As data centers continue to be a contentious point of the national conversation, one on a small scale opened recently in Lubbock. The company said it uses no water, and as much electricity as a local McDonald’s.
Here’s what to know about the new Duos Edge AI-ready data center at 1634 18th St.
The facility, leased from Lubbock ISD, cost about $1.2 million to build, according to Bill Radford, Vice President of Technology for Duos Edge Technology.
“This site is designed to be unmanned completely, because we know we’re putting them out in a lot of places and part of the way we keep the business model working is out overhead has to stay low,” Radford said. “There is no water in this facility. It’s not something that’s designed to be a drain. We’re here to be a benefit.”
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Radford said Duos’ smaller centers, designed with the same infrastructure as larger ones, use similar amounts of power to a McDonald’s and have a zero-water usage policy. The facility stays cool solely through air conditioning, which Radford compared as a superpowered version of an in-house unit.
“The larger data centers are bringing in the needs for power, growth, and that’s the part that most of the community is concerned about the most, is that cost ends up getting split among everybody,” Radford said. “For us, we try and get close to the power grid itself, as close as we can, because we like to pay for it.”
The Lubbock location has a max capacity of 200 kilowatts.
“In these, the first thing we do is offer space to the education system, so that they can support school systems in their area,” Radford said. “It’s space for them to put power and storage for the things that they do.”
As part of being a community partner, Duos offers either free space or profit sharing with local education centers. One of those centers using Duos’ facilities is Region 16 Education Service Center.
David Calabrese, Region 16 ESC’s coordinator of client strategy and solutions, said part of the draw of these data centers is security. Duos’ Lubbock facility offers security cameras, with AI facial recognition, and a Novak fire suppression system. Customers receive 24-hour access, and must email the company 24 hours ahead of time to get an entrance pin that will only work once, furthering security practices.
“The main thing about these data centers is the level of security that they have, which is sovereignty compliance, meaning that it’s the highest level,” said David Calabrese, Region 16 ESC’s coordinator of client strategy and solutions. “These are useful, and they also kind of take care of the main issue that everybody is talking about in the media, which is excessive use of power and excessive use of water. Those concerns are not there, and still you have the high security, high availability and the rest of the benefits, as well as distributors, need access to.”
Alana Edgin writes about business for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Got a news tip? Contact her via email at aedgin@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock Duos Edge data center opens, already operational with ISD
Reporting by Alana Edgin, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
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