Development News

123.net opening state's largest data center in Southfield

Thursday, February 21, 2013

It's being called the largest data center in Michigan, and it's setting up operations in Southfield.

123.Net is building 100,000 square feet of data space at 24700 Northwestern Highway, where several telecommunications carriers currently operate. 123.Net provides voice, internet and colocation services and it will use the new data center to develop what's known in telecommunications as Tier 3 and Tier 4 data center space, the first in Michigan.

123.Net describes the data center as "an Internet Exchange, a place where Internet Service Providers (ISPs), telecommunications carriers, content providers, web-hosters and cloud providers meet to exchange IP traffic with one another. 123.Net is also working with engineering firms to utilize the latest energy-efficient technology to reduce energy costs by 60%."

123.Net CEO Dan Irvin says in a statement that the facility will be a draw for companies around the country.

“As 123.Net continues to grow, and the demand for world-class data center space increases, we have decided to develop a facility that will allow businesses in Michigan and across the country to have access to a premium facility in the Detroit area,” says Dan Irvin, CEO of 123.Net.

The facility will offer a data center so that companies don't have to build their own.

“Businesses are choosing colocation at 123.Net’s facilities over other options to avoid the risk, capital expense, and potential pitfalls of owning and operating their own data center. The carrier-agnostic approach of 123.Net’s four data centers provides access to a marketplace of suppliers,” Dave Curran, Channel Sales Manager at 123.Net. says in the statement.

Writer: Kim North Shine
Source: 123.Net and Automation Alley

Altair Engineering opens Troy data center to manage icloud

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Altair Engineering, a 26-year-old company that provides specialized software and consulting services to the fields of engineering, computing and enterprise analytics, has opened a new data center in Troy, just over three miles from its world headquarters.

The company says the "exceptionally high-powered data center" that equates to a scientific super computer will manage its growing Hyper Works on Demand cloud-based, computer-aided engineering program for companies that rely on high-performance computing to run their operations.

The data center, among other services, gives companies several software solutions and cloud computing that can permit as many as 150 engineering jobs to run at once. The data center should be operational within the next several weeks.

“Companies often turn to HyperWorks On-Demand because they have outgrown their internal capacity or do not have the resources internally to manage high-performance computing equipment,” Altair Chief Information Officer Martin Nichols says. “HyperWorks On-Demand provides all our products as a cloud service, and this data center allows us to scale up to provide much larger on-demand clusters for our customers. ”

“Our HyperWorks On-Demand data center essentially fits the power of an entire building of high-performance computers into a single room, making it feasible now for medium to large-sized organizations to access substantial computing resources via Altair’s private cloud,” Nichols says. “The compute-power density of this center is phenomenal, far higher than that of a standard commercial data center. Altair’s is much more similar to a scientific super-computing installation.”

Construction on the the data center finished last week. It features extensive physical and cyber security measures and is monitored inside and out by video surveillance, night-vision cameras and sensors. Firewall devices protect data.

Altair has 1,500 employees in offices in North and South America, Europe and Asia.

Source: Jenn Korail, account supervisor Airfoil Public Relations
Writer: Kim North Shine

SEMCOG snags $2.8M Sustainable Communities grant

Metromode Thursday, October 21, 2010

Regional sustainability will be the focus of $2.8 million awarded to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments to unify transportation with housing and redevelopment. Conan Smith, Michigan Suburbs Alliance executive director and member of SEMCOG's executive committee, says planning for regional sustainability is important even though the area is not growing in population, like other grant winners.

"We're in a totally different boat," he says. "How do you create sustainability as people leave? These are big planning questions for the future of a metro region that is significantly smaller than a decade ago."

"What [the grant] does is integrate those systems -- transportation, housing, economic development -- around those concepts of sustainability."

Smith agrees that while much planning has been done in the past with an unequal amount of action, this award isn't dependent on other funding. "It gives us the opportunity to look at metro Detroit in a way that's never been viewed before," he says. "It's about what can we do with the assets that we have here in place right now that will allow us to realize this vision from a variety of actors."

The grants, from a partnership between the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Dept of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency, focus on actually implementing plans, rather than just funding yet another study. "We have the opportunity to do something really wonderful, and we ought to take that opportunity," Smith says.

