Iron Mountain Enters Multi-Tenant Data Center Market

Iron
Mountain Incorporated, unveiled Iron
Mountain Data Centers‚ a portfolio of services for
organizations seeking a compliant data center environment.

The company will lease out space in its
underground storage facility for wholesale and retail co-location data
centers, something it’s done selectively over the last decade for
enterprise and government clients.

The company formalized the offering and
introduced services for data migration, networking, tape handling,
asset disposition and more so enterprises can outsource the
management of their data center. Iron Mountain is exploring offering
additional data center locations in markets on existing company-owned
land.

"Most of today’s data center
providers sell space. Iron Mountain Data Centers offers more than
just space. We’re packaging together services that will enable
enterprises to outsource the ongoing management of their data
center," said Iron Mountain’s Mark Kidd, SVP and GM, data
centers. "We want to make it easier for enterprises to
outsource. And our DNA in tracking information assets from creation
to disposition is particularly differentiating for organizations that
must comply with industry regulations. No one in today’s data center
market has our track record in security and facilitating compliance."

Iron Mountain’s solution gives
customers two options for data center space. Wholesale data centers
provides dedicated space for all or part of an organization’s data
center operations and offers services including, engineering and
design; development and construction; and ongoing facility operations
and management. For organizations needing a smaller footprint, the
retail co-location solution provides a shared environment with
scalable power space, power and cooling.

The underground data center in Boyers,
PA is for enterprises and government clients seeking a secure
environment. The former limestone mine is 220 feet below ground, with
ambient temperatures in the mid-50s, geothermal cooling and
protection from extreme weather events.

Several government and enterprise
clients like lodging company Marriott
International Inc. have long leased space in the company
underground. In 2008, Marriott leased 12,500 square feet of space to
establish a data center there for DR purposes. The company sought to
reduce its recovery time for critical systems and determined the
unique setting of Iron Mountain’s underground was part of the
solution.

"We have always had a rigorous
and constant focus on having disaster preparedness in place,"
declared Dan Blanchard, VP of enterprise operations at Marriott.
"More than five years ago, we determined that we needed more
flexibility and we got it. Today we have a data center that provides
Marriott with a tremendous capability for DR, and we have a great
partner in Iron Mountain."

More than offering secure space, the
offer seeks to win over enterprises still weighing outsourcing by
offering a flat rate for bundled services normally done by multiple
vendors.

The suite of data center services
includes:

• Migration Services: Helping
  customers move servers and racking from one data center to another,
  providing site surveys, business impact reports, migration plan
  documentation, risk assessment and migration.

• Installation and ‘Smart‘
  Remote Hands: The team of infrastructure professionals provide
  installation and on-going technical support services – from cable
  management and server/storage deployments to reboots and HDD
  replacements.

• Secure Network Services:
  Customers have numerous options for transmitting data between the
  company data centers and assistance ordering carrier services via
  on-demand network services like Internet bandwidth and secure IP
  transport.

• Offsite Tape Vaulting: The
  company provides tape storage services both at the hosted data center
  and at Iron Mountain’s more than 60 tape vaulting locations
  throughout the U.S. This allows customers to preserve media for DR or
  long-term retention using a chain-of-custody and audit trail during
  transport and storage.

• Secure IT Asset Disposition:
  This offering helps organizations recycle or repurpose decommissioned
  data center assets like servers, racks, storage systems and
  networking components.

"The days of evaluating data
center providers based primarily on space are long behind us,"
said Michelle Bailey, VP of data center initiatives and digital
infrastructure, 451 Research. "As organizations increasingly
incorporate leased capacity as part of their data center portfolio,
services for DR, security and compliance are essential to satisfy
business requirements. This is particularly true for highly regulated
vertical markets such as financial services, government and
healthcare."