Switch (company)

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Switch
Private
Industry Technology
Founded 2000[1]
Headquarters Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Key people
 Rob Roy (CEO, founder, chairman)
Number of employees
 400-500 [2]
Website supernap.com

Switch is a privately held company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The company is the developer and operator of the SUPERNAP, data center facilities, and provides colocation, telecommunications, cloud services, and content ecosystems.[1][3]

History

Switch began in 2000 as a government contractor, owning and operating data centers throughout Nevada and providing off-site server services.[1] Rob Roy, CEO and founder of Switch, is the organization's principal inventor and chief engineer.[4] Rob Roy holds 218 patents or patent-pending claims for SUPERNAP designs and engineering that have been Tier IV certified by the Uptime Institute.[5]

As of July 2015, half of the company’s 14 top executives were women.[6] Also in 2015, the company announced that they would join the second round of private sector companies to participate in President Barack Obama’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The company’s first project under this pledge is a 100 megawatt solar farm called Switch Station 1. [7] In January 2016 the company announced a new 80 MW solar project called Switch Station 2 and that as of January 1, 2016 all of its data centers are 100% renewably powered. [8]

SUPERNAP Facilities

In 2008, the company opened SUPERNAP 7, a 407,000-square-foot (37,800 m2) facility.[1] As of 2014, Switch has built and is operating two data centers spanning more than 750,000 square feet (70,000 m2) and covering SUPERNAP phases 1 through 8. In 2014, SUPERNAP 8, a 350,000-square-foot (33,000 m2) facility,[9] received the Tier IV Construction certification from the Uptime Institute, the first certification given to a colocation facility.[4][10] Later in 2014, SUPERNAP 8 received Uptime's Tier IV Gold certification for Operational Sustainability.[4] That same year, Switch formed SUPERNAP International with Orascom TMT Investments to build data center ecosystems worldwide based on designs from the Tier IV-rated SUPERNAP facility.[5] The company is constructing another facility planned at 600,000 square feet for its SUPERNAP 9 and 10 phases.[5][11] Switch is in the process of building a 600,000-square-foot (56,000 m2) facility adjacent to its other site.

The SUPERNAP facility generates power with a 100-megawatt solar facility with backup generators and tanks and is secured by armed guards. It has an air conditioning system that cools in four different ways.[12]


In January, 2015 Switch announced a $4 billion expansion plan to build two new facilities, the first a 1,200,000-square-foot (110,000 m2) facility on 1,000 acres (400 ha) at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and a second called the Las Vegas Digital Exchange Center. The Las Vegas center measures 2.4-million square feet with nine buildings completed. The Tahoe center is estimated to cover 6.5 million square feet at completion. That size would make it the largest data center in the world. The center may also have the largest data center building in the world, as plans for one of the seven buildings is an estimated 1.2-million square feet. That building will have 150 megawatts of capacity. The Tahoe center will cost $3 billion when complete.[13]

The company also announced a 500-mile (800 km) long fiber optic network called SUPERLOOP to connect the naps to each other and directly to Los Angeles and San Francisco.[14][15][10]

Customers

Switch has more than 1,000 clients, including Fortune 1000 companies.[4][16] Users include Sony, Google, and eBay.[17][16]

Switch developed a purchasing cooperative to allow customers to collectively purchase telecommunications and other services from the ten phases of its campus.[5] SUPERNAP facilities 1 through 6 have been sold, with network buying available for SUPERNAP 7 through 10. SUPERNAP 9 and 10 are under construction.[5][17]

Supercomputer Cherry Creek

In 2014, Switch announced collaboration with Intel and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to give university researchers access to a powerful supercomputer. iSupercomputer Cherry Creek will be housed on Switch's campus, with researchers accessing the computer through the SUPERNAP facilities' telecommunications network to work in fields that include genetics and medicine.[18]

Innevation Center

In summer 2015, the company made a half-million dollar investment in a facility located in downtown Reno, Nevada. Called the Innevation Center, the facility opened in September 2015 is meant to be a collaborative center for students, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors and non-profits. The 25,000 square foot building was purchased from City of Reno.[19] Switch contributed $500,000 for the interior buildout, and the center was funded from a $3 million grant from the Governor’s Office of Economic Development.[20]

Switch has also designed a 65,000 square foot Innevation Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.[21]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Overgaard, Kristi "Switch SUPERNAP Named as the First and Only Registered Hosting Center for Online Gaming by the Nevada Gaming Commission" Nevada Business. May 31, 2013
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Miller, Rich "SuperNAP 8 Earns Tier IV Gold Status for Operations" Data Center Knowledge. August 5, 2014
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Luxford, Hollie"SuperNAP Data Centers Branches Out of the US" Data Center Dynamics. March 13, 2014
  6. ↑ Rothberg, Daniel. “With seven women among its top 14 executives, Switch sets itself apart.” Vegas Inc. July 20, 2015
  7. ↑ Sverdlik, Yevgeniy. “Switch Joins Obama’s Business Climate Pledge, Plans 100 MW Solar Project in Nevada.” Data Center Knowledge. Aug. 24, 2015
  8. ↑ http://datacenterfrontier.com/switch-goes-green-renewable-power-supernaps/
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Miller, Rich "Shutterfly Deploys 1,000 Cabinets at Switch SUPERNAP" Data Center Knowledge. October 16, 2014
  12. ↑ Miller, Greg. “SUPERNAP: The “Fort Knox” in the Desert.” Wall Street Daily. Sept. 11, 2015
  13. ↑ Hidalgo, Jason.“Switch On: The World’s Largest Data Center.” Reno-Gazette Journal.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Brodkin, John "Meet Rob Roy, the man who built the SuperNAP data center" Network World. Jan. 22, 2009
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Miller, Rich "SuperNAP 8 Earns Tier IV Gold Status for Operations" Data Center Knowledge. August 5, 2014
  18. ↑ Schmidt, Will "UNLV Awarded the Use of Intel's World-Class Supercomputer Cherry Creek" Tech Cocktail Las Vegas. Oct. 13, 2014
  19. ↑ “Switch announces investment in downtown Reno Innevation Center.” Nevada Today. May 29, 2015
  20. ↑ McAndrew, Siobhan. “UNR’s venture in downtown Reno opens Tuesday.” Reno Gazette-Journal.
  21. ↑ Hidalgo, Jason. “UNR releases ‘Innevation Center’ renderings, Switch pitching in half million dollars." Reno Gazette-Journal. May 29, 2015

External links

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