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Telx plans Hillsboro data center, joining procession of Oregon server farms [The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.]
[December 13, 2012]

Telx plans Hillsboro data center, joining procession of Oregon server farms [The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.]


(Oregonian (Portland, OR) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Dec. 12--Telx, a New York data center company, said this morning that it plans to open a new server farm in Hillsboro -- the latest in a caravan of data centers moving into Oregon.

Telx provides data services to telecommunications companies, Internet service providers and others, locating its data centers near major fiber-optic hubs. The privately held company said the Hillsboro facility will be its 13th U.S. location.



Data centers are flocking to Oregon to take advantage of the fact that the state has no sales tax, and that tax havens called "enterprise zones" scattered around the state exempt data centers from property taxes on their pricey computers. That can save a company millions of dollars, or tens of millions of dollars, every year depending on the size of its data center.

It wasn't immediately clear if Telx's facility will be in an enterprise zone, or how big it will be.


Google, Facebook and Amazon all operate large data centers in eastern or central Oregon, and Apple is building a big facility near Facebook's operation in Prineville. In Hillsboro, Adobe Systems, Digital Realty Trust (NetApp) and Fortune Data Centers have all announced plans to open facilities in enterprise zones there (Fortune opened its Hillsboro location in September.) An Atlanta company called T5 Data Centers has 15 acres in Hillsboro and announced in October that it plans a 200,000-square-foot facility on the property.

Data centers need huge volumes of electricity to run long racks full of powerful computers, and most use additional power to keep those computers cool. That's created a concern that continued growth may someday strain the region's power supply.

Update, 6:30: Telx provided details of its project this morning -- it's a 4.5 megawatt facility in a 52,000-square-foot building. That's big, but modestly sized as big data centers go. For comparison -- Fortune Data Centers' Hillsboro facility is 7.8 megawatts, in a 240,000-square-foot building.

Update, 8:30: Data Center Knowledge reports that Telx will locate in Digital Realty Trust's facility, which is in an enterprise zone -- but because it's in an existing facility, it won't increase the total data center footprint in ORegon.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; phone: 503-294-7699 ___ (c)2012 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Visit The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) at www.oregonian.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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