GLEN BURNIE, MD. — AiNET, a privately held information technology solutions company based in Beltsville, Md., is bringing a new data center to northern Maryland — the 300,000-square-foot CyberNAP facility. The new facility spans the length of 6 football fields, making it the largest data center in Maryland and the tri-state area.
Once the data center is operating at full capacity, AiNET projects CyberNAP to create more than 2,500 jobs and generate $1 billion in annual economic activity. Portions of the facility will offer security features since Fort Meade — home of the U.S. Cyber Command, National Security Agency and Defense Information Systems Agency — is located near the new facility.
The increase of technology demand in the greater D.C. market has stemmed from the federal government’s defense and intelligence programs, according to Jones Lang LaSalle’s most recent High Technology Industry report. This has led to an influx of technology firms expanding their presence in the office marketplace, including Google, Facebook, Computer Sciences Corp., Opnet Technologies, LivingSocial and MicroStrategy Incorporated. The influx has led to a greater need for well-performing data centers in the vicinity.
Since its headquarters is only 36 miles away from the nation’s capital, AiNET works closely with government entities and has even developed the AiNET Government and Public Sector Services division. CyberNAP is anticipated to receive a warm welcome among wholesale providers, Maryland businesses and federal agencies.
“We have commitments in place from several customers and carriers, and will be making announcements soon,” said Deepak Jain, president of AiNET, in a prepared statement.
The property will feature more than 10,000 equipment cabinets that will support approximately 1 million servers; security protection against break-ins, breaches, hackers and distributed denial of service attacks; and capabilities to support more than 25 kW/cabinet facility-wide.
The facility will also have a direct connection with a 10,000 fiber mile network in Washington, D.C., that will allow CyberNAP to access hundreds of carriers. CyberNAP will be outfitted with expert professionals, network connectivity, secure cloud computer services and advanced cloud storage services available 24/7 for AiNET customers;
AiNET is repositioning a former Boscov’s department store for the CyberNAP facility. Repurposing an existing facility will speed up the delivery time and will ultimately have less of an impact on the environment. The new facility is AiNet’s third SAS 70 Type II data center in Maryland, the other two being in Beltsville and Laurel. The facility is slated for a July 2012 completion.
— John Nelson