A new data storage facility is opening Thursday at a Salt River Project utility substation in Gilbert. However, it will be operated by another company. This is the first center SRP is opening at one of its electric power locations.
The data center was designed and manufactured by Arizona company BaseLayer and has the capacity to hold a tremendous amount of storage.
Clint Poole with SRP said the design increases reliability because it draws power from multiple foundations.
“They are plugged into two different locations that go to two different places and ultimately two different generation sources," Poole said. "So you could have an event on that part of town and this part of town would still be up and your servers would still be running."
Both SRP and BaseLayer will be working with the U.S. Department of Energy to create a way to classify these types of facilities located at utilities and measure their reliability.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been modified to reflect BaseLayer's involvement with the center.
Updated 8/28/2015 at 12:12 p.m.
