Digital Realty Trust Launches 'Risk Free' Product Program

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), the world's largest wholesale datacenter provider, has begun a first-of-its-kind program in the datacenter industry that guarantees its Turn-Key Datacenters®, Build-to-Suit Datacenters, and POD Architecture Services® projects will be completed on time and on budget. This program makes Digital Realty Trust the only datacenter provider that offers this type of guarantee for its product line, eliminating the risks of cost overruns, contingency fees and schedule slippage for customers.

"Essentially, we are offering customers the industry's first risk-free datacenter product line. Datacenter builds can be fraught with risk for customers that take a do-it-yourself approach to their data centers or that work with construction companies that do not specialize in data centers. Projects can often veer off course, leading to delays of months or years and cost overruns of millions or tens of millions of dollars. Digital Realty Trust's guarantees eliminate those risks for our customers," said Brent Behrman, Vice President of Global Sales at Digital Realty Trust.

A recent survey conducted by Data Center Knowledge illustrates the risks inherent in large-scale Do-it-Yourself (DIY) datacenter development projects. The survey of readers involved in recent datacenter projects showed that one fifth of all such datacenter projects were not completed on schedule. The survey also determined that one quarter of DIY datacenter projects went over budget with a sixth of them achieving overruns of a million dollars or more. The survey also determined that data centers built by in-house teams were twice as likely to have cost overruns between $1 million and $10 million as projects involving a wholesale datacenter provider.

"Designing and building data centers today is a complex process that has many inherent risks associated with it. For most IT organizations, planning, engineering and constructing these specialized facilities is a multi-year process that often results in budget overruns and delays in delivery," said Michelle Bailey, Research Vice President for IDC's Datacenter Trends Program. "Two key success factors in effective datacenter delivery are shortening time to market and injecting more predictability around the datacenter blueprint. The longer a datacenter project takes, the more likely it is to miss meeting corporate objectives and disrupting capacity planning models. Risk assessment and risk mitigation are therefore critical requirements for any company undertaking a datacenter project."

"Providing customers with guaranteed pricing and delivery, even for custom projects, is unique in the industry," said Dave Caron, Senior Vice President of Portfolio Management at Digital Realty Trust. "Rather than take on the risks associated with a $10 million, $50 million or $100 million datacenter project, our ability to provide this guarantee program offers customers a clear, risk-free option."

See our website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com for additional details on our guarantee program.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. owns, acquires, redevelops, develops and manages technology-related real estate. The Company is focused on providing Turn-Key Datacenter® and Powered Base Building® datacenter solutions for domestic and international tenants across a variety of industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 95 properties, excluding one property held as an investment in an unconsolidated joint venture, contain applications and operations critical to the day-to-day operations of technology industry tenants and corporate enterprise datacenter tenants. Comprising approximately 16.7 million square feet as of August 30, 2010, including 2.1 million square feet of space held for redevelopment, Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 27 markets throughout Europe and North America. For additional information, please visit Digital Realty Trust's website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.  

Turn-Key Datacenter, Powered Base Building and POD Architecture are registered trademarks of Digital Realty Trust.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to the Company's guarantee program. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: the impact of the recent deterioration in global economic, credit and market conditions; current local economic conditions in our geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in our industry or the industry sectors that we sell to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); our dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of a major tenant or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; our failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; increased interest rates and operating costs; our failure to repay debt when due or our breach of covenants or other terms contained in our loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; our inability to manage our growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; our failure to successfully operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of our lack of control of such investments; delays or unexpected costs in development or redevelopment of properties; decreased rental rates or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; our inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; our inability to acquire off-market properties; our inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to reporting companies; our failure to maintain our status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on our ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates.  For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by the Company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009 and the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2010 and June 30, 2010.  The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Digital Realty Trust, Inc.