Ascenty invests US$190mn in launching two Mexican datacenters

Brazil’s Ascenty, controlled by US funds Digital Realty and Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, opened its first two datacenters in Mexico, both in the data hotspot of Querétaro.

The combined investment in the two facilities amounts to 1bn reais (US$190mn), the company said in a statement.

Together the datacenters have a total power capacity of 52MW, 44,000m2 of total area and capacity for 6,100 racks.

The first building, Mexico 1, has 21MW capacity, covers an area of 20,000m2 and has space for 2,700 racks, while Mexico 2 has 31MW, 24,000m2 and 3,400 rack spaces.

Initially planned for 2021, the two datacenters went live on July 1 and are already being used by customers. In case of Mexico 1, 25% of its capacity is currently being utilized and 20% of Mexico 2.

Ascenty did not disclose who the clients are.

Coincidentally, Oracle announced at the end of June that it was going live with its first cloud region in Mexico, also in Querétaro, becoming the first hyperscale cloud provider to activate in the country.

Ascenty's new units in Mexico are certified Tier 3 (TR3) by Uptime Institute and have a tri-bus distribution system, which the company claims will allow generators to run for more than 48 hours without supply. 

The two datacenters are also certified as carbon neutral.

In addition, they have a cooling system operating with redundancy and are connected by an underground fiber optic network with four different routes, which also connect to the main connectivity points in the region, according to the company.

“Querétaro is attractive because of its geographical location: close to the industrial zone of Bajío and Mexico City, but with a low risk of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes; and an efficient electrical infrastructure with power availability for datacenters,” Chris Torto, CEO and founder of Ascenty, said in a statement.

Different players in the segment, however, have recently pointed to the risk of Querétaro becoming saturated from a power supply perspective due to the number of energy-intensive datacenter projects being developed locally.

Torto added: “In addition to these openings in Mexico, we will consolidate our leadership in Latin America with the start-up of our second unit in Chile, later this year, as well as evaluating our entry into other markets in the region, such as Colombia and Peru.”

In Chile, the Santiago 2 unit will be built in the Quilicura district of the capital, covering an area of 21,000m2 and having 20MW capacity.

With the two Mexican datacenters, Ascenty now has 21 sites in operation and seven in construction, in Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

Pictured: Mexico 2 datacenter. Source: Ascenty