Highmark Inc, BlueCross BlueShield Data Center

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States

Sustainability

  • LEED Silver

Project Summary

Thanks to advances in technology and the availability of medical data, the healthcare industry has become more personalized, connected, and informed than ever before. For Highmark Inc., a national healthcare partner that provides comprehensive insurance plans, these changes meant a new way of doing business – and an identified need for upgraded infrastructure to support their critical business and IT needs now and into the future.

We were engaged as project managers to oversee the design, construction, and relocation of the company’s new data center – and ensure critical operations were unaffected by the project. As a part of this effort, we also worked with the Highmark team to develop an IT growth model, technology basis of design, and cable plant design to ensure plans met the physical requirements for the new facility, as well as the company’s established business and IT needs.

The project includes a new building on an exceptionally contoured site, replete with rock excavation. The data center is a two-story precast concrete structure, with 6,000 SF of adjoining office space. It features 2N electrical redundancy, N+1 mechanical redundancy, four 2 MW generator sets, and a dedicated on-site load bank. The Uptime Institute-certified Tier 3 facility was built for 30 W/SF, but includes a scalable design allowing technology growth to drive the subsequent installation to 70 W/SF capacity as requirements demanded higher densities. In addition to helping Highmark deliver faster, more reliable service to their customers, this data center was the world’s first LEED Silver certified data center – setting a new standard of excellence for the company and the data center industry alike.