Iron Mountain Enters Largest, Fastest Growing Data Center Market in USA

Iron Mountain Incorporated announced the opening of the first of four planned data centers in Northern Virginia, the nation’s largest and fastest growing data center market.

Built to serve the security and compliance requirements of enterprises, cloud service providers and government agencies, Iron Mountain’s data center is a 165,000 square-foot, 10.5-megawatt multi-tenant and cloud facility located in Prince William County. Northern Virginia marks Iron Mountain’s fifth US data center market, joining Boston, Denver, Kansas City and Western Pennsylvania.

Iron Mountain commemorated the opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony including governor Terry McAuliffe, US representatives Robert Wittman, Gerry Connolly, and Kevin Yoder, Virginia senator Jeremy McPike, and Prince William county supervisor Jeanine Lawson.

“This data center, like our others, is especially suited for heavily regulated enterprises, cloud providers and government agencies who seek a highly secure, highly compliant environment for hosting their data center operations,” said William L. Meaney, president and CEO, Iron Mountain. “With this new facility, we enter the hottest data center market in the US and add further capacity for serving existing and new governmental customers, a group where our brand for security, service and compliance resonates particularly well. Together with our existing data centers and recent acquisitions, this data center helps to further accelerate our fastest growing business segment.“

“Since 2006, more than 6,600 new jobs and over $11.8 billion in investments have been announced in Virginia’s data center industry and we are thrilled to add this important project to that roster,” said Governor McAuliffe. “We are honored to have such a dynamic global leader like Iron Mountain continue to invest in the Commonwealth aiding our efforts to build a new Virginia economy.“

Iron Mountain invested over $80 million in the first phase of this data center, which opens as an Uptime Institute tier 3 certified facility for design and construction. And, like other Iron Mountain data center facilities, it is designed to serve organizations with service delivery and compliance requirements, and supports standards such as ISO 27001, FISMA High, PCI-DSS Level 1, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3.

The data center also opens with more than half of its first phase capacity pre-leased, including customers like Virtustream, Inc., a Dell Technologies business. Virtustream is the enterpris cloud company that is used by organizations worldwide to migrate and run their mission-critical applications in the cloud. The company selected Iron Mountain based on the security, compliance support and scalability of the facility to serve its regulated customer base and support its growth projections.

With two additional phases to come in this first data center and plans to develop three other facilities on the campus, Iron Mountain’s total investment for the site is expected to be over $350 million. The 83-acre campus design ensures efficient long-term customer scalability for a total of 60 megawatts. th firrm is participating in Virginia’s data center tax program which helps provide long-term visibility into operating costs and lower total costs to customers.

“The opening of Iron Mountain’s new facility in Prince William marks a new age of data development in Virginia,” said representative Wittman. “When this project is finished, Iron Mountain will have four state-of-the-art secure data facilities in Manassas – contributing to our local economy. With already 173 employees in Virginia, I am excited to welcome them to a new area of Virginia’s First District and to see what opportunities lie ahead. The work they do is critical to preserving private information of people and businesses across Virginia and the Nation.“

“Congratulations to Iron Mountain on the opening of this state-of-the-art data center,” said representative Connolly. “The 83-acre Prince William County campus is a great addition to our region’s growing IT footprint. Northern Virginia has quickly solidified its role as the Silicon Valley of the East and a leader in fostering the technologies of tomorrow thanks to companies like Iron Mountain.“

“The tech sector continues to grow in Northern Virginia, and these are the jobs of the future – innovation, research, cybersecurity,” said senator McPike. “I am pleased to welcome Iron Mountain to Prince William County, as a key piece of that technology-focused approach to growing our economy.“

“Today we congratulate Iron Mountain on their latest expansion in the data center industry,” said Corey A. Stewart, chairman, Prince William Board of County Supervisors. “This is indeed an important milestone and a testimony to Prince William County’s strong business proposition in that industry, one which aptly satisfies the need for innovative technology, security, efficiency and reliability, while providing sustainable opportunities for a qualified and job-ready workforce, all set within an aesthetically pleasing environment.“

“Iron Mountain is opening what we believe is one of the most compelling data center offerings in Northern Virginia,” said Mark Kidd, SVP and GM, Iron Mountain Data Centers. “Our new campus provides superior physical security, lower power costs and a reduced tax structure compared to locations locally and nationally and delivers on our customers’ high standards for performance. Iron Mountain would like to thank the state of Virginia and Prince William County as well as our development partners, customers and dedicated employees for their contributions to this successful launch.“

In addition to the ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the data center launch, Iron Mountain held an open house event co-sponsored by Burns and McDonnell and Donwil/Vertiv on September 14 attended by members of the local business community.