06-12-13 | Blog Post
I have written a lot about what companies should look for in a location when deciding to build or partner with a data center. After the location has been decided upon, what happens when a data center decides to come to town?
“Economic developers love data centers,” says Yan Ness, Online Tech Co-CEO. Typically, data centers do not hire a lot of people like a plant would. However, economic developers see data centers as a supporting entity for their technology corridor.
To have a highly active technology corridor, you need local capability and access to highly trained, educated people. For example, technology companies can’t be successful if there is not a single intellectual property lawyer in town or an accountant that does not know how to depreciate software. Companies will end up leaving those areas because they can’t get the supporting local help that they need. The same goes for data centers.
We are seen as an important piece of the technology corridor infrastructure. Economic developers celebrate that local technology companies can purchase colocation, cloud hosting, and managed server services from a local business versus an out-of-state company such as Google or Amazon. Buying local brings local jobs.
Recently Online Tech, Michigan’s premier data center operator, announced a $1.5 million investment in their Mid-Michigan Data Center located in Flint, Michigan. Two additional 1-megawatt generators for additional backup capacity will be added as well as plans to hire 7 to 8 more technical staff over the next 12 to 18 months.
It was an abandoned site built by EDS for General Motor’s disaster recovery data center, but now serves as a world-class data center offering premier hosting facilities for mid-sized firms. In 2011, Online Tech invested $1 million dollars upgrading its UPS systems and maximizing efficiencies. Learn more about UPS Upgrades at the Mid-Michigan Data Center.
Watch more insights about the data center industry with Yan in:
After the Cloud, What Next? Mobile Technology in Data Centers
What does the future hold for the data center industry? Yan Ness, Co-CEO of Online Tech, gives his thoughts on how the data center industry will evolve over the next five years and beyond. One of the most popular data … Continue reading →
The Big Switch to Managed Services and Private Cloud
Customer Big Switch to Managed Services “Customers don’t want to deal with equipment anymore,” says Yan Ness, Online Tech’s Co-CEO. We are seeing customers more focused on buying applications than dealing with their servers. They want to use our fully … Continue reading →
Let’s Save the Planet by Filling Up the Data Centers
In 2013, the biggest trend for data centers is making them more energy efficient. There are very simple things companies can do like turning off the lights in the data center to more strategic plans like locating data centers in … Continue reading →
