When big-name companies, such as Adobe or Microsoft, open branches in the Boston-area, people take notice. Startups opening their doors for the first time often garner attention as well. But when a Fortune 1000, business-to-business company moves into the area, it can be easier to miss the news. Today, PAETEC Holding Corp. announced that it will be opening its two-story, 92,7000 square foot data center in Andover, Massachusetts. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/aczWYo)The center will serve as a secure storage facility for data from companies in the New England region and across the world. The center’s primary goals include ensuring “regulatory compliance, disaster preparedness, and business continuity.” PAETEC will use the center to further its efforts towards supporting cloud computing, or computing in which services and storage are provided over the internet, rather than locally.
“Moving business applications from the desktop to the cloud will bring efficiency not possible before,” said Arunas Chesonis, chairman and CEO of PAETEC. “With our expertise in telecommunications and data convergence, we’re in a leading position to support the shift towards cloud computing and can provide our customers with a comprehensive set of managed service solutions to meet their business goals.”
The Andover center opened today after an 8-month renovation, costing nearly $6 million, during which PAETEC “replaced every electrical component in the building.” Now, redundant grid power, and massive generators capable of running the facility for over a week, ensure that the center will always remain operational. Presently, a staff of eleven manage the day-to-day workload of the center, which includes running a 24-hour Technical Assistance Center, or TAC.
“We’re utilizing our more than ten years of data
center experience along with our advanced portfolio of communication solutions,” explained CEO Chesonis. “As a result, we’ve built an infrastructure that will responsibly serve our customers’ needs now and in the future as we continue our data center expansion efforts, implement virtualization, and provide server consolidation, content acceleration, and software as a service offerings.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/cgWS5o)Andover is only one of a handful of locations in which PAETEC plans to open data centers over the next 18 months. PAETEC will open new centers in Houston, Milwaukee, and Phoenix before the end of the year.
It is admittedly slightly disappointing that such a large center provides so few new, full-time positions, but any company that brings new, quality jobs into the area is of course welcome. Perhaps the center will require more workers as additional clients move their data to the location. It is also nice to hear that the company has found a new use for what was previously a massive, outdated facility in Andover.
[Sources: http://bit.ly/dsjrfC, http://bit.ly/bXvt95, http://bit.ly/aczWYo]
