March 22, 2022

A building northwest of Sioux Falls sometimes called “the bunker” soon will be twice as big.

The SDN Communications data center earns the nickname with 12-inch thick concrete walls that can with stand an F4 tornado, or winds exceeding 200 mph.

“All of the real estate suites have been leased since our 2012 opening,” CEO Ryan Punt said in a statement. “We still have capacity in SDN’s colocation space for carriers doing data delivery services, but there’s no square footage for other business ventures until we complete our expansion.”

SDN built it as an emergency backup facility for its 50,000-mile fiber network, which supports critical business and government data operations and the networks of its owner companies – the 17 independent broadband companies of South Dakota.

“It is the type of facility our customers expect SDN to have to ensure the constant connectivity services. That’s ‘uptime,'” Punt said.

SDN built the space bigger than it needed, and other companies looking for data center space quickly filled in. Now, at least one tenant is exploring the need for added space, and there have been other inquiries, the company said.

“Two unique organizations reached out to us, not for data center needs, but for the hardened construction of the building,” vice president of marketing Vernon Brown said. “They handle either critical functions that can’t be interrupted by weather or hold priceless elements that must be protected from weather events.”

Those prospects found other more immediate solutions, but it got the SDN team thinking there might be a local need for more hardened facilities and data center space, Punt said.

“A building like this takes time and expense to complete,” he said. “We decided to construct the shell and some of the infrastructure, so we can react quickly when the next prospect approaches us for a build-to-suit space.”

The construction will add a 25,000-square-foot pod to the original structure. There’s room for two more pods for an additional 50,000 square feet. Features of the space include:

• 12-inch thick concrete walls.
• No windows.
• Biometric security access.
• Stringent, multilayered security control procedures.
• Dual authentication access control system.
• Diverse access to metro, statewide and regional fiber networks.
• Direct access to popular content delivery networks.
• Access to Tier 1 network providers.
• Diverse power provider different from much of Sioux Falls.
• 2 megawatt generator.
• Temperature and humidity control.
• Monitored building management system.
• Specialized fire suppression and smoke detection.
• Dry agent fire suppression.

Businesses looking for this kind of unique, hardened and secure space can request qualified tours.

SDN owns 66 acres at the location. The area can’t be fully developed until city sewer reaches there. However, SDN already has created a preliminary master design just in case city growth outpaces its planned infrastructure build-out.

SDN is owned by 17 South Dakota independent telecommunications companies – cooperatives, family, municipal and tribal-owned companies. They joined their independent networks in 1989 and created SDN as a hub for long-distance service to their rural customer base. Today, that same statewide fiber footprint allows for file sharing and internet traffic.

SDN’s network now reaches into eight states serving businesses in many sectors but specializing in banking, health care, manufacturing, government and education. SDN also offers cybersecurity managed services, including routers, firewalls and remote network monitoring.