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Norm Laudermilch, managing director of Terremark's Culpeper facility, overlooks a model of the data-center campus.
An artist's rendering of Terremark facility
A network of PVC pipes will protect wiring for computers in the first of five buildings under construction |
Terremark, like the information it routes over the Internet, moves fast.
Nine months ago, no one in Culpeper had heard of the Miami-based company. Now, the network access point has a 50,000-square-foot high-security building under roof and plans to open its facility off McDevitt Drive in June.
"We're a little ahead of schedule, Norm Laudermilch, managing director of the Culpeper operation (officially called NAP of the Capital Region), said yesterday. "Still, there's a lot of work to be done to launch a facility of this nature."
Laudermilch isn't kidding. Plans calls for:
Five 50,000-square-foot computer buildings to be built over a five- to seven-year period at a minimum investment of $270 million.
An additional 72,000 square feet of office space on site.
Two hundred and fifty new jobs with a projected annual payroll of $22.5 million. That's an average salary of $90,000.
It is little wonder that Culpeper County and the town of Culpeper offered incentives to land the high-tech company.
Terremark is expected to aid the local economy in numerous ways, from providing high-paying jobs to filling the town's hotels (two new inns are scheduled to be built almost within sight of the facility) to increasing traffic at Culpeper Regional Airport.
"We want to be a positive and productive part of this county," Laudermilch said. "We want to do our part to add to the economic development of the county. Bringing Terremark here is more than just doing business here."
Still, business is what keeps the company's bottom line healthy and, despite talk of a recession, Laudermilch says prospects for the Culpeper facility are good.
"We're very pleased with the way opportunities are shaping up," he said. "We're already bringing customers from all over the country here to see the facility."
A POWERFUL OPERATION
For the time being, Laudermilch is operating out of rented office space at the Germanna Community College Technology Center next door. That's where the company will likely begin interviewing prospective employees as early as April.
Right now, though, construction is the main order of the day:
Inside the 10-inch-thick concrete walls and under the floors, miles of electrical conduit are in place and ready to be encased in concrete.
Atop these basement floors will sit 55 2.2-megawatt generators that will provide multiple backups in case of power loss.
Outside, three tanks will hold half a million gallons of diesel fuel that will fuel those generators in case of an emergency.
"We provide our customers with a 100 percent guarantee that this facility will keep their computers in operation," Laudermilch said.
Those computers will fill the 50,000 square feet of the main floor, which has a 22-foot-high ceiling. Around the walls, 8-inch pipes are being installed to circulate water and maintain 70-degree temperatures.
"Large computers don't run as hot as they used to, but they still require cooling," Laudermilch said.
To ensure that Terremark has enough power, Rappahannock Electric is doubling its line capacity in the area.
"When we're in full operation, this facility will use more electricity than the combined total for all the homes that are now in Culpeper County," Laudermilch said.
SECURE AND SURVIVABLE
As with SWIFT, the international banking operation that is Terremark's neighbor to the south, security will be a major priority:
No service truck will be allowed within 150 feet of the computer buildings.
X-ray and bomb-detecting machines similar to those at major airports will be used to guard against explosives.
Automobiles will not be permitted on the grounds, except in a secure parking lot on one end of the 30-acre site. "Inside the security gates, everyone will walk or be transported on golf-cart type vehicles," Laudermilch said.
"This will be the most secure and survivable data center ever built. It is being constructed to the highest government standard for information processing. This is really a bunker," he said.
And for good reason. The leading provider of information technology services in the world has among its 600 or so customers such high-powered entities as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and the federal government.
Laudermilch said he has had nothing but cooperation from Culpeper officials. The company will pay an estimated $4 million annually in local taxes when the facility is in full operation.
"We've really had no issues," he said. "The community has been very supportive."
He looked at the large concrete building--with 20-ton, 60-foot-high pre-fabricated pillars that arrived in a single piece--on which construction began in August.
"It's amazing how fast it came out of the ground," he said.
Donnie Johnston:|
Founded 28 years ago by Cuban-born Manuel Medina, Terremark provides two basic services:
It allows customers to co-locate computers to provide a backup in case of a disaster. Culpeper Managing Director Norm Laudermilch alluded to the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attacks, when companies located there had computer systems destroyed and had to rely on backups elsewhere. "It is cheaper for them to rent space in our facility than build another building," he said. "We would have a mirror image of their computer site." Terremark also serves as a primary computer site for many companies that may access their secure files in several ways, including by satellite. "About 90 percent of the [Internet] traffic between North and South America goes through our [750,000-square-foot] facility in Miami," Laudermilch said. |
