DartPoints Buys Metro Data Center, Expands Into Ohio Hyperscale Hub

With the backing of new owner Astra Capital, edge colocation specialist DartPoints promised that it would be in acquisition mode. It hasn’t wasted any time, announcing Wednesday that it has purchased Metro Data Center, a data center provider that will give DartPoints access to the growing hyperscale cloud ecosystem in Central Ohio.

Metro is located in Dublin, Ohio, just outside Columbus. It’s about 20 miles from the growing cloud cluster in New Albany, which includes data centers for Facebook, Google and Amazon Web Services. The broader Columbus market is home to 26 data centers, serving local business demand as well as cloud campuses.

Private equity firm Astra Capital recently acquired a majority interest in DartPoints, and promised to invest “significant capital” to create a network of regional edge infrastructure in the U.S.

“The acquisition of MDC is a prime example of how we are executing on our strategy for regional growth aimed at improving interconnectivity,” adds Scott Willis, CEO of DartPoints. “MDC’s solutions enable DartPoints to immediately deliver our capabilities into this exciting market and surrounding locations. The MDC team has a long history of bringing innovative solutions to their customers, and we look forward to having them continue their work as a part of the DartPoints team.”

Metro Data Center (MDC) is a carrier-neutral data center with 22,000 SF of technical space, supporting a fully redundant N+1 environment.

“We are excited to join the DartPoints team to expand services to our existing customers, as well as additional customer segments which need improved network performance,” said Rob Kopp, co-founder and president of Metro Data Centers. “Our team is fully committed to integrate our solutions with the expanding DartPoints’ portfolio of interconnection points and providing communities in Central Ohio with innovative and best-in-class solutions.”

DartPoints is among a number of providers targeting the edge computing sector as the emergence of the Internet of Things and AI reinforces the need for data centers in new places.

DartPoints began planning a distributed network of micro data centers in 2012, making it one of the early players in the edge computing sector. After slow growth in its early years, the company’s strategy has evolved amid growing interest in low-latency edge services.

In June 2020, DartPoints announced its Eastern Iowa edge colocation data center interconnection point was ready for service. In August 2020, the company announced enhancements to its regional interconnection capabilities in Texas with LOGIX Fiber Networks. DartPoints and LOGIX Fiber Networks are both portfolio companies of Astra Capital Management.