How Garland, Texas, Is Becoming A Hub For Data Center Connectivity

Amazon in September announced plans to open a slew of data centers in Virginia over the next 16 years, accounting for a whopping investment of $35B. In Ohio, Google is expanding its data center presence by building two new campuses, adding to the 24 data centers the company owns globally. And in Nevada, Novva Data Centers is opening a new campus in Reno that will feature six 10-megawatt data halls.

It is clear that the data center market is preparing for exponential growth nationwide, and in the country’s second-largest data center market, Dallas, things are just getting started. 

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has approximately 865K SF of data center space under construction, or 140 MW of information technology capacity. In addition, data center inventory in the area rose by 17% in 2022, with record-low vacancy rates below 6% across the market.

One of the companies leading the charge in the DFW area is NTT Data, a global information technology firm that has set up data center operations in Garland, Texas, and has an additional facility in the works.

“We first opened our data center building about seven years ago in Garland, and we chose the city for several reasons, including power accessibility and land availability,” said Steve Lim, senior vice president of marketing and product at NTT Data. “Since 2017, we’ve started to create a new hub of data center connectivity in the city.”

NTT’s data center in Garland, called Dallas TX1 Data Center, is a 230K SF, 16 MW facility. The building is two stories with 22-foot ceiling heights and energy-efficient air-cooling systems. The firm has announced the expansion of the campus that will add a 130K SF, two-story data center and office space, with more than double the IT capacity of the firm’s first data center. 

“Each data center floor will have three data vaults for a total of six data vaults,” Lim said. “Phase 1 of this project will include core and shell, underground utilities, equipment pads and a singular 6 MW vault fit-out. Future phases will include fit-outs for Vaults Two through Six, which will provide 36 MW once complete.”

He said that before breaking ground on the new facility, the firm has leased a large amount of square footage to major tech companies looking to extend their fast-growing footprints in the Dallas area.

Lim said that although Garland is considered a hot spot for data center activity, many colocation/IT companies have traditionally opened data centers in the southern portion of Dallas-Fort Worth, as this area is home to a dense interconnection hub. However, NTT Data had a different vision in mind, which is why it chose Garland.

The company discovered that in Garland, land was expansive and attainable. Power reliability was also a major factor, especially as data center power consumption is projected to double over the next several years.

“The Dallas area has experienced some significant weather events over the past few years that caused widespread power outages,” Lim said. “During the historic winter storm in 2021, we didn't lose power. Having that reliability, support and service from Garland Power & Light has been very valuable to our operations.”

The firm’s long-term goal is to grow its presence in the Dallas area. To make this happen, land availability was a key component in NTT’s decision to set up shop in Garland. 

When the firm purchased the land for its data center campuses, vacant land surrounded them, Lim said. Now, it’s a different story.

“Right behind our data center is now a large apartment complex, in addition to two data centers across the street, including the soon-to-come Digital Realty center and Stream data center,” he said. “We don't have an unlimited set of land anymore, so we continue to evaluate the possibility of acquiring more land in the area.”

Creating a plan for expansion is a top priority for NTT Data, Lim said. And as the firm looks to grow its long-term presence in the Garland area, it is also prioritizing giving back to the Garland community.

“We really try to be active in the Garland community,” he said. “One of our core values within NTT is service to the community. We offer time for volunteering and talking to the Garland community. The other big thing that we do, specifically in Texas, is a lot of recruitment. We like to bring local high schoolers into our facilities to teach them about data centers and the career opportunities they offer.”

Lim said NTT Data looks forward to seeing how the region, as well as the national market, performs in coming years. 

“We’re seeing a third wave of growth in the industry,” he said. “The first wave was as enterprises and businesses started to move off premise and into other data storage services. The second wave was driven by the adoption of cloud services, and now the third wave, which we think we’re on the cusp of, is being driven by AI. It will be very interesting to see how it alters the Dallas market.”

This article was produced in collaboration between the city of Garland and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

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