CenturyLink enters Phoenix data center market through IO partnership

CenturyLink Technology Solutions (NYSE: CTL), CenturyLink's newly rebranded colocation and cloud subsidiary, is fanning out its data center footprint into Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona, by leveraging IO's Intelligent Control technology platform.

While CenturyLink Technology Solutions continues to aggressively build out its own data center facilities, this new partnership is about time to market.

IO's Intelligent Control technology is a ready-made data center service package that includes data center modules and the integrated IO.OS data center operating system, which provides integrated control, data collection and business intelligence across data center infrastructure, IT equipment, applications and users of the data center.

CenturyLink can immediately complement IO's technology with its own set of colocation, managed services, cloud and network services. In addition, area customers will get access to CenturyLink's ClientConnect, an online gateway that allows businesses to expand their capabilities by locating, connecting and sharing services with other clients that reside throughout its worldwide footprint of 50 data centers.

"Armed with IO's prefabricated modular technology and proprietary data center operating system, CenturyLink is rounding out its digital infrastructure offering by combining a sophisticated, agile and intuitive data center platform with its deep stack of IT services, optimizing customer scalability and management capabilities," said Michael Levy, data centers senior analyst at 451 Research.

Targeting the Phoenix-area market with an enhanced set of data hosting services makes sense. Already providing business services in the Phoenix area, it will immediately make up to 9 megawatts of additional capacity to area customers through IO's technology.

CenturyLink's agreement is part of a wave of moves the service provider has taken to enhance its managed hosting capabilities, including its acquisitions of Tier 3 and Platform as a Service (PaaS) provider AppFog and new data center buildout projects in Toronto and Minneapolis.

Colocation and hosted services have become a key revenue driver for CenturyLink. Data hosting operating revenues in the third quarter were $342 million, up 4.6 percent year-over-year.

For more:
- see the release

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