Thereâs no doubt that the U.S. data center market is experiencing a sizable boom. In 2021, more than 110 data centers projects launched in the U.S., according to data from market research firm Arizton Advisory and Intelligence.
The issue with these larger data centers, which are often combined to make campuses that can be hundreds of thousands of square feet, is the amount of space they take up and the resources they consume.
Las Vegas-based Avant Technologies hopes to shake up the traditional data center concept by opening its first micro data center in Milwaukeeâs suburbs. An exact location has not been selected yet.
While Avant Technologies has a Las Vegas address, the company has been fully remote since the COVID-19 pandemic and several key leaders live in Milwaukee.
“We’ve architected a next generation infrastructure for data centers that offers incredible compute power, speed and storage, but does so in a much more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable way,” said Timothy Lantz, president and chief executive officer of Avant Technologies.
Avantâs micro data center will take up less than 20,000 square feet of space. Lantz said the company will likely not construct a new building but find a current site within 15 to 20 minutes of the city of Milwaukee.
Avant will either partner with a local company to co-locate their micro data center within a larger facility or lease a space and refurbish it.
The data center will be specifically designed for private cloud companies in the AI and big data sectors. It is anticipated to be open in the first half of 2025.
“Milwaukee is the kind of an environment that’s ripe to build something really new and really exciting,” said Angela Harris, chief operating officer at Avant Technologies.
Angela Harris
The government is currently the number one user of micro data center facilities, Lantz explained. Government entities will build several micro-data centers throughout a region to support the use of Internet of Things technologies, like intelligent traffic lights. Avant Technologies is hoping to replicate this idea.
Sustainability is another goal for Avant’s micro data center. Larger data centers typically use large amounts of electricity and water. While Avantâs micro data center will still use a fair amount of electricity, Lantz said the company is working on getting the buildingâs water consumption âdown to zero.â
“There are a lot of communities that are saying no to (larger) data centers, because they don’t want that added strain on the grid as well as extra water consumption,” said Harris.
The company also considered Texas and California as locations for its first micro data center. In the end, Lantz and Harris said southeastern Wisconsinâs growing tech scene and centralized location made the state the perfect fit for Avant Technologies.
Specifically, Lantz pointed to the investments big names like Microsoft and Google have made in the state, along with the work being done by organizations like M7 and the Wisconsin Technology Council to support the southeastern Wisconsin tech community.
“We think Milwaukee has the beginnings of a great tech ecosystem,” said Lantz. âIn our analyses we look at the present market conditions, but we also evaluate trends into future and try to skate to where we believe the puck is headed.â
The regionâs network of colleges and universities, as well as the ability to source talent from other metros like Minneapolis and Chicago, were also attractive to Avant Technologies, Lantz added.
While traditional colocation data centers can often be used as an investment strategy for commercial real estate firms, Lantz hopes to return data centers back to their original purpose: providing optimized IT and cloud services to businesses.
