Las Vegas high-tech company Switch expanding into Thailand

Switch

Technology firm Switch opened a new data center — Supernap Las Vegas 9 — on Thursday, Aug. 13, 2015.

Las Vegas-based data company Switch is growing again.

SUPERNAP International, an entity formed by Switch in partnership with investors ACDC Fund, said today it had begun building a $300 million data center in Thailand, the first of its type in the Asia Pacific region. The facility, which will have room for 6,000 server racks, is being built on a 12-hectacre site outside of flood zones, 110 meters above sea level, SUPERNAP International said in a news release. The facility will be located near an international submarine cable landing station, which will link it to national and international telecoms and IT carriers.

"With the emergence of the AEC (the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations Economic Community) and with Thailand's focus on digital growth, this data center will set a new precedent for quality, security and innovation in Asia Pacific," Khaled Bichara, CEO of SUPERNAP International, said in the release. "We look forward to working with Thailand to attract more investment and more growth to the Thai digital economy."

Bichara said the center would be a copy of SUPERNAP facilities in Las Vegas. Switch also is building a SUPERNAP center in Reno, and SUPERNAP International recently announced plans to build a $338 million data center near Milan, Italy.

The Thailand facility is expected to be completed in early 2017.

Switch's centers, designed by company founder and CEO Rob Roy, offer cooling technology, protective building design elements and redundant power systems that allow Switch to offer a guarantee that its clients' operations will never go down. The facilities also feature heavy security features, including armed guards. The centers' climate control systems makes it possible for Switch's customers to store high-density servers that would generate too much heat for other commercial storage facilities.

The company's clients include a number of Fortune 500 corporations and several Las Vegas resort operators.

Its partner in SUPERNAP International, ACDC Fund, comprises limited partners Orascom TMT Investments and Accelero Capital.

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