing building that previously housed a "white room" where cameras for cell phones were manufactured.

"We're going to have the data center in service by Dec. 1," Lehrman said Monday. "We have already signed our anchor tenants."

The Involta Tucson center will house mission critical computer systems and related components for healthcare organizations, businesses, government and educational institutions within the local region and from throughout the United States. Lehrman said there are other data centers in the Tucson area, but none that have the capability of the Involta operation.

"Phoenix has a lot of data center activity, but this will be the first Tier III facility in that area for commercial use," he said. "It will have 20,000 square feet of conditioned data center space that will contain approximately 600 cabinets of information technology equipment. Each of those cabinets uses about as much power as an average home."

Tier III data centers offer redundant power supply as well as high level security measures, such as biometric access controls.

Lehrman said the Tucson facility will offer significant advantages for area businesses and customers from Phoenix and southern California.

"The ability to share the substantial costs of housing and managing mission critical systems and the option of off-site data storage for disaster preparedness planning is becoming increasingly important to businesses," he said. "Building and maintaining a separate, stand-alone data center is very costly.

"By colocating, organizations can realize the advantages of an advanced data center while actually cutting costs. Use of this data

center will allow business leaders to focus on their core businesses rather than complex infrastructure and facilities issues.”

Lehrman credited Tucson Electric Power for its assistance with site selection, technical requirements and introducing

the company to Tucson area business leaders.

"Tucson Electric hosted an after-hours event for the top leaders in the community," he said. "It turned into a good opportunity for us to generate business."

Involta, a privately owned company launched in 2007, has two data centers in the Cedar Rapids area as well as four others in Minnesota, Ohio and Idaho.