Posted on January 24, 2020
Servers
Looking for a data center in Houston? You’re not alone. Thanks to its geography, climate, strong economy, and access to tech talent, Houston is an excellent location for a data center facility.
That’s why NETdepot’s Houston data center, which we operate in partnership with our sister company TRG Datacenters, is ideally located. Below, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about our new data center in Houston: the reasons for our choice of location, the disaster preparation that we’ve enacted, and the features that our Houston data center customers can enjoy.
You might be wondering: “Why a data center in Texas?” or “Why a data center in Houston?” Below, we’ll discuss the factors that went into NETdepot’s decision to open a Houston data center.
First, Texas plays host to some of the world’s top high-tech energy and technology companies. After New York and California, Texas is the U.S. state with the third-highest number of Fortune 500 companies’ headquarters. Giant multinational firms such as AT&T, Texas Instruments, and ExxonMobil have chosen to locate their headquarters in the Dallas–Fort Worth region’s “Silicon Prairie”.
Texas is also home to many excellent public universities, including the University of Texas system, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and the University of Houston. With a host of world-renowned faculty and research institutes, Texas universities consistently produce top-shelf tech talent.
What’s more, Texas offers a highly business-friendly climate, with an economy that would make it the 10th-largest in the world as an independent country. The state does not have corporate or personal income taxes, and the costs of land and energy are relatively low. Both Forbes and CNBC ranked Texas the second-best state for business in their 2019 rankings.
Given the facts above, opening a Texas data center sounds like a great idea. But why a data center in Houston in particular?
For one, the city of Houston is a major player both regionally and nationally. Houston has a population of 2.3 million people and a metropolitan area with 7 million, making it the largest city in the Southern U.S. The city acts as an economic and cultural hub for the region, attracting residents from across the entire South and across the world.
The economy of Houston is also very strong. Once based primarily on the energy industry, Houston’s economy has rapidly diversified in recent years. Healthcare, manufacturing, aeronautics, and biomedical research companies all now call Houston home—not to mention NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Twenty-two Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the Houston area, the fourth-highest number in the U.S.
Houston’s geography and climate also make it a good location for data centers in Texas. The Houston region has many stable, dry, and flat areas that are ideal for hosting data centers. Houston enjoys hot and dry summers and mild winters, and the city is located outside “Tornado Alley,” which stretches down into North Texas. (More on natural disasters in the next section.)
When choosing the site for NETdepot’s Houston data center, we wanted to find a central, convenient location for our current and future clients. Our data center in Houston is located in the 77388 area code and is easily accessible from many of the city’s largest business hubs:
We know how essential it is to offer uninterrupted data center services to our clients. According to the research firm Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is $5,400 per minute. What’s more, a full third of businesses say that an hour of downtime would cost them over $1 million.
This means that disaster preparation must be a critical concern for any data center. When planning our data center in Houston, we were especially concerned with preventing the risk of hurricane damage, given the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Most importantly, our Houston data center facility has been built to withstand a wind load ratio of 185 mph. This limit is significantly higher than the estimated 110-127 mph that a Category 5 hurricane would reach as it moved inland over Texas from the Gulf of Mexico. For more information, download the Texas Weather Evaluation document completed by our partners at TRG.
In the event of a hurricane in the Houston area, our data center is contained within a reinforced concrete structure. The building’s sloping roof is 4 inches thick with fully redundant leak protection and no rooftop equipment, which minimizes the risk of roof damage.
NETdepot’s choice of location for our Houston data center was also made with minimizing all possible risks and disasters in mind. Our data center is:
Fires, earthquakes, and tornadoes are three other natural disaster risks that we have sought to mitigate:
With an excellent hand-picked location and rock-solid disaster preparation, let’s now discuss the biggest features and selling points of our data center in Houston.
Finding the right data center in Houston, or in any location that fits your business, is both a challenging and an essential task. Your choice of Houston data center must be reliable enough for you to entrust it with your critical and confidential information, ensuring that you can enjoy constant, unbroken access to this data 24/7/365.
NETdepot was drawn to Houston for its many appealing qualities, including its convenient geography, a business-friendly climate, and lessened risk of natural disasters. We look forward to providing our customers with high-quality data center services and continued availability, thanks to our hand-picked, low-risk location and our wide range of cutting-edge features.
Are you looking for a data center in Houston for your business? Look no further than NETdepot. Get in touch with our team today for a chat about your needs and objectives.