Stream Data Centers, which specializes in storing, protecting and sharing data for Fortune 500 companies, is about to open the first of five facilities in Goodyear west of Phoenix. 

The Dallas-based Stream Data is partnering with broadband giant Cox Communications to connect the facilities to the rest of the world. 

At full buildout, the campus will support up to 2 million square feet of data center buildings, making it the largest hyperscale campus development in the greater Phoenix region. 

Stream Data is the latest in a recent string of large data centers coming to the West Valley. A number of companies including Microsoft, Compass Data Centers, Vantage Data Centers and Stack Infrastructure have announced plans for projects. 

Data centers are the power behind many of today’s online services. They provide secure facilities to house large volumes of servers, routers, switches, and other equipment used in high volume data storage and processing.

Expansive campus for enterprise customers 

Stream Data Centers, in partnership with Cox鈥檚 commercial arm, Cox Business, is establishing a multi-tenant campus for hyperscale and enterprise customers for fiber connectivity and high speed to major markets, officials from both companies said. 

鈥淎t a time when economic growth is crucial to the economy, this pairing directly serves businesses of all sizes as they store, protect and share data across the region and the world,鈥� said Chad Rodriguez, vice president, network and cloud, Stream Data Centers.

Adding Cox, the largest telecom provider in Arizona and the U.S., ensures that business customers will have high performance and low latency connectivity, Rodriguez said. 

The Goodyear data center combines with Cox Business’ portfolio of services including connectivity, security, video, voice, colocation, managed services and cloud offerings, all of which are supported by a team of local experts, said Ed Aaronson, vice president of Cox Business. 

鈥淒ata centers are a key component to the economic growth of our community.  Our collaboration with Stream Data Centers illustrates the importance of blending data centers and connectivity. This is critical for our local businesses as they compete in a rapidly growing, data-driven economy,” Aaronson said.

Phase I opening in August 

Stream Data鈥檚 Phase I facility is a 418,200-square-foot hyperscale data center on 157 acres in Goodyear. It will support approximately 40.5 megawatts (MW) of critical load, to be delivered in the third quarter of 2020 with an initial 4.5 MW of capacity. Almost 127 acres of divisible land is still available for build-to-suit or custom data center development.

Stream’s customers will be able to interconnect their Stream services with other data centers, or to their local offices, via either dark fiber or internet transport services with speeds up to 100 gigabits per second (Gbps).

At least 30 acres of the campus are dedicated for an APS onsite substation with ultimate power capacity of 350 MW.

Greater Phoenix among fastest growing data center markets

APS and Salt River Project鈥檚 affordable and reliable energy are one reason companies cite for moving to the Phoenix region. Other reasons include minimal weather disruptions, lower land prices, tax incentives and quick access to freeways.   

Metro Phoenix was in the top five in the U.S. for data center leasing, construction and net absorption in the second half of 2019, driven by increased demand from cloud and enterprise users, according to CBRE鈥檚 U.S. Data Center Trends. Phoenix alo is the fifth largest data center market in the U.S., with 229.9 MW of inventory.

Half a dozen large projects announced in past year 

In the past year alone, the West Valley — and Goodyear in particular — are attracting many of the projects including: 

鈥� Compass Data Centers is planning an eight-facility project in Goodyear that eventually will encompass over 1.8 million square feet. Two new data centers will be built initially at Bullard Avenue and Yuma Road. 

鈥icrosoft is building three 鈥渨orld class鈥� data centers on a 279-acre site near the Phoenix Goodyear Airport that will rely entirely on renewable energy.

鈥� Stack Infrastructure is planning a data center in Avondale, which will add 1 million square feet of data center space.

鈥� Vantage Data Centers, a leading provider of wholesale data centers in North America, is building a large-scale data center campus in Goodyear.

鈥� Amazon also recently purchased land in Goodyear鈥檚 data center cluster, and reportedly is building a data center to complement its other operations in the area. 

Data centers create jobs, income gains for workers 

The U.S. data center market is expected to reach revenues of over $69 billion by 2024, according to Research and Markets.

In addition to storing, protecting and sharing data, research shows that these centers also contribute to job growth and income gains.  

In March 2018, the research firm RTI International published a report that stated that for every 1 data center worker, five jobs are supported elsewhere in the economy by operating expenditures after the surge in jobs caused by capital expenditures.

