ITworld voted Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the best American city for data centers.
With its cold winters, low occurrence of natural disasters, and reduced risk of act of terrorism, and low operating costs (at the time of $11 million compared to $23.7 million for New York City) Sioux City seems optimal for South Dakota data centers.
The area was also judged to have a solid telecommunications infrastructure and abundant IT security talent. The local power grid and regional airport are also sufficient to support the data center client base. Power is also more affordable in South Dakota than in many other cities.
Growth and Stability
With these ideal conditions, one South Dakota data center provider which looks to have the best opportunity for growth and stability is Cosentry.
Based in Omaha, Nebraska, Cosentry has two locations in Sioux Falls at the east and west ends of the city. They have been operating for fourteen years, and have recently acquired a leading managed service provider Xiolink in St. Louis, and Red Anvil, a data center company in Milwaukee. They also secured a $120 million facility in 2013 to facilitate growth.
Cosentry offers a broad spectrum of data center services and other offerings, including:
- Colocation
- Cloud Services
- Managed Services, including Security, Compliance, Help Desk and Network Services
- Disaster Recovery
Cosentry has a strong leadership team with great data center executive expertise. Their CEO, Brad Hokamp spent many years at SAVVIS before leading hosting and management company Layered Tech.
Their Chief Sales Officer, Derek Gillespie, also spent many years at SAVVIS and was a sales director at AT&T. Strong leadership gives Cosentry’s data centers great growth and success opportunities.
Strategic Technology and Cross-Industry Partnerships
The success of any data center can often be determined by the vendors they succeed in partnering with for hardware, software, power, and telecommunications.
Some of Cosentry’s partnerships include:
- EMC
- Cisco
- VMware
- Dell
- Schneider Electric
- Fortinet
- Red Hat
Industry Recognition
In 2014, Cosentry was named to CRN’s Managed Service Provider 500 list. They also have achieved LEED and Energy Star certification and were voted to Inc. Magazine’s Fastest-Growing Companies list.
The 25,000-square-foot Sioux Falls west data center is highly expandable (by 400 percent), and it blends into the rural surroundings. It offers multiple carrier options, PCI security, and a wealth of surveillance and security safeguards.
The Sioux Falls East data center is monitored both onsite and from offsite personnel.
Cosentry has shown stability, innovation, leadership, and willingness to grow by acquisition which has been demonstrated over its fourteen-year history.
Are you convinced Cosentry is a data center to watch in South Dakota? Is there another South Dakota data center we should consider? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
To follow up on the tips in this article, be sure to download your free guide to Lead Generation Best Practices for Colocation Data Centers.
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