Located just north of Boston, MA, our data center offers more than 20,000 square feet of premium raised-floor hosting space. It is one of the few data centers in the U.S. located on two distinct power grids and connected to both for redundancy. This is a SAS 70 Type II certified Data Center, providing best-of-breed data center operations with hardened physical infrastructure, security, and environmental services.

Please scroll down the page for a tour of the data center, including a description of key features and photos of the facilities.

World Class Facility

The building housing our data center is a purpose-built facilty, slab on concrete with raised flooring. The data center is located toward the rear of the building with minimal foot traffic and discreet signage, which helps to maintain a low profile.

Network Operations Center

The Data Center uses a redundant model for its Network Operations Center or NOC. A primary NOC is located next to the data center floor where monitoring takes place for the network, servers, and environmental components. A secondary, or back-up NOC, is a located in a secure area behind closed doors. This secondary NOC shares space with the upper tier technical support and provisioning team. Tier 3 engineers provide 24x7 monitoring at all levels of our Network Operations Center

Restricted Data Center Access

Biometric palm scanners are at the entrance to the data center. There is a 24/7 on-site security staff. Approved visitors without an access card can ring the security desk from the front entrance via intercom. The NOC staff can see visitors through a video camera and confirm that the person is authorized to enter the facility by validating their contact info against our authorized data list.

Raised Flooring

The Data Center sits on top of a 6 foot concrete slab which is sloped to the center where a one-way drain is located. On top of this concrete slab sits a 24 by 36 inch raised data floor. Both cooling and electrical circuits routed underneath the raised floor, with the power encased in waterproof galvanized steel conduits. There are also moisture sensors located under the floor to monitor condensation levels.

Leibert Cooling and Moisture Control

This Datacenter has thirteen (Leibert) industrial-grade air-cooling units. Each with their own independent (lycol) feeds providing 300 tons of cooling and moisture control.

Superior Insulation and Temperature Control

Due to the 40 foot ceilings in the facility, only five of these units, running at no more than 50 percent capacity, are required to cool the entire Data Center. In addition, the walls are lined with Thermolite which is an insulator commonly found in larger refrigerated warehouses. With an insulation value of R84, it provides thermal insulation equivalent of 84 sheets of glass, keeping the Datacenter at 68 degrees Fahrenheit.

Power Room

We have N+1 Reduncancy in all systems. AC Power plant with battery and generator backup. Johnson controls Metasys Building Management systems are used for monitoring of power and HVAC.

Secure Server Cabinets

Due to the exceptionally high ceilings in the data center, we are able to use cabinets that are higher than the standard sized cabinets. Each cabinet we use is 47U.

Dual Power Grids With Generator Backup

The Datacenter facility sits at the intersection of two separate metropolitan power grids drawn from two distinct cities, Boston and Cambridge, each supplying 13,800 volt service. This attribute allows us to exceed 120 watts per square foot in this Datacenter. This facility has not had unplanned power outage in over 25 years. In the extremely rare event that both municipalities lose power concurrently, the facility is backed up locally by dual (catolite) 1500 kilowatt generators, each with their own fuel supply. Only one generator is required to run the Datacenter. These generators supply power within six seconds and can run indefinitely because they can be refueled while operational. The generators are tested weekly and are serviced on regularly scheduled intervals. We maintain priority contracts with multiple diesel delivery vendors.

Plus Battery Backup

The Datacenter offers two forms of uninterruptible power supplies, local and centralized. While the majority of customer servers utilize the centralized UPS system, optional localized units are available for other applications. The UPS provides up to 30 minutes of conditioned power, more than adequate to cover the 6 second interval before the generators power up.

History

The building was originally part of the Hood Milk processing plant. The design of the milk processing plant turned out to be optimal for a data center environment due to the thick walls needed for cooling and the raised floors needed for run-off of the milk. Construction of the original building was completed in 1929 with a seismatic activity and redundant power plant in mind. The building sits on a six-foot thick concrete foundation. The foundation is supported by a sixty foot concrete piling.