Originally published to Bisnow.
Extending from the southern end of San Francisco for roughly 40 miles down Highway 101 is a cluster of cities known as Silicon Valley — the unofficial tech capital of the world. The “Silicon Valley” nickname originally appeared in the early 1970s in reference to the number of silicon chip creators and manufacturers that got their start there. Today, the region is home to the global HQ of technology titans like Apple, Google and Facebook, and accounts for fully a third of venture capital investment in the U.S.
While other cities in Silicon Valley, such as San Jose, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, are known for various technology milestones, Santa Clara is the premier spot for data centers in Silicon Valley. Driven by Santa Clara, Silicon Valley is the second-largest market for commissioned data center space in the U.S., behind only Northern Virginia. Data center space is a rare commodity in Silicon Valley, with a vacancy rate at less than 8% among the more than 30 data centers operating within a concentrated area of 3.5 square miles.
Silicon Valley’s data center footprint is growing. Global data center operator RagingWire recently disclosed that it will make its debut in the Silicon Valley market, leasing space to customers at its new Silicon Valley SV1 Data Center in Santa Clara. The 160K SF, four-story facility is being constructed on a 3.3-acre site, and will offer 64K SF of customizable data floor space and 16 megawatts of scalable critical IT load. First occupancy is expected in mid-2020.
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