Source: Conan Smith, executive committee member for SEMCOG and executive director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance
Writer: Kristin Lukowski

Midtown building undergoing renovation for Computech Detroit offices

Model D Thursday, April 01, 2010

Another renovation in Midtown is solidifying the neighborhood's reputation as the most dynamic place in the city. This time, Computech Corp. is turning an old mansion into its new headquarters and bringing lots of jobs with it.

Excerpt:

The 7,000-square-foot building located at the northeast corner of Cass and Kirby is currently undergoing renovations and, come May, will be the headquarters for Computech Corp., an IT company currently headquartered in Bingham Farms, with offices in India, Chicago, Toronto, and Atlanta. "I believe in the city and I believe that it is going to take small entrepreneurs to bring us back," says president Greg Cheesewright, a Toronto native who founded the company 14 years ago.

After Cheesewright conducted an extensive search -- "I went to every single building, I swear, in Detroit," -- he found the right one, and it was city-owned. Its Midtown location will enable Computech to work closely with Wayne State University. "It's an opportunity for me to get people from the university, have them come on as students in summer, train them ... and then get them as employees in four years," he says.

Read the rest of the story here.

Secure-24 cuts ribbon at new tech center in Plymouth

metromode Thursday, August 27, 2009

The ribbon is cut and the servers are humming at Secure-24's new data center in Plymouth.

The new 18,000-square-foot facility will house operations for both the Southfield-based information security provider and Wayne County. The new tech center will create 250 new jobs, according to Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano.

"It's a new direction for Wayne County," Ficano says. "It's something that sends a signal that we want you to come and invest in the area."

The $3.7 million facility was created as part of a public-private partnership. Secure-24 was able to build the facility, along with another 20,000-square-foot tech center in Southfield, thanks to a $7.1 million state tax credit over 10 years.

The idea is to consolidate IT projects between Secure-24 and Wayne County in a state-of-the-art and secure space. Organizers behind the project hope it will also attract more IT firms to the area.

Source: Robert Ficano, county executive of Wayne County
Writer: Jon Zemke

Secure-24 lands Wayne County for its new data center

metromode Thursday, April 02, 2009

Not long after Southfield-based information security provider Secure-24 put the finishing touches on its new data center in Plymouth, it signed one of its first clients -- and it's a big one.

Wayne County will use the data center for all of its IT and technology needs. The county and its 43 communities is expected to occupy 2,000 square feet (with an option to expand up to 5,000 square feet) of the data center.

"The success of this current initiative will dictate any future relationship," says Cheryl O�Brien, spokeswoman for Secure-24.

The new $5 million facility measures in at 18,000 square feet and comes with all of the fancy bells and whistles that get nerds geeked up. Construction was completed last winter and the firm expects to open it this spring.

In recent years, Secure-24 has hit triple-digit growth; headcount now exceeds 100. That growth helps explain why the Edward Lowe Foundation has named the firm one of Michigan's 50 Companies to Watch.

The firm, founded in 2000, manages the IT of financial, payroll and logistic services for companies like Foresee Results and GM Racing, among others. Its founders, Matthias Horch and Volker Straub, relocated from Germany and chose Metro Detroit over California.

Source: Cheryl O�Brien, spokeswoman for Secure-24
Writer: Jon Zemke

Secure-24 opens $5 million data center in Plymouth

metromode Thursday, February 12, 2009

Secure-24 is secure in the thought that it has found just the right place for its new data center in Plymouth.

"It has all of the cool things that make a data center a data center," says Matt Wenzler, vice president for Secure-24.

The new 17,000-square-foot facility will allow the Southfield-based information security provider to continue its torrid pace of growth. It has added 35 people since March of 2008, rounding out to a staff of 105.

"We plan to expand a lot at a pretty dramatic pace," Wenzler says. "A great deal of the reason we choose that location is because of the efforts of Wayne County. We were originally looking at building outside of the state."

Secure-24 has hit triple-digit growth in recent years. That growth helps explain why the company has been named as one of Michigan's 50 Companies to Watch by the Edward Lowe Foundation.

The firm manages the IT of financial, payroll and logistic services for companies like Foresee Results and GM Racing, among others. The company was formed in 2000 by two men, Matthias Horch and Volker Straub, who relocated from Germany. The pair decided to locate to Metro Detroit over California.

Source: Matt Wenzler, vice president of sales for Secure-24
Writer: Jon Zemke

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