Even as speculation of a potential sale hangs over Pacnet, the company is pushing forward with an aggressive data center buildout in China, opening its latest Tier III facility in Tianjin, with direct fiber connections into Beijing. (See Pacnet Opens Tianjin Data Center.)

The location of the new 225,000-square-foot facility, in the Gaocun Science & Technology Innovation Park of the Tianjin Wuqing District, is less than 50 kilometers from downtown Beijing, says Jim Fagan, president of managed services at Pacnet , and gives Pacnet a state-of-the-art hosting facility for cloud services and digital media in a critical area.

"Because of pollution and power controls, there is a moratorium on data center construction in Beijing," Fagan notes. "Because we are able to get fiber connectivity directly to our main point of presence in Beijing, this facility is well positioned for substantial growth."

The Tianjin-to-Beijing connection uses the Pacnet Enabled Network (PEN), the company's network-as-a-service offering for cloud deployments that is built on software-defined network technology.

Pacnet is targeting both multinational companies looking for a managed services/cloud presence in China and the growing Chinese digital media companies including e-commerce giant Alibaba.com Hong Kong Ltd. and digital media conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd., according to Fagan. These large Chinese firms do much of their own infrastructure buildouts -- like their American counterparts -- but the location and availability of the Pacnet site is expected to appeal to a broad base of customers.

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Pacnet's new data center is the first of its kind in the Tianjin Wuqing District and was built with the cooperation of the Tianjin government, which is looking to boost economic development in this new industrial district.

Fagan maintains the new Pacnet facility brings better power and economics to an area where the existing data center infrastructure is aging.

The new data center opening comes weeks after Pacnet announced a new CEO for its equity joint venture in China, Pacnet Business Solutions. The company has been the subject of speculation that it might be a takeover target. (See Global Cloud Xchange Chief Expects Takeover and Pacnet Appoints China CEO .)

Pacnet has data centers in four other China locations: Chongqing, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Shanghai, and a total of 15 data centers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Pacnet is far from alone in building out infrastructure in China, of course. Most recently, CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) announced its own expansion in that region. (See CenturyLink Expands in China and CenturyLink Goes Behind the Great Firewall.)

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading