The Pacific Northwest, Seattle in particular, is an up and coming area for data center location due to its connectivity, economic stability, and technology infrastructure. Seattle data center CEOs have built some of the largest data centers in the U.S., and have implemented innovative ideas in that construction. Let’s look at several data centers in Seattle and see what’s happening in the area of construction management.
Sabey Corporation
Dave Sabey is the CEO and founder of Sabey, and the Sabey motto is “built to last”.
Containing over 1,370,000 square feet, Sabey’s Seattle data center is the West Coast’s largest privately owned data center that serves multiple tenants.
Jim Harding, Sabey’s chief technology officer, described Dave Sabey as “having an uncanny grasp” of emerging trends. Evidence of that can be seen in the Seattle data center’s award-winning use of ambient cooling for most of the year, which, when combined with hydropower, allows the data center to be green and efficient.
Digital Fortress
The CEO of Digital Fortress, Matthew Gerber, serves the enterprise customer with over 60,000 square feet of data center space in Seattle.
Green energy is also the focus of Gerber, with over 95% of the data center’s utility power coming from hydroelectricity.
In addition to colo services, Gerber is adding cloud and managed services to the mix at Digital Fortress.
Clise Properties
The president of Clise Properties, Richard Stevenson, is technically not a data center CEO, however, his company owns the Westin Building, which houses data centers.
He is mentioned here for the innovative way the data center is being repurposed.
Amazon is building a campus across the street from the Westin Building. It will be heated with the waste heat from the data center. Water used to cool the data center will run by underground pipe to a 400,000-fgallon reservoir at the Amazon campus. There heat will be removed from the water to warm the Amazon building. The cooled water will run back across the street to cool down the data center, creating a looping system that benefits both the data center and the Amazon campus.
Where to Meet Seattle Data Center CEOs
When discussing construction management, the Greater Seattle & Pacific Northwest Data Center Summit must be mentioned.
CapRate produced an all-day conference in Seattle and that brought technology infrastructure executives from Seattle and the Pacific Northwest to discuss the state of the data center market, new developments, and future innovations. It was also a premier opportunity to network with leaders in the field.
Speakers included Matthew Gerber of Digital Fortress, John Sabey of Sabey Data Center Properties, Conan Lee of JLL, and others. There was a panel discussions, including one on how data center space is evolving, who is planning new data centers, the role of modularity, the life expectancy of a data center, and other topics specifically geared to construction management issues.
Which data center CEOs in Seattle do you feel excel at construction management? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.
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