Des Moines Business Record - April 16, 2007

A West Des Moines-based company has chosen Altoona over cities in two other states as the location for its new data center.

GeoLearning Inc., which specializes in e-learning and training services, will partner with 7-month-old Edge Business Continuity Center in altoona to create its new data center. Frank Russell, GeoLearning's president and CEO, told the Business Record last month that cities in Texas and Virginia were also up for consideration for the expansion. According to Will Hipwell, GeoLearning's senior vice president of marketing and product management, the EdgeBCC was the best options because of its location, price and high level of security.

The new data center will support GeoLearning's latest version of its learning management technology. The center will include about 100 new servers, which will be contained in a private caged-in area at the EdgeBCC. work on the data center should be completed over the summer. GeoLearning did not receive any state or local economic development incentives for this project.

Currently, GeoLearning operates data centers in Ottawa, Canada, and the Washington, D.C., area, in addition to a smaller one at its West Des Moines offices