2015 Data Center 100: 20 Designers and Builders
D ata Center 100 - 20 Designers and Builders
Regardless of the size of the data center, the right mix of IT, power and cooling equipment, and how that equipment is integrated into the facilities, is key to maximizing efficiency and providing the flexibility to expand as needed. Successful integration of equipment into data centers depends on finding the right companies with site preparation, design, construction and management expertise. Those organizations also need to be able to quickly turn the new facilities over to customers and help manage the transition.
Such designers and builders are often the unsung heroes of the data center. But not in CRN.
Here are the data center designers and builders to make this year's Data Center 100 list.
AECOM
Los Angeles
Michael Burke
CEO
AECOM provides building and construction services to a wide range of industries. For data centers, it offers skills in such areas as acoustics, vibration control, fire engineering, and advanced security, in addition to building the power and cooling infrastructures.
AHA Consulting Engineers
Lexington, Mass.
Martin Holloran
CEO
AHA Consulting Engineers provides data center and mission-critical facilities design services with consulting expertise in mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, building commissioning, sustainability consulting and energy modeling, and provides LEED project administration.
Alcatex
Royse City, Texas
Carlton Griffis
Founder, VP
Alcatex, a woman-owned small business specializing in data center design and construction, also provides related data center services including migration, relocation, building and demolition, as well as help with power, fire suppression, and cooling infrastructures. The company also buys and sells new and used generators.
Burns & McDonnell
Kansas City, Mo.
Greg Graves
Chairman, CEO
Burns & McDonnell provides designs, engineers and constructs high‐performance, energy‐efficient and scalable data centers and other facilities. The company's design, engineering and construction services are integrated to provide clients with a single point of contact for the entire project.
Business Information Services
Colts Neck, N.J.
Robert Cassiliano
President, CEO
Business Information Services, a.k.a. Biz, provides data center customers with engineering, networking, telecom, security and cabling infrastructure services; energy assessments; corporate relocation and technical recruiting services, and business continuity and disaster recovery services.
Comfort Systems USA
Houston
Brian Lane
CEO
Heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) services provider Comfort Systems USA constructs, services and maintains mission-critical cooling solutions across a wide range of building types including data centers. The company expanded in 2014 with its acquisition of mechanical and HVAC contractor Dyna Ten.
Compass Data Centers
Dallas
Chris Crosby
Founder, CEO
Compass Data Centers builds dedicated, natural-disaster-resistant data centers with 1-4 MWs of initial IT load capacity and with plenty of room for future growth. Its data centers offer support for high-density 30-KW racks and Uptime Tier III and LEED Gold certification.
COPT Data Center Solutions
Columbia, Md.
Roger Waesche
President, CEO
Corporate Office Properties Trust (COPT), a REIT (real estate investment trust) has more than 60 data center properties including six purpose-built data centers. The company can also design and build data centers with LEED, SCIF, DCID 705.1 and UFC/ATFP certifications.
Corgan
New York
Bob Morris
President, CEO
Corgan is a top architecture and design firm, and counts mission-critical facilities among its core businesses. It has been ranked as the No. 1 architectural firm for data centers by Building Design and Construction magazine for several years. Recent customers include State Farm and Data Foundry.
Cosentini Mission Critical
New York
Chris von Holten
VP
Cosentini Mission Critical provides HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, commissioning, building modeling, lighting, sustainable design, LEED facilitation, and other services and related consulting for mission-critical and IT facilities.
Data Centers Delivered
New York
Stephen Madaffari
Principal
Data Centers Delivered manufactures custom modular data centers, and utilizes off-site construction to custom-build IT modules, electrical infrastructure and mechanical infrastructure for stand-alone buildings or for installation in traditional buildings. The company in 2014 signed new contracts including Telx and Digital Realty.
EEC (Electronic Environments)
Marlborough, Mass.
Kenneth Rapoport
Founder, CEO
Electronic Environments Corporation (EEC) provides mission-critical life-cycle services from the planning and building phases to assessments. The company can deliver engineering, construction, and maintenance services as custom turnkey solutions, including solutions for data center energy and cooling.
Ehvert Mission Critical
Toronto
Vello Ehvert
President
Ehvert offers a full suite of turnkey data center engineering and technology solutions from the assessment process through design, contraction and operations, with services including engineering, procurement to construction, sustainability, and ongoing systems support.
Gensler
San Francisco
Diane Hoskins, Andy Cohen & David Gensler
Co-CEOs
The top data center architecture firm in 2013 according to Building Design & Construction magazine, Gensler provides services throughout the design cycle starting from initial strategy and design planning through implementation and then management.
MDI Access
Alsip, Ill.
Robert Heiderscheidt
President, CEO
MDI Access is a general contracting firm specializing in data center and telecommunications infrastructures. The company offers data center design and build services, co-location programming and deployment, and infrastructure management services.
PTS Data Center Solutions
Oakland, N.J.
Pete Sacco
Founder, President
Data center consulting firm and turnkey solutions provider PTS specializes in data center planning, design, engineering, construction management, commissioning, monitoring and maintenance management services. One big customer in 2014 was itself as it moved into a new data center renovated with its own in-house capabilities.
Total Site Solutions
Columbia, Md.
Anthony Angelini
President, CEO
Total Site Solutions provides mission-critical infrastructure design and support services including data center assessment and audit, design, construction, operations, maintenance and planning for both traditional and modular data centers, with a full series of life-cycle services for modular solutions from pre-deployment to post-deployment.
Utilipath
Mooresville, N.C.
Eric Plott
President
Utilipath, a business unit of carrier dark fiber services provider Voille, provides fibre construction and engineering services from data centers to home, with solutions customized for data centers, intelligent building systems, equipment and networking, and outside plant and private fiber builds.
Wood Harbinger
Bellevue, Wash.
Thomas A. Leonidas Jr.
President, CEO
Wood Harbinger provides mechanical and electrical engineering, IT and commissioning services for buildings and the infrastructure and industrial systems that support them, with expertise in campus infrastructures, commissioning, electrical, fire protection, industrial system, planning and IT.
WSP Global
Montreal
David Cooper
President, CEO, U.S. region
WSP Global provides professional services across many industries including energy-efficient data centers, where it offers offer specialist services such as fire engineering, lighting design, buildings transportation, intelligent buildings systems and green building design.