04-04-13 | Blog Post
An area of Michigan that’s already a key location in Online Tech’s highly redundant system, is re-branding itself to spur tourism and economic development.
The Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce launched its new “See What’s Possible” campaign on Wednesday. The first round of commercials, which begin airing this week, plays off the word ‘See’ and includes the phrase ‘See wired,’ a nod to the area’s desire to lure high-tech industry to the area.
A big part of the area’s attempt at an economic revival is to repurpose the 15 empty former General Motors sites spread across the county. Three of them have found new life, including Online Tech’s Mid-Michigan data center, which was originally a GM IT disaster recovery center.
In 2005, Online Tech invested $1 million to get the 32,500 square foot Flint Township facility up to its compliance standards. The company recently announced plans to invest another $1 million in the center and hire 7-8 additional employees by the end of 2014.
The Genesee County location is a strategic one for Online Tech. While only 53 miles away from the company’s headquarters in Ann Arbor, the Mid-Michigan data center is on a different power grid than its two Ann Arbor data centers. The locations, interconnected through Gigabit fiber, offer an ideal solution for both high availability production and disaster recovery applications.
