PENNSYLVANIA’S WALL STREET WEST INITIATIVE
TEK Park is the only facility currently capable of addressing the data center requirements of the Wall Street West Initiative.
Wall Street West is a multimillion dollar federal program designed to provide for complete systems backup for New York-based financial institutions in the event of a disaster. This initiative is funded and supported by $15 million from the Federal Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) grant, and more than $6 million in investment from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
In the aftermath of the events of September 11, 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recommended that New York-based financial institutions establish reliable backup services for their data systems outside their power grid to enable recovery and continuation of their systems within 2 hours of the original outage. In addition, these institutions were issued guidelines by the SEC, urging them to establish business continuity and disaster recovery procedures to deal with any significant business disruption.
Wall Street West is a solution for these financial institutions. Located in Northeastern PA, the area of Wall Street West includes the counties of Lehigh, Berks, Carbon, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne; a strategic location given the fact that the area is located on a separate power grid from Manhattan, yet within close proximity for easy access. According to SEC recommendations, this area meets requirements as a disaster recovery site, as it is located outside a 60 miles radius of NYC, but not more than 125 miles fiber miles of New York City, located on a separate power grid, separate watershed and within separate transportation system.
In addition, the Lehigh Valley is centrally located within easy access and a short drive to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston, and benefits from an advanced telecommunications infrastructure. According to the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, a project manager for the Wall Street West program, the area benefits from moderate operating costs, particularly in dealing with labor and real estate, affordable energy costs, substantial tax incentives, especially for businesses with 20+ employers in financial services and insurance industries, a lower cost of living, great quality of life, short commutes, excellent schools, and the wide availability of commercial sites and technology parks, such as TEK Park.
Given its current infrastructure and immense potential, the Mission Critical Facility at TEK Park stands to become the leading data center in the region, and an important part of the Wall Street West initiative. This Tier III/Tier IV facility features one of the most impressive infrastructures of its kind in the state, and is supported by the TEK Park campus, which itself features a fiber optic layout providing 100% redundancy to guarantee zero downtime, as well as dual substations for nearly 100% electrical redundancy. The Mission Critical Facility at TEK Park will prove to become a valuable component of the Wall Street West revolution.
E-mail: GAngstadt@TekPark.net