Level 3 expands data center in San Francisco

What's different about this latest expansion is that it is an "enterprise-ready" facility that allows customers to design their own space and scale it to match their own growth patterns and control their own costs.

Since many enterprises have multiple domestic and global locations, they can also get access to additional network capacity and connectivity to Level 3's global network. Having that domestic and international network connectivity can be a differentiator to attract customers that are looking for a third-party data center provider.

What's more, unlike a private data center, Level 3 takes the burden of managing the facility off of the enterprise customer.

The service provider is tapping into what is set to become a lucrative opportunity. New data from 451 Research forecasts that the U.S. data center market will grow at 19.2 percent CAGR through 2013.

Sean Hackett, research director at 451 Research, said that "Enterprises of all sizes are recognizing the benefits offered by modern collocation services, and our research shows significant demand from both enterprises and service providers in the San Francisco area" like Level 3.