Novartis opens global data center at Alcon in Fort Worth

Alcon celebrated the latest addition to its expanding campus in Fort Worth on Tuesday as Novartis, its parent company, opened a $53 million global data center.

The 37,000-square-foot facility is the fourth data center worldwide for the Swiss drug giant and will support activities for the eye-care company in North and South America.

Rob James, chief information officer for Novartis, said Fort Worth was chosen over other possible sites in the U.S. and abroad because of the security provided by the Alcon campus and strong partnerships with the city and area contractors and suppliers.

Given the importance of data in developing new drugs, James said, “we know these centers will be instrumental in the next round of innovation at this company.”

He said the center opens this week with 10,000 square feet of information technology space, with the capability to expand to 35,000.

Since Novartis acquired Alcon in 2011, the company has added more than 1,000 jobs in Fort Worth as it combined some Ciba Vision operations from Atlanta with Alcon and added a Finance Service Center for its North American operations.

Alcon, which makes surgical equipment, pharmaceuticals and contact lenses, now employs about 4,400 people in Fort Worth. About 40 will work at the data center, including a few new positions.

Mayor Betsy Price said the city “is becoming quite a center for data.” This year, Facebook announced it had chosen a site at Alliance in far north Fort Worth for a data center.

She said the city was proud to be a partner with Alcon in its continued growth. Last year, the City Council approved a reinvestment zone for the Alcon campus that grants an 80 percent abatement on incremental real and personal property taxes for 10 years.

This story was originally published September 29, 2015 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Novartis opens global data center at Alcon in Fort Worth."