In a recent article from the Kansas City Star, “‘Data farms’ draw big tax breaks, incentives from states,” Scott Cannon touches on reasons why the Kansas City area makes an ideal spot for data centers to locate their operations. This is something all of us at 1102 GRAND have been saying for a while.

Darren Bonawitz, principal of 1102 GRAND, was interviewed for the article and added that tech businesses want to be located near the “clouds” that store their data. So not only is Kansas City a good location for data centers, but a Kansas City data center is good for the area.

Read the entire article here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/24/3450585/data-farms-draw-big-tax-breaks.html#storylink=cpy

As legislators continue to make the Kansas City area even more attractive for data centers via additional incentives, here are more reasons to look at Kansas City to locate a primary or backup data center:

• Relatively inexpensive power compared to other markets
• Reliable power
• Geographically centered in the US and used as a fiber hub for many
  carriers
• Well educated population
• Strong economic development groups
• Active technology community

Of course there are even more reasons, which you can read more about here:
http://1102grand.com/kansas-city-colocation/

If you have any questions about the Kansas City data center market, feel
free to send me an email at greg@1102grand.com. I would be happy to help
point you in the right direction.

The Kansas City area is an exciting place to be right now. The region is buzzing about innovation, household gigabit fiber and entrepreneurship.

As I’m attending numerous events surrounding these topics, I have noticed a trend in the types of questions and increased interest in data centers, colocation, networks, private cloud, public cloud, hybrid cloud, carrier hotels, disaster recovery and the list goes on. So, in the coming months I will work to share with you what I see, hear and learn. If you would like to see a particular topic covered, send me an email at greg@1102grand.com or give me a call at 816-213-7731.

The most common question I have received lately is what is a carrier hotel? (Disclaimer: 1102 GRAND is Kansas City’s carrier hotel and colocation facility.) The simple explanation is that they are facilities almost always found in a downtown area where the fiber is the most dense, close to the ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) and have an abundance of carriers/providers with fiber built into the facility. Typically, carrier hotels are identified by their address and they are found in Tier 1 (sometimes multiple) and Tier 2 cities.

Carrier hotels provide a neutral place for carriers and providers to connect their networks. For example, 1102 GRAND has over 30 ISPs (internet service providers) in our Meet Me Room where all the passive connections occur. With so many possibilities for direct connections to multiple networks, carrier hotels make ideal colocation facilities, or offsite data centers, for businesses of all sizes and government agencies that need access to multiple providers, or have large bandwith appetites. The Meet Me Room’s location within the facility where clients already collocate allows clients to easily change or add network services as their model scales or evolves. Additionally, in most cases, access to a network becomes less expensive at a carrier hotel because the end client has a direct gateway to the ISP’s network. The local loop or access charge goes away or is minimal. Sites such as 1102 GRAND are used as primary/production data centers, backup sites or PoPs (point of presence) on the client’s nationwide or global network.

That is a high level overview of the carrier hotel, but if you want to come check out our facility, give me a call and we will make arrangements.

As some of you may have heard or seen, 1102 GRAND is experiencing considerable growth within our collocation business. We would like to thank our existing and new customers for their ongoing business and support as well as all of our friends in the community that keep sending new companies our way. As a result of the growth, 1102 GRAND has been building out data center spaces non-stop this year, and this will continue for at least six more months. The first phase of the 9th floor is scheduled to open November 1st, and is already fully leased. In addition, the 5th floor that opened October 1st has just three cages remaining. This past week our crews started work on another 8500 square feet of caged collocation space that will be completed Q1 2012.

Greg Elliott, director of business development at 1102 GRAND, said that collocation growth has come from a wide range of industry verticals. “Heavy growth is coming from hosting and cloud providers as well as continued demand from healthcare IT companies. In addition to regional customers, the trend of east and west coast customers looking at Kansas City for more affordable data center solutions is contributing to the expansion,” said Elliott.

