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OnRamp plans multimillion-dollar data center in AustinFeb 15, 2013 (Austin American-Statesman - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The health care industry's push for highly secure electronic patient records is helping to drive expansion in Austin's data center business. OnRamp plans to build a 42,000-square-foot data center in Southeast Austin this year, and it says much of the reason is the expanded need to offer highly protected private data for health care companies and other clients. The new center, planned for 7000 Burleson Road, will be built late this year with the first phase expected to cost about $10 million. It will be less than two miles from the company's data center on Montopolis Drive, which will remain in operation. The federal government has helped many health care companies move toward electronic records systems. That industry conversion, plus tight federal standards for data security, has spawned a new market category in the data center business. "Compliance (with federal security standards) is a serious thing," said OnRamp founder Chad Kissinger. "It is complex, highly regulated, and it is regularly audited for operations practices. There is also a great deal of liability (for data leaks) under the law. A lot of people in our business are not prepared for it. But we are." The project will be the third big data center built in Southeast Austin in the past few years. Data Foundry built a 130,000-square-foot center on Smith School Road in 2011. Houston-based CyrusOne built a 40,000-square-foot center in the Met Center II business park. The area attracts data centers because it is close to high-speed fiber communications networks and because there is ample electrical power from Austin Energy. OnRamp employs 43 people in Austin and in Raleigh, N.C., where it announced a new 12,000-square-foot data center. "We are targeting a national set of customers," said CEO Lucas Braun. ___ (c)2013 Austin American-Statesman, Texas Visit Austin American-Statesman, Texas at www.statesman.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |