November 3rd , 2007 - The Oklahoman

Perimeter Technology to build facility on 21-acre site

By Jim Stafford
Business Writer

Bit by virtual bit, the commercial data center that Perimeter Technology operates in northwest Oklahoma City has filled up until its operators began to look for space to build another facility to house computer servers.

They found it on 21 vacant acres adjacent to the Perimeter Technology Center, which houses computer servers for scores of businesses.

Perimeter Technology will break ground Nov. 12 on a 22,000-square-foot, multi-million dollar commercial data center adjacent to its current location, said John Parsons, chief executive officer.

Perimeter bought the land in October for a reported $1.4 million and plans to develop it over the next five to 10 years, Parsons said.

"We're approaching capacity,” Parsons said. "We're at about 85 percent capacity now, which is pretty full for a data center. We have been looking at this for about nine months, and we really started fast-forwarding this when Google made the decision to come into northeast Oklahoma and EDS in June made the decision to dramatically expand their facility near Tulsa.

"It just has turned a lot of eyes to Oklahoma to being one of the major players for the data center industry in North America.”

Perimeter Technology's business consists of ensuring that computer servers of client companies are operational 24 by 7 every day of the year by providing redundant communications and power utilities in a monitored "secure” environment.

Perimeter operates a 16,000-square-foot data center at its current location and offers 37,000 square feet of space at a Tulsa location that also includes disaster recovery office space.

"The important point to note is that it will triple our data center capacity companywide,” Parsons said. "Another way to look at it is the new facility will hold up to 24,000 servers.”

Phase 1 of the new center will offer 14,602 square-feet of air conditioned, raised floor computer space to house computer servers for a growing list of clients, Parsons said.

Parsons envisions the new center eventually housing up to 10 similar secure data center facilities, although some could be configured for more space depending on clients' needs, Parsons said.

The Phase 1 facility is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2008.

The first phase of the project will cost "in the high seven figures,” he said.

Perimeter will continue to operate the current data center "for the foreseeable future,” Parsons said. It does not own the building in which it currently operates.

Perimeter houses data from a variety of businesses with critical data demands that lease rack space to house their computer servers. One of those is Oklahoma City-based Simons Petroleum, which is relocating from north of downtown to Oklahoma Tower downtown.

Simons houses about 50 servers in the Perimeter center, said Bob Hire, chief information officer.

"They do a lot of things that add value to our operations, but the biggest one is they do the power backup that we can't do,” Hire said. "Originally, we got into business with them to use them as a backup site, but with our primary location being downtown without a power backup, we kind of flip-flopped with them being the primary site and us the backup.”

A recent paper released by Forrester Research analyst Bill Martorelli says that so-called "collocation” computer space is at a premium nationwide, meaning that the price is going up for businesses that need the service.

"Collocation is hot,” Martorelli wrote. "Clients that were insulated from market pricing because they held long-term contracts are now experiencing sticker shock as they seek to renew their contracts or expand their requirements.”

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