If you would like to schedule time to see the new spaces or tour the building, contact Greg Elliott at 816-213-7731 or Greg@1102Grand.com.

I ran across this article on CIOInsight.com on the prediction that hardware spending will reach $99 billion this year. At 1102 GRAND we are definitely seeing evidence of this spending on a daily basis. We are watching customers moving gear into newly built out collocation rooms within our building, as well as existing customers adding new or upgrading existing equipment. The growth appears to span many different verticals, but web hosting, managed IT service companies, healthcare IT and call centers are definitely the front-runners this year at 1102 GRAND.

Gartner: Data Center Hardware Spending to Hit $99B in 2011

Who says the future of IT is all in software? All software has to run on some sort of processor, physical or virtual, and all those have to run on something you can see and touch. And with the continuing deluge of data pouring into servers and storage arrays, there is no shortage of processors happening anytime soon.

Thus, IT hardware sales are going nowhere but up and to the right. Gartner has some new numbers that back up this trend.

The industry researcher is projecting that worldwide data center hardware spending will reach $98.9 billion by the end of calendar year 2011, up 12.7 percent from $87.8 billion in 2010, according to a report it published Oct. 13. Data center hardware spending is forecast to total $106.4 billion in 2012 and surpass $126.2 billion in 2015.

Data center hardware spending includes servers, storage and enterprise data center networking equipment.

Back to Pre-Downturn Levels
“Worldwide data center hardware spending will finally reach and surpass 2008 levels,” said Jon Hardcastle, research director at Gartner. “Growth in emerging regions particularly Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries) is balanced by continued weakness relative to pre-downturn levels in Japan and Western Europe.”

Storage is the main driver for growth, Hardcastle said. “Although only a quarter of data center hardware spending is on storage, almost half of the growth in spending will be from the storage market,” he said.

READ MORE

Event Date and Location
2011 Technology Entrepreneur Speakers Program: Testing Your Business Idea- Frequently Overlooked Questions
Tuesday, October 18 from 5:30-7:00 p.m.
Polsinelli Shughart PC
Kansas City, MO
$25 Advanced Registration. $30 On-Site Registration

Testing Your Business Idea- Frequently Overlooked Questions
For the final program of the year, hear from featured speaker, Cason Coplin, Chief Executive Officer at EcoFit Lighting, on five key areas to investigate for starting and growing your business.

Attendees will learn about:
• Market validation
• Product viability
• Financial support
• Management talent
• Execution capability

REGISTER NOW

Apple is everywhere, especially this week with the tragic passing of Steve Jobs and the release of the iPhone 4S. Even our hometown wireless provider, Sprint Nextel, will finally have the iPhone available mid-October. Phil Poje and his new company, Tech Orchard, recently launched into the Apple game as well. Phil has always been a great proponent of 1102 GRAND and we are excited to hear about his new venture. I had a chance to catch up with Phil this week to ask him a few questions about Tech Orchard and why he chose to start a business in the Kansas City Area.

Tell us about your new company.

Tech Orchard purchases and finds new homes for used iPhones and iPads; thus reducing landfills and overflowing desk drawers. Sellers can get cash or can donate the money to their favorite charity with Tech Orchard matching 10% to the same charity. www.techorchard.com
Tech Orchard will also assists organizations with the purchase, leasing, renting, and management of 1-1,000 iPads and/or iPhones. Our services will include, but not limited to implementation, security issues (data encryption), integration, iPad app development, and training.

Who are your clients?

Tech Orchard partners with individuals, businesses, healthcare, and educational institutions in purchasing pre-owned iPads and iPhones; then re-selling them after being refurbished.

What value do you offer your customers?

Tech Orchard buys old iPads and iPhones, and makes sure that any important data is securely erased. We provide cash back in order to purchase new equipment. Customers can feel good that the devices are being re-use or recycled responsibly.

Why are you in Kansas City?

