If you’ve followed along with developing data center news, you’ve likely heard about the partnership between Ascent and Lincoln Rackhouse—two groups that have combined forces to change the way we look at data center facilities management operations.

We sat down with Martin Peck, Executive Vice President of Lincoln Rackhouse, and Bob Painter, President of Ascent, to hear about their journey toward partnership and their hopes for the future. But first, some background.

The History of Ascent and Lincoln Rackhouse

Founded in 1998, Ascent is a data center colocation provider located in St. Louis, Missouri. Recently, the company has grown to the Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and Toronto markets where they provide full life cycle support for data center facilities. Ascent’s client list includes several Fortune 500 companies, and the company's Dynamic Data Center Suite offering gives customers purpose-built, dedicated data center infrastructure.

Ascent is a one-stop-shop for all critical infrastructure needs, and works hand-in-hand with customers to provide flexible, scalable, secure, and highly available solutions to ensure their individual needs are met.

Lincoln Rackhouse is the data center division of Lincoln Property Company, and it focuses on helping clients locate, analyze, and secure data center space to lease or own. Dallas-based Lincoln Property has earned its reputation as effective, professional managers of residential and commercial properties with more than 50 years of experience in building, owning, and managing one of the largest commercial real estate firms in the United States.

Upon the acquisition of Rackhouse Group in 2010, the newly created Lincoln Rackhouse division allowed Lincoln Property to diversify its professional repertoire to include data center development. Today, Lincoln Rackhouse offers unparalleled market and industry knowledge with an unbiased approach in fulfilling technology requirements.

A Mutual Commitment to Serving Clients

Hearing Martin and Bob talk about their experience working together and planning this partnership, it’s easy to tell that their shared commitment to both their customers and their employees made this an easy match.

As Bob shares, “Partnering with Lincoln Rackhouse will allow us to continue providing and growing our industry-leading solutions and services offering and to accelerate our development and deployment of innovative technologies.” And he shares that they’re in it for the long haul: “This is the first step in our next decade of strategic growth, market leadership, and best-in-class customer service.”

Ascent's services, which include data center operations and maintenance management, design, construction management, consulting, and engineering, will help customers reduce risk as they gain more control over their data center environments. Combine their experience serving customers with Lincoln Rackhouse’s data center acquisition, development, and project management activities and the companies are poised for growth.

Lincoln Rackhouse currently manages a large portfolio of data centers, with over 2 million square feet of mission critical space across the U.S. and in London. As Lincoln Rackhouse continues to acquire and develop enterprise data center facilities, each acquisition and development will benefit from the expertise that Ascent now brings—an advantage not lost on Martin Peck.

Speaking about his excitement for this new partnership, Martin says, “Ascent has top-shelf platforms and processes, but it’s their talented employees that make this partnership so special. We’re honored to contribute to the growth of the go-forward company.” There’s no doubt that the combining of these two forces is going to make them market movers.

Hearing Martin and Bob talk about the partnership makes it hard not to cheer for them and their teams. They have a shared confidence in the values and strengths that both groups bring to the table, and it’s clear that the future for what they can do together is bright.