IBM to Build $360M Data Center in Research Triangle Park

IBM will expand its presence in Research Triangle Park, N.C., with the development of a $360 million data center on its campus. The green facility will offer cloud computing capabilities and will bring the company’s portfolio of cloud computing centers up to nine. The new state-of-the-art center will emerge from an existing building that will be redeveloped. In its first phase, the data center will yield 60,000 square feet of raised floor space. The building will be constructed as part of IBM’s Project Big Green initiative, a $1 billion program designed to increase energy efficiency at its data centers. In addition to reusing 95 percent of the existing structure’s original shell, IBM will recycle 90 percent of materials from the structure, and will incorporate such eco-friendly elements as energy efficient lighting and a partial power derived from alternative energy sources. IBM will not shoulder the cost of developing the new project in its entirety, as Durham County has signed off on $750,000 in economic incentives to help facility the project, which is on target to reach completion in late 2009. The Research Triangle Park facility is one of two cloud computing centers that IBM recently announced. The company will also build a facility in Tokyo. Additionally, two such facilities reached completion in Johannesburg, South Africa and Beijing in June. Europe received its first cloud computing center in March with the opening a location in Dublin. IBM has had a busy few months beyond its cloud computing center endeavors. In June, it completed an $86 million, 150,000-square-foot data center addition to its campus in Boulder, Colo., and announced it had joined forces with RackForce Networks to develop a 150,000-square-foot data center in Kelowna, B.C., at a cost of $73 million