123.Net data center connects to West Michigan market

123.Net data center connects to West Michigan market

123Net's telecommunications network in Michigan includes four data centers. Photo via fb.com

Bryon Center is about to become the West Michigan entry point for a Southfield based telecommunications company.

123.Net — a 15 year old voice, data and co-location infrastructure service provider — is opening a remodeled 3,500-square-foot data center later this month, at 400 76th St. SW, Byron Center.

The facility will be 123.Net’s fourth data center and first in West Michigan.

123.Net paid about $750,000 to renovate the space after acquiring it when it bought West Michigan Internet Service, a local service provider, about two years ago, said 123.Net CEO and President Dan Irvin. 

Irvin said the remodeled space, which brought in about four new hires, will include security-monitoring systems, HVAC systems and strong connection to 123.Net's facilities in Southfield.

“There’s more redundancy," he said. "We increased the power there about tenfold." 

Irvin said the new data center will help serve as a backup and connector for 123.Net’s three Detroit-based data centers, as well as extend 123.Net’s market into Grand Rapids.

“The reason we expanded the data center was people in Detroit wanted a backup," he said. "They wanted a different data center on a different power grid. We use it as a backup for businesses in Detroit and vice versa.

“We’ve been quietly serving on a wholesale basis a lot of large Internet companies there in the Grand Rapids area, and this just enables us to do it," he said. "There are major Internet companies that use us, and this will help us provide better, cheaper Internet service to Grand Rapids.”

The remodeled data center is designed to allow the company's wholesale clients to "leverage our investment to expand their service offerings and to gain geographical redundancy for their critical infrastructure,” said Dave Curran, 123.Net channel manager.  


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