DataBank Expands Pittsburgh Facility

By Tudor Scolca

DataBank has started work on an expansion at its Pittsburgh data center, PIT1. The company, a Digital Bridge portfolio entity, will add 10,000 square feet of raised-floor space. The expansion will be located adjacent to the existing PIT1 facility and will be ready for deployment in the fourth quarter of 2018.

PIT1 is situated inside NOVA Place, a 1.5 million-square-foot redevelopment, formerly the Allegheny Technology Center at 1 Allegheny Square East, in the metro’s downtown area. NOVA Place is an interconnection hub, with access to more than 25 fiber carriers. Multiple research facilities at Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, among others, have spurred on Pittsburgh’s development as a tech hub, and benefit from the connection and availability of multiple data center operators.

“We are seeing continued demand from customers seeking edge access to the rich interconnection ecosystem we offer at our Pittsburgh data center. We believe expanding in our existing building envelope will allow us to provide high quality, enterprise grade colocation space in close proximity to our diverse carrier ecosystem,” said Kevin Ooley, president & CFO of DataBank, in a prepared statement.

Facility highlights

PIT1 will almost double in size, as it already provides 15,000 square feet of raised-floor space. It offers private suites, cages and cabinets that have a power density of more than 10kW per cabinet, totaling 1.5 megawatts of critical IT load. The expansion will add another 1.5 megawatts of dedicated power. The facility also features a redundant HVAC design, parallel UPS configuration and dedicated diesel generators.

According to Data Center Knowledge, the company acquired its Pittsburgh facility last year, along with another one in Cleveland, from 365 Data Centers. DataBank was itself acquired by Digital Bridge in 2016, and is currently present in eight U.S. markets, with 14 facilities in total.