MCNC positions its data center as a service offering in NC’s research market

MCNC is not a stranger to the data center industry, having operated facilities for over two decades. Still, the middle-mile provider sees an opportunity to provide an alternative source of connectivity to the research and education community. 

Through its operation of NCREN, a 4,400+-mile fiber network owned and operated by MCNC, it has served the R&E community for over 40 years.

Tracy Doaks, president and CEO of MCNC, said she is seeing requests from Tier 1 data center providers to offer fiber connectivity in the rural markets it serves.

“We happen to have all that infrastructure in the rural parts of the community where no one else has been willing to go,” she said. “We lease fiber, we always have, but these large data centers that are coming about in the state have no one else to reach out to but us.”

But Tier 1 hyperscalers are just one segment.

As Tier 1 hyperscalers look for new locations to build data centers, the research community is also seeing a need to scale its operations. While this segment leverages MCNC’s data center facilities, it is now asking for facilities capable of supporting even higher-power and higher-data workloads.

“Our researchers in higher education are asking, you've got this small data center with maybe a gigawatt of power,” Doaks said. “We need ten megawatts here. We need three over there.”

A new approach

Depending on the university, the R&E community wants access to a physical data center where they can install network equipment and adjust as needed.

MCNC is not going alone in its move to address its R&E customers’ desires.

It has entered a partnership with developer Banyan Oak, which is retrofitting existing manufacturing facilities to add data center capabilities. Today, Banyan Oak has built out five sites in the U.S. and Europe—New Mexico, Norway, Finland, Romania and Cyprus.

Additionally, Banyan Oaks is in the process of building out a data center site in North Carolina, which is set to go live in the fourth quarter, as well as other undisclosed sites across the U.S.

“They reached out to us because they bought an old cigarette manufacturing facility in Reidsville, North Carolina, and said, 'Hey, could you build us some fiber into our data center?” Doaks said. “And then further conversations were, you know, if you would like, you could lease some space in our data center for those clients that need it. And we're going to provide this flexible demand that you can use so you're not on the hook, right? Yeah. You know, ten people say they want it, and then five people end up taking it.”

While MCNC has provided colocation, data backup and recovery, managed hosting, and virtual machine services from its facilities in Research Triangle Park, NC, and Rosman, NC, the Banyan Oak agreement expands its capabilities.

“It’s an interesting window opening for us to be able to meet the needs of our clients because they're doing AI research, they're doing quantum research, and we're going to get into a business that is much more expanded than what we've been in because it's been mostly co-location,” Doaks said. “We've done that for a long time, so this is much bigger.”

In addition to offering alternative colocation facilities for the R&E community, Banyan Oaks maintains a stockpile of essential chips from key vendors, including AMD and NVIDIA, to support high-capacity AI capabilities. This eliminates the need for researchers to locate chips to operate.

“Banyan Oaks also has access to chips,” Doaks said. “So, where all the meat is in the AWS of the world, you know, they think they have all the chips, right?”

Doaks added that because “the chips will also be part of the deal, it lowers the bar quite a bit for researchers by not having to come into a data center and then also try to find the chips.”

Reigniting NC’s technology hubs

Another side benefit of MCNC’s work, providing services to researchers who need data center space, is that it can help reignite North Carolina's status as a technology capital.

Two data centers are available for MCNC’s clients: one in Research Triangle Park, NC, and one in Rosman, NC. 

Cities like Research Triangle Park (RTP) have been key hubs of technological innovation for decades, with major tenants like IBM and the former Nortel Networks.

However, in recent years, RTP has been undergoing what observers say is a structural evolution away from its traditional, auto-oriented "1960s suburban campus" model.

As part of its revitalization efforts, Research Triangle Foundation (the park's developer) has shifted to an urban-style model, developing mixed-use spaces.

Doaks hopes that its efforts with Banyan Oaks could help facilitate a new emergence of technology innovation throughout the state.

“In North Carolina, we were also always known as this tech hub within Research Triangle Park,” she said. “And what a lot of the community leaders are talking about now is we want to make sure that we become that again, that we continue to, with Research Triangle Park, for example, some of the companies have left.”

As a purveyor of middle-mile fiber infrastructure with an eye toward economic development, MCNC’s partnership to provide a data center-as-a-service offering could spur innovation in the state.

“If we can provide this data center as a service to researchers across the state, whether they're big or small, and make it affordable so they can have new, you know, discoveries in advanced technology, even in medicine,” Doaks said.  

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