Huge data center coming to Atlanta

Douglas Co. campus to bring at least 65 jobs.

A Nevada tech firm plans to build an enormous data center campus in metro Atlanta in what it describes as a “multibillion-dollar” investment in the Southeast.

Las Vegas-based Switch said Thursday it will develop a campus it calls “The Keep” that will be among the most advanced in the nation. The complex will be the fourth of what Switch calls its “Prime” data center campuses across the nation, and will span more than 1 million square feet.

Switch said it could build more than one campus at a location in Douglas County that’s being kept secret for now. Other data centers in its Prime segment are as large as 8 million square feet, and Switch Executive Vice President Adam Kramer said the metro Atlanta project could be bigger.

Switch will lease space to corporate clients, who will operate their own high-powered servers. Such large computing hubs help businesses and government agencies operate across the globe. They also make possible the daily interactions of people on social media.

“There’s not a single thing that anyone does online that doesn’t go through a data center,” Kramer said. The exponential growth of computing and data use, combined with industry demands for redundancy and security, have only increased the need for greater data center capacity.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s office described the project as a $2.5 billion investment in Douglas County.

The state Department of Economic Development said Thursday that the Switch complex will be one of the state’s largest data centers, joining a roster of more than 50 major facilities here, including server hubs by Google, AT&T and Hewlett Packard.

Kramer said Switch expects to hire 65 people once the facility is complete, though that figure could grow. Tenants also will have workers on site.

The state said Switch will be eligible for tax credits for each eligible new job.

The new facility will give Switch’s more than 700 clients redundant “Tier IV Gold” data center facilities on the East Coast, Kramer said, in an area that is protected from natural disasters such as hurricanes.

“Where the data industry is shifting, it’s so important to have the redundancy and resiliency for your data,” Kramer said.

Data centers require high levels of power and sophisticated climate-control systems. The complex will be 100-percent powered by renewable energy sources, Kramer said, and the company is working with Georgia Power to attain that goal.

The company expects to break ground on the multi-building complex later this year and open the campus eight to 12 months later.

CONTRIBUTED Technology company Switch will build a multibillion-dollar data facility, like the one pictured in this artist’s rendering, in Douglas County. The company plans to break ground this year.