Utah Colocation

Why Utah for Colocation?

  • Located in one of the nation’s lowest natural disaster risk areas
  • Great fiber connectivity, on the major East-West US fiber path
  • Some of the lowest power rates in the nation
  • Data center site selection preferred location (Millions of sq. ft. built out in Utah, mostly large companies and government agencies)
  • Abundant local tech talent and business-friendly local and state governments
  • The ideal Utah climate helps cool the data center efficiently
  • Major Delta hub with daily direct flights from all over the US

Utah is where most of the top data archive companies host their data, edging out Las Vegas, Denver, and Phoenix as the preferred low-cost, disaster-safe colocation site selection. Even the NSA selected Utah as the site for its massive 1,000,000 sq. ft. Utah Data Center.

The low cost of power enables world-class data centers in Utah to offer high-value colocation at a price significantly less than popular metro areas, and the disaster-safe geography makes Utah ideal for limiting service disruption.

Additionally, Utah is at the crossroads of internet connectivity from Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to the East Coast. For those who know, Utah is a very ideal place for data center colocation.

Fibernet’s Salt Lake City Metro Data Center Facility

Fibernet built its own 40,000 sq. ft. data center facility in 2002 just south of Salt Lake City. The Orem data center is ideal for colocation in Utah because of its great selection of on-net network carriers, ease of accessibility, close proximity to a hot tech startup market, and the low power cost savings and disaster recovery solutions that come with having a data center in Utah.

Availability / Accessibility / Efficiency

Critical to any colocation facility is the accessibility to the data center and the high availability of built-in power and network redundancies. Additionally, geographic location plays a large role in the cooling efficiency of the facility.

Utah Data Centers are Highly Accessible

Utah is a major Delta airline hub and with the SLC airport rated as #1 for on-time arrivals, you can rest assured that you can easily get to your data infrastructure on a moment’s notice. Fibernet’s Orem data center is located just off a main freeway exit and is a quick drive from the SLC airport.

Delta Airlines US Flight Route Map

Network Redundancy

Uptime is critical for a data center provider, and there is no one better at it than Fibernet. Rest assured that your upstream network is monitored by experts who have gained credentials and years of experience solving and preventing network disruption and ensuring high availability.  Fibernet’s network is redundant logically as well as physically redundant with diverse fiber paths into the building.

Ideal Ambient Air Temperature

For 9 months out of the year Utah’s climate fits the ASHRAE window for ideal data center floor temperature and humidity best suited for data infrastructure. This means that data centers like Fibernet can cool their colocation facility more efficiently than data center facilities located elsewhere.

Power Grid

Utah’s power costs are some of the lowest in the nation, and with Rocky Mountain Power as the main power provider, rest assured that the power supply is ample and generated from diverse methods including coal, solar, and wind energy development.

Power Costs by State and County

Disaster Risk Management

Void of major natural disasters, Utah is ideally located in a low disaster-risk geographic region. Historically Utah doesn’t register any hurricanes or ice storms, and there is very little risk of flooding, tornadoes, and earthquakes. It’s hard to imagine a more disaster-safe region than Utah.

Presidential Disaster Risk Map

Unlike most other areas of the US, Utah data centers don’t have the threat of power outages due to ice storms, flooding, and other severe weather.
Presidential Disaster Risk Map

FEMA Natural Disaster Declarations by State and per Area

Compared to other US states, Utah has one of the fewest disaster incidents for its size. The historical disaster per 10 square miles figure for Utah is incredibly low. If you were to just consider the total number of disaster declarations by state and base your disaster-safe data center site selection criteria solely on that, then you’d put Rhode Island and Delaware on the top of the list. Factoring in the area of the state normalizes the data and accounts for larger area states having more disasters than smaller ones.

Threat of Earthquake to Data Center Colocation in Utah

Being located in the Rocky Mountains the principal natural disaster threat of earthquakes. But the frequency is nothing compared to California and the severity of destruction is low. For instance, the major fault lines in Utah spread apart as opposed to rubbing together (like the San Andreas fault in California) or against each other (which formed the Himalayan Mountains). So even when there is an earthquake, the damage threat is low.

Carrier Network Connectivity

Utah has a legacy of exceptional Internet connectivity dating back to 1969 when three computers in California were connected to a computer in Utah and the Internet predecessor ARPANET was born. Fast forward to today and Utah is at the crossroads of major East-West Internet connectivity. All major fiber providers and network carriers go through Utah, where their paths follow the freeways which split three directions at Salt Lake City and go toward Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. As one of Utah’s oldest data center providers, Fibernet is highly connected to major network carrier providers and highly available with diverse paths; offering all the network and bandwidth you could ever need.

Utah Fiber Provider Paths

Utah is at the crossroads of major fiber connectivity between the East and West Coast in the US. From Utah, the westbound fiber networks split and head to Seattle and Portland, Sacramento and San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and San Diego.

US Carrier Fiber Network Map

Image courtesy of the University of Wisconsin and ACM SIGCOMM

Fibernet Connectivity

Fibernet has a data center facility in Utah which is one of the most connected facilities in the state and includes on-net carrier network providers such as: XO, CenturyLink, Integra, Hurricane Electric, Utopia, Verizon, and Comcast.

On-net carrier providers

Why Do Business in Utah?

Utah has a friendly business environment with a strong tech startup sector and an available supply of expert tech talent.

Compliance & Security

For a data center to house mission-critical data infrastructure, it must first pass rigorous audits and certifications for data center industry standards such as the SSAE 18, PCI, and HIPAA compliance. Within the last few years, the SSAE 18 audit has replaced the SAS 70 audit. International audit and compliance standards include ISO 27001 and ISO 8100 PSI DSS.

Customer Friendly

While a data center can cover the essentials, it takes great customer service, support, great uptime record, and niceties such as high accessibility and even optional office space to keep a customer for a long time.

Uptime Institute Tier RatingData center providers go through various audits so that customers can get a third-party perspective on the operating ability of the facility and provider. For more specific designations than the typical SSAE 18, PCI, and HIPAA compliances, the Uptime Institute has created a set of tier standards that further indicate the level of redundancies and operability of a data center facility. Fibernet’s Utah facility is a Tier IV data center with the exception of 2 separate utility feeds. For more information on the Santa Clara data center, talk to a Fibernet representative.

Preferred Data Center Colocation Location

Join the growing number of companies choosing to host their data infrastructure in Utah. Among them are many archival and data backup providers, large tech companies, startups, and large companies looking to reduce hosting costs and lower their disaster risk profile. The most prominent data center facility is the 1+ million sq. ft. government Utah data center facility, which is a giant data archive facility that leverages Utah’s low power costs and abundant local tech talent.

Great Business environment

Utah is among the top states in the nation to do business. The state unemployment is among the lowest in the nation, power costs are low and taxes are low. Available tech talent is fueled by two major universities just 40 miles apart spanning the width of the Salt Lake City metro area. Companies can rest assured that their business will thrive if located in Utah.

Abundant Local Tech Talent

Colocation is easy in Utah because of all the local tech talent available to employ whether hired directly or through a managed service provider. Fibernet has technical staff available 24/7 to assist with expert IT services and solutions should you need assistance managing your data infrastructure.