Infrastructure Group is developing Reno Technology Park (RTP), a 2,200-acre (890-hectare) site 15
miles ( 24 kilometers) east of the city, into a data center conglomerate. Securing Apple as RTP’s first
company was a critical step in getting other high-tech companies to set their sights on Reno. “When
a company like Apple does due diligence on a site, it’s essentially vetted it for everyone else in the
business,” says Steve Rosa, principal, Unique Infrastructure Group, Reno.
Apple currently occupies just 345 acres (140 hectares) of the park. The first phase of the project
included a 20,000-square-foot ( 1,858-square-meter) rapid deployment data center module. The company continues to green-light construction of additional facilities.
RTP’s location is hard to beat: The Interstate 80 highway corridor, which runs directly through
Reno, is considered the fiber backbone of the northern United States. “Reno sits along the data superhighway between Silicon Valley and New York City,” Mr. Rosa says.
Unique Infrastructure Group is now courting additional companies to build data centers in RTP; Mr.
Rosa believes a custom-built water-cooling system, along with deregulated power prices and renewable
energy options, will attract interest in the park. (Water is often used to cool data centers’ computer
systems, which generate a lot of heat.) The increase in construction projects would be a boon for project
managers, but even after data centers go live, project management talent will be needed for upgrade
projects. “Data centers are not static systems,” says Mr. Rosa. “They refresh their technology on a two-or three-year cycle to adapt to changing standards and advances in facility designs.”
Help Wanted
The uptick in tech projects is already beginning to increase job opportunities for project managers in
the area. “We saw a contraction in the market after 2008, but companies are starting to hire again,”
says Tracy Sharp, PMP, project manager, Sharp Technology Solutions Corp., Reno.
Now, the mood is hopeful. “We’re seeing new companies move in and existing ones expand,” says
Eric Baryol, PMP, managing principal, Leverage IT Consulting, Reno. That’s meant more projects for
his company. In 2013, Reno-based sales training company Miller Heiman hired Leverage IT to get a
customer relations management software installation project that was behind schedule back on track.
“We came in and created a schedule and started controlling it with a weekly timeline and project processes,” Mr. Baryol says.
Soon after, Miller Heiman called his team back in for a phase-two project, which prepared the software system to be used by several newly acquired companies and was completed in February. “The
opportunities for project managers in Reno are not singular,” Mr. Baryol says. —Kate Sykes
SECURITY
SPENDING
SOARS
Organizations are spending
big to keep data-security
threats at bay. Worldwide,
information security
spending will hit US$71
billion this year, according to
Gartner. That’s a 7. 9 percent
increase over 2013—and
a rise that’s expected to
continue in 2015.
As social, mobile
and cloud computing
become more common,
organizations are growing
more aware of the security
threats each poses—
and funding projects to
strengthen infrastructure
and cover vulnerabilities.
Security is no longer seen as
just an IT function or a cost
center, research director
Lawrence Pingree pointed
out in the report.
In this new security
landscape, the answer isn’t
simply more spending:
Organizations are moving
resources out of security
device administration
and monitoring, and into
mitigation and incident
response. In 2015, it’s
predicted that roughly
10 percent of IT security
enterprise capabilities will
be delivered as a cloud
service. By 2018, Gartner
predicts more than half of
organizations will rely on
security services firms that
specialize in data protection,
risk and infrastructure
management. —M. Wright
Tesla Motors announced
it would spend
US$5 billion
to build a “gigafactory”
just outside of Reno
that will manufacture
lithium ion batteries and
employ 6,500 people.
I
M
A
GE
C
OU
RT
ES
Y
OF
TE
SL
A
M
OT
OR
S,
I
N
C
.