I was born in Kansas City Missouri, raised in Kansas City Kansas, graduated from University of Missouri-Kansas City and have lived on both sides of the state line. The vibrant K.C. region is a great place to live, work and raise a family. The friendly Mid-western culture and variety of intellectual, sports and recreational activities make this a wonderful place to call home and build a business.

What is the best part of doing business in Kansas City?

The friendly culture of Kansas City along with the strong work ethic makes our city great for doing business. In addition, KC has recently been ranked among the best in the nation in terms of its IT work force. We have many innovative companies; and organizations like Google and others are recognizing the value our city and region has for them.

What are the benefits of working in Kansas City?

Smart people! Great educational institutions like KU Medical Center, UMKC, KU, K-State, Avila, Baker, Park College, DeVry and a stellar group of junior colleges. Also, we enjoy having many organizations like KC Next, SITAKS, KCIT Professionals, EDC of KC, ECJC, Kansas Pipeline, KCADC, Kauffman Foundation, Start KC and many others who are helping businesses like ours grow and prosper. At Tech Orchard, we are proud and privileged to be part of the Kansas City region.

What are the financial or economic incentives to living in Kansas City or the metro area?

Low cost of living, great communities, strong workforce, good infrastructure, and ease of transportation are a few of the financial/economic incentives of being based in Kansas City. In addition, we are developing a good community of investors who strive to re-investing back in new area companies.

How does someone get in touch with Tech Orchard to learn more?

Direct inquiries to Phil Poje, CEO, phil@techorchard.com

As I read the article, In the Pipeline: A Tidal Wave of Data, I started thinking about how much data I generate on a given day. I send tons of emails and texts, make pandora selections, tweet, post on LinkedIn, make charges on my debit and credit cards, utilize smart phone apps, make calls…well, you get the idea. Then I look at my children, who are better multi-taskers than I am, doing online homework from their laptops while simultaneously texting friends and downloading apps on their iPads. It is obvious that we will continue to generate more data, especially with the availability and affordability of increased internet capacity and speeds.

In the article, James Kobielus of Forrester predicted that storage will continue to increase at a more affordable cost, thus gaining my attention. He said, “By the end of the decade, petabytes of storage will live in the palm of your hand.” A blog post from Mozy.com in 2009 did a great job of illustrating what a petabyte looks like: 1,000,000 gigabytes equals a petabyte, or 13.3 years of HD-TV Video!

It will be interesting to see if Kobielus’ prediction comes true, but one thing is clear, more data is coming and we better be ready.

Thank you to all the golfers, sponsors and Deer Creek Golf Club for another successful golf tournament and IT networking event. The competition was fierce yet friendly and great connections were made.

Congratulations to the winners:
1st Place- Bluebird Network: Mike Brigman, Steve Crane, Don Gehringer and Scott Brown
2nd Place- K&W Underground: Rex Schick, Bill Reidy, Scott Plumb and Dwight Davis
3rd Place- Gary Kapperman, George Porta, Wayne Walker and Connie Walker

Longest Drive- Wayne Walker
Longest Putt- Bill Reidy
Closest to the Pin- DJ Good

Thank you again to our tournament sponsors: Rockefeller Group Technology Solutions (RGTS), K&W Underground, Stanger Industries, Lantel, Time Warner Business Class, KNK Telecom, Westhues Electric, Boulevard Brewery, Clayman Promotions, and Centriq IT Training. We couldn’t have done it without your generosity!

Google may have to hurry to book room in fast-filling Internet hotel

A principal at what he says is Kansas City’s only Internet carrier hotel routinely hears the same question: Is Google coming to 1102 Grand?

The more appropriate question might be: Who’s not coming to 1102 Grand?

Although he would welcome Google Inc., 1102 Grand LLC co-owner Darren Bonawitz barely has time to utter his “no comment” refrain to inquiring customers because of the company’s booming growth.

The company, which provides carrier-neutral, or public, data center space in a 26-story building in downtown Kansas City, matched its record 2010 revenue numbers in the first six months of this year.

READ MORE