Back in November, US Signal officially broke ground on the expansion of its data center in Des Moines. Now, just a few months later, the project is starting to take shape in a major way. With the walls now going up, the scale and vision for the expansion are becoming much more visible.

The data center expansion is designed to support growing demand for high-density, high-performance infrastructure, including AI workloads and next-generation compute environments that require greater power and cooling capacity.

Building for High-Density Infrastructure

“The trends that are driving the need for additional data center capacity are those high-density things,” said Nate Ohrt, Data Center Manager at US Signal’s Des Moines facility. “The AI expansions especially are coming up. We’re getting a lot of questions about, you know, can you support these high-density 20-kilowatt, 30-kilowatt racks?”

As infrastructure demands continue to evolve, the new space is being built to provide the flexibility and scalability customers increasingly need.

“With those things especially, you need the ability to not just provide them the power, but to cool them efficiently and effectively,” Nate said. “That’s going to be the design of our new expansion.”

More Capacity, More Flexibility

The project represents an important investment in the future of the Des Moines market and the customers that rely on the facility today. The expanded space will support everything from smaller deployments to much larger, high-density environments.

“It’ll just mean that we have the capability to service their needs, whether it’s a small installation or the biggest installation you’ve ever seen,” Nate said. “We’ll have the ability to be extremely flexible and light on our feet when it comes to their needs.”

For customers planning future growth, the expansion creates additional opportunities to scale infrastructure without compromising performance or reliability.

Seeing the Vision Come Together

For the Des Moines team, seeing the structure begin to rise is an exciting milestone after months of planning and preparation.

“As this project gets underway, I’m most excited for all the things that I’ve always wanted to do,” Nate said. “Instead of giving them one rack or a row of racks, I could give them a room.”

The expansion reflects not only the growth of US Signal, but also the continued growth of Des Moines as a technology hub.

A Team Built on Experience

The Des Moines facility is supported by a team with deep operational experience and long-standing ties to the site. Nate has been with the facility for 16 years, and several members of the team have grown alongside it as customer demand has evolved over time.

“Our facility here has been growing as the town expands, as our footprint expands,” Nate said. “We’ve never really met a challenge that we couldn’t complete for a customer.”

That experience continues to play an important role as the expansion moves forward and new capabilities are added to the site.

More Updates Ahead

Construction will continue throughout the coming months as the expansion moves closer to completion. More updates will be shared as additional milestones are reached.

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