L.A. County is taking another step toward moving into a new data center in 2017.
County officials on Tuesday looked at a proposed five-year lease agreement with operator T5 Data Centers to occupy more than 4,000 square feet of floor space in the company's "T5@Los Angeles" data center building in El Segundo.
The county's Internal Services Department will initially use the leased data center space, managing county-owned computer and telecommunication equipment from the location. The department's Information Technology Services division provides technology and data center services to 80,000 employees in more than 40 county departments.
The lease is structured to add an additional 8,000 square feet of floor space for other departments as needed, according to a brief from the county's CEO.
The county put out a competitive solicitation last spring and received five bids among a group of firms that provide Tier III data centers in the local area, according to the brief. Unsuccessful bidders proposed facilities in downtown L.A. and Torrance. The county's current data center is in Downey.
L.A. County estimates it will spend about $2 million annually on the floor space, power, cooling and office space at the facility, which is near the LAX airport. The contract includes options to extend the agreement by as many as four additional years.
The T5@Los Angeles facility was certified and commissioned in 2012, is LEED Silver and Tier III-plus certified, and features an indirect evaporative cooling system and a dedicated power substation onsite.
Last fall the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved the decision to lease data center and office space rather than having the county build its own dedicated facility. As far back as 2004 the county had mulled a plan to build its own consolidated data center at the Rancho Los Amigos campus to replace the Downey facility. The board halted that proposal in 2014.
Leasing is more cost-effective than building or buying a data center, L.A. County's CEO wrote. The county plans to move into the new data center in March 2017 and is continuing to implement a data center consolidation strategy.
