US provider of network and data center services Paetec Holding Corp. has launched a new data center in the Boston area, the first of eight new data centers the company plans to launch within the next year and a half.

The new flagship data center in Andover, Massachusetts, provides about one acre of raised floor within the two-story 92,700 sq ft facility. It will be used to provide dedicated and shared hosting, as well as back-up and recovery, disaster preparedness and business continuity services. Paetec said in a news release that the new data center was a step toward providing cloud-based services.

Inside a Paetec network operations center. Image courtesy of Paetec

Paetec Chairman and CEO Arunas Chesonis said deploying business applications in a cloud would increase efficiency for customers. “With our expertise in telecommunications and data convergence, we're in a leading position to support the shift towards cloud computing and can provide our customers with a comprehensive set of managed service solutions to meet their business goals,” Chesonis said in a statement.

The Boston-area facility has diverse fiber connections and redundant utility power feeds. Its mechanical infrastructure can provide up to 2,000 tons of cooling capacity, including the use of free cooling during the winter.

Power is backed up by five 1MW diesel generators.

Paetec plans to open new data centers in Houston, Milwaukee and Phoenix later this year. The company currently operates about 1.4m sq ft of data center space around the US.