CDC Executives Form New Company to Create Colocation Facility for Disaster Mitigation

The three top executives at Continuum Data Centers (CDC) have formed a new company that will enable them to create world-class data centers with offerings going beyond traditional colocation. New Continuum Holdings Corporation (NCHC) has entered a long-term lease with purchase options for a TIER III+ data center asset in West Chicago.

The move has the new entity teaming up with existing colocation and data center services provider CDC to offer enterprise customers a facility that is planned and designed for complete disaster mitigation. The 80,000-square-foot facility was originally constructed as a Tier III data center but building was not completed. The new company will finish the build out in line with Tier III, fully redundant N+1 specifications and begin installing customers by the middle of summer next year.

Chicago has long been considered a prime region for colocation and CDC has a record of more than 10 years as a multi-tenant data center operator in the region. The new facility is housed on 20 acres and features multiple power service grids, massive amounts of fiber access and close proximity to the CME Aurora Data Center. That facility boasts the lowest latency connection to the CME Globex financial trading platform.

“The market for Tier III colocation in Chicago is one of the strongest in the nation, and we believe our product offering at the West Chicago facility addresses the many significant needs of customers,” said Tom Chaffin, COO. “Moreover, the location of the facility relative to the new CME data center three miles away in Aurora provides an interesting alternative to financial firms looking to efficiently house their less latency sensitive applications.”

Chafin teamed up with Eli D. Scher, chairman and CEO of CDC and G. Gary Chafin, vice chairman, to form NCHC. The company plans to build six 900 square-foot private data center suites in the new space, as well as custom cage and full cabinet retail colocation space.

Top-notch security and disaster mitigation features will be a highlight of the new space. Features include an on-premises pumping station for standby generators along with separate, above-ground fuel tanks. The facility is cooled by a water-based evaporation/recirculation plant and also offers 18-foot clear height ceilings and steel doors. Other safety features include Kevlar and steel mesh lined concrete walls, a 15-zone VESDA fire suppression system, gated and biometric access and Level-III bullet resistant mantraps.