The Houston center is positioned on slightly more than two acres. It features redundant power and climate control systems, fire suppression and uninterrupted connectivity. Additionally, there are two megawatts of power with three one-megawatt diesel generators for backup and 600 tons of air conditioning.

"Our facilities are fully redundant," says Ken Cruise, co-founder and chairman of Solid Systems Inc., "eliminating the potential of any single-points-of-failure, allowing us to offer aggressive service level agreements." Cruise says the facility is designed for customers who "want to be absolutely sure that they always have access to their critical data."

In July 2000, Solid Systems had received $20 million in equity financing from BancBoston Capital and Alta Communications to build the Baton Rouge and Houston centers. The company has so far signed on GrandBasin, a venture of Landmark Graphics Corp. and NetworkOil in addition to five other clients to utilize the managed services at its Houston center.