Counsel to Counsel - January 2008 - (Page 32) in the spotlight POWER PLAY: Ensure Your Offsite Data Center Serves You By Steven Andersen ©iStockphoto.com/Ferenc Cegledi A sophisticated technology firm recently went looking for a new offsite data center—a dedicated facility to house its servers. The company found what seemed like the ideal facility with plenty of power, adequate space and a great location. But after signing the lease, the company found it had made a big mistake. “They probably spent $35 million to $45 million moving into this facility before they realized that they couldn’t connect to the local loop, and therefore did not have access to any fiber that would allow them to move their data across the country,” says Craig A. Olschansky, a partner and head of the IT Infrastructure Group at Thompson Coburn in St. Louis. “It’s kind of like buying property right next to the interstate, only to find that the nearest on-ramp is 100 miles away.” It’s a true story, and a good example of the thorniest type of real estate transaction most inside counsel will ever encounter. “I’ve been in real estate work for 25 years, and I’ve done a lot of data center deals,” Olschansky says. “I can’t think of anything more complicated.” Mission-Critical Requirements Almost any type of business can find itself in need of an offsite data center. On one end “It’s kind of like buying property right next to the interstate, only to find that the nearest on-ramp is 100 miles away.” of the spectrum it is as simple as a small firm that lacks adequate infrastructure in its building. On the other end, you find deals like the one Olschansky recently completed— a 550,000-square-foot data center in suburban Chicago for use by Microsoft that he calls mind-boggling in its complexity. But wherever a company falls in between, the fundamental need is the same: “People move to offsite data center locations because they lack some combination of missioncritical requirements,” Olschansky says. “That combination of requirements is unique to each company.” Maybe a company needs data redundancy as part of a disaster recovery plan. Maybe it’s more robust connectivity. Frequently it’s specific infrastructure requirements such as power, cooling or fire suppression. 32 LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® http://www.iStockphoto.com/F
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