Cologix, an interconnection-focused data center operator backed by Stonepeak Infrastructure today announced that it is undergoing an expansion at its campus in Columbus with a new 40-megawatt hyperscale edge facility called COL4. Additionally, over the next few years, the company intends to deploy 200+ megawatts of total capacity in the Columbus market.
In addition to Stonepeak Infrastructure, recent equity needs of Cologix have been funded by Mubadala Investment Company, who made a $500m equity commitment to the company in September 2019.
Columbus (COL4) Expansion – Cologix
Cologix’s COL4 data center will provide scale and interconnection to meet the infrastructure requirements of cloud service providers, hyperscale customers, and carriers. Importantly, this new facility will directly link to Cologix’s existing Columbus data centers. In turn, this will provide COL4 with access to the company’s ecosystem of 500+ networks.
Overall, the COL4 facility will comprise 250k+ sqft of total area, including ~117k sqft of raised floor space, across six data center halls.
Columbus Data Center Campus
The addition of COL4 will bring Cologix’s total planned capacity in Columbus to ~70 megawatts. Notably, Cologix’s Columbus campus is the densest interconnection hub in Ohio. Specifically, the campus offers connectivity to 50+ cloud and network service providers (e.g., Google and Amazon Web Services cloud on-ramps) and the Ohio-IX Internet Exchange.
Additionally, Cologix’s campus provides dark fiber network access to each of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Rationale for Expansion
Cologix’s expansion plans are in response to strong customer demand for its existing data centers. These facilities offer cloud and interconnection capacity at the edge. Indeed, one of these data centers is a 32-megawatt hyperscale edge facility built by Cologix less than 2 years ago.
Interconnection Focus – Cologix
Cologix identifies its niche as serving latency-sensitive applications of hyperscale customers. In order to fulfill this proposition, the company places itself in close proximity to meet-me rooms while simultaneously being near to customers at the edge.
In Columbus, Cologix serves large capacity deployments out of its 14-megawatt COL3 facility which is adjacent to its own meet-me rooms at COL1 and COL2.
Google Cloud Interconnect (GCI)
Cologix also announced that it now provides direct connectivity to Google Cloud from its three existing data centers in Columbus. Implementation was done through a new Google Cloud Interconnect (GCI) on-ramp, enabling direct, private connections to bypass the public Internet.
Columbus – Data Center Market
Columbus is an emerging interconnection hub in the Midwest which has been gaining considerable attention from hyperscale customers. Indeed, Columbus exemplifies a recent data center theme whereby demand continues to “edge out” from Tier-1 markets, into edge markets.
Columbus also benefits from being a low-cost power market, making it attractive for large capacity deployments. Specifically, the market is frequently fulfilling demand for 1-megawatt to 5-megawatt deployments. To this end, Columbus has had support from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Facebook deploying significant footprints in the area.