To learn more about Stream Data Centers, visit: . To view a video on Phase I, go to: .

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Pulling rural Arizona into digital age

Tens of thousands of residents and businesses in rural Arizona will see expanded access to reliable high speed internet service over the next two years. Places like Bullhead City, Fort Mohave, Page, Payson, Star Valley, and the Tonto Apache reservation. More rural highways will be getting connected, too.

Last week, Gov. Doug Ducey pledged to more than triple grant funding for broadband projects this year to $10 million to help erase the digital divide in rural areas.

Ducey also announced $50 million for the 鈥淪mart Highways Corridor鈥� initiative to bring connectivity to more rural highways as well.

鈥淲e鈥檙e just getting started,鈥� Gov. Ducey said last week after announcing plans to ratchet up efforts and funding to give rural communities the same competitive edge as their urban counterparts.

鈥淭hese grants are a crucial investment in rural Arizona,鈥� the governor said. 鈥淎ccess to fast, reliable internet will aid economic development, enhance educational opportunities, strengthen health care and improve public safety across rural Arizona.鈥�

Here鈥檚 what鈥檚 coming聽

Meanwhile, a number of projects are readying to break ground as a result of $3 million in grant funding approved last year. The Arizona Commerce Authority awards the grants through the state鈥檚 Rural Broadband Development Grant .

Development grants of up to $1 million were awarded for three projects this year:

• Mohave Electric Coop will provide high-speed broadband service at speeds up to 10 Gbps symmetrical to its 35,000 members in Bullhead City, Fort Mohave and Mohave Valley.
• Sparklight, formerly known as Cable One, will provide fiber to approximately 400 business customers in Payson, Star Valley and the Tonto Apache reservation that has symmetrical service up to 2 Gbps
• Commnet Wireless will create a new fiber-optic middle mile to Page to serve 310 small businesses and 1,066 households in the area.

Grants of up to $50,000 each were also awarded to Coconino County, Gila County, Springerville and St. Johns to start plotting broadband projects.

Highways targeted for connectivity

For more highway connectivity, the Arizona Department of Transportation will install more than 500 miles of broadband conduit and fiber optic cable along designated three highway segments:

• Interstate 17 between Sunset Point and Flagstaff
• Interstate 40 between the Arizona-New Mexico and Arizona-California borders
• Interstate 19 between Tucson and Nogales.

Rural digital crisis

Approximately 898,724 Arizona citizens – mostly in rural and tribal communities – have聽 limited or no access to high-speed internet, according to the 2018 Arizona Statewide Broadband Strategic Plan report. Only 78 percent of Arizonans have access to the internet in their home.

The governor鈥檚 announcement to triple grant funding this year is welcome news for rural residents, business owners, students and others who struggle to compete in the digital world, business and community representatives said.

Inadequate broadband services 鈥渕arginalize鈥� all individuals and businesses including commerce, education, medical services, work-from-home businesses, and emergency services, said Dave Lock, CEO of Grand Canyon State Electric Cooperative Association, the statewide association that represents Arizona鈥檚 electric cooperatives.

One of its cooperatives, Mohave Electric (MEC), is the first cooperative in the state to step up to offer high speed internet to consumers in its service area. Currently, only about 150 co-ops out of 900 in the U.S. have a broadband program.

Biggest step ever to close rural gap

About 19 million Americans, or 6 percent of the population, lack access to fixed broadband service at threshold speeds, according to a report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In rural areas, nearly one-fourth of the population, 14.5 million people, lack access. In tribal areas, nearly one-third of the population lacks access.

Even in areas where broadband is available, approximately 100 million Americans still do not subscribe.

Over the past two decades, state and national leaders have been working to address rural connectivity, including launching the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund. The FCC will vote on rules Jan. 30 for the proposed plan that will allocate $20.4 billion to broadband providers serving rural areas in the U.S. This represents the biggest single step ever by the FCC toward closing the rural digital divide.

The fund, to be allocated over the next 10 years, is being made available for the first time to cable providers, wireless companies and electric co-ops, to move more urgently to close the divide.

“This new fund would target rural areas across the country where residents currently lack access to adequate broadband and would deploy high-speed broadband to millions of rural Americans in an efficient and effective manner,” FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a prepared statement.

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