Appia Communications Signs Master Datacenter Lease Agreement With Digital Realty Trust

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: DLR), a global wholesale datacenter provider, has signed a master datacenter lease agreement with Appia Communications (www.appiaservices.com) for a combination of IT space and office space in Digital Realty Trust's 210 N. Tucker property in downtown St. Louis. Appia plans to utilize this space to expand the colocation services it offers to customers. The space will also serve as the U.S. headquarters for Appia's datacenter-related business.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Digital Realty Trust as we expand our colocation business with industry leading services," said Victor von Schlegell, Appia's President. "We offer colocation, virtual servers, and other enterprise solutions like network, collaboration, and communication- solutions for our customers as they migrate to the cloud. Digital Realty Trust is the leader in providing high quality, fully redundant data center facilities, which is the right place for us to base our infrastructure and operations to offer these services."

"We are seeing more activity in markets such as St. Louis, which were relatively underserved during the credit crunch. These markets provide growth opportunities for colocation and hosting providers looking to expand," said Jeff Paschke, senior datacenter analyst for Tier1 Research. "We also expect to see smaller providers turn to wholesale datacenters as part of their expansion strategy. This approach enables them to expand in new markets by leasing Turn-Key Datacenter space from a wholesale provider, which avoids sourcing hard-to-find funding to build out facilities."

"This agreement with Appia is another example of how we help companies in the colocation, hosting and cloud computing sectors enter new markets and expand their IT infrastructure rapidly to take advantage of growth opportunities in a cost effective manner," said Brent Behrman, Senior Vice President, Sales.

Behrman added: "As a long-term holder of properties, we have a long-term outlook that makes us a great partner for companies both big and small that have active growth plans. We also know that secondary datacenter markets like St. Louis, Houston, Philadelphia, and Sacramento, to name a few, have great growth opportunities for companies offering colocation and cloud services, and our properties are ideal for supporting companies in this market."

About Appia Communications

Appia Communications is a leading provider of managed communication and network services, with a focus on small to midsize companies and organizations. Appia's solutions help customers minimize capital investments, reduce costs, enhance employee productivity, improve customer care, and compete more effectively against much larger enterprises.

Headquartered in Traverse City, Michigan, Appia serves markets nationwide, with operations in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington D.C.

Appia has been recognized as one of America's fastest-growing private companies (Inc., 2007-10); one of the fastest-growing solution providers in the technology industry (CRN, 2009-10); and one of the top managed service providers in the world (MSPmentor, 2009-11). Appia has also been named one of the 2010 Michigan 50 Companies to Watch by the Edward Lowe Foundation.

About Digital Realty Trust, Inc.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. enables customers to deliver critical business applications by providing secure, reliable and cost effective datacenter facilities. Digital Realty Trust's customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty Trust's 96 properties, excluding two properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprise approximately 16.9 million square feet as of April 28, 2011, including 2.2 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. Digital Realty Trust's portfolio is located in 28 markets throughout Europe, North America and Singapore. Additional information about Digital Realty Trust is included in the Company Overview, which is available on the Investors page of Digital Realty Trust's website at http://www.digitalrealtytrust.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on Digital Realty Trust, Inc.'s 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 new lease with Appia, Appia's plans for expansion, expected demand by smaller colocation and hosting providers for wholesale datacenters and growth opportunities in underserved markets. 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 its geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in its industry or the industry sectors that it sells to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); its 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; its failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; increased interest rates and operating costs; risks associated with using debt to fund its business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, its failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in its credit ratings or its breach of covenants or other terms contained in its loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; its inability to manage its growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; its failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of its 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; its inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; its inability to acquire off-market properties; its inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to reporting companies; its failure to maintain its status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on its ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; losses in excess of its insurance coverage; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in local, state and federal regulatory requirements, including 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 Digital Realty Trust, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Digital Realty Trust, Inc.'s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010. Digital Realty Trust, Inc. 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.