First Greater Denver Data Center Summit A Success

Data center professionals from the area gathered to discuss the state of the industry.

The first Greater Denver Data Center Summit was held on August 17, 2017 at the Denver Art Museum.

The great Denver metro area, specifically downtown Denver, is home to several colocation data centers while in Colorado Springs, there is a mix of both enterprise and colocation data centers and demand is growing, according to Jeremy Meyers, business development manager, CBRE. “Denver has low power costs, a lot of talent, and low environmental risks,” said Meyers. Combined with the area’s access to the Western power grid and the Denver data center market is an attractive alternative to similar regions such as Minneapolis and Raleigh/Charlotte, NC.

One hurdle to locating in Denver is the lack of sales tax abatements for data centers in the area. “Abatements are definitely needed to instill long-term growth in the area,” said Meyer.

The summit featured several panel discussions on issues relevant to the area including data center management & operations, best practices for data center marketing, innovations in data center power generation, and an overview of the latest Uptime Institute Industry Report, with panel members from companies such as EdgeConneX, IO, DuPont Fabros, CoreSite, Etix, JLL, Vertiv, and Enabled Energy, Inc.

Around 325 people attended the event according to Brian Klebash, founder and president, CapRate Events, LLC, the organizer of the summit. “This is our first time in Denver,” Klebash said. “The timing is good due to the activity in the market.”

The next CapRate event, the Second Annual Greater Atlanta & Southeast Data Center Summit will be held on August 24, 2017 at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta.

Fritz was a former editor in chief of Mission Critical. She had been with BNP Media for more than a decade. She had been in charge of managing copy flow and the editorial production process for Mission Critical magazine since 2008. She was a graduate of Bowling Green State University. Read more articles by the author here: http://www.missioncriticalmagazine.com/caroline-fritz

This Conference is designed for anyone involved with 7×24 infrastructures – IT, data center, disaster recovery and network/ telecommunication managers, computer technologists, facility or building managers, supervisors, and engineers.