Server farms feed demand for smart power strips

That quick Google search takes but seconds because each whim is served by a slave force of more than 20,000 servers the unseen army behind the billions of electronic transactions that keep the information age humming.

Those servers also process financial transactions and medical records, e-mails and video games. Like chickens at a factory farm, they sit stacked atop one another in wire cages.

"The factories that powered the industrial revolution have been replaced by the server farm of the information age," says Calvin Nicholson, marketing manager at Server Technology, Inc.

The proliferation of those mammoth server farms means more business for the company, headquartered at South Meadows in Reno.

In just the past year and a half, the company doubled its staff, says Nicholson. It now employs 100 to design and manufacture the power-distribution units required by ranks of servers.

Some data centers consume as much power as a small city. And, just as those chickens stacked to the ceilings generate a lot of body heat, towers of servers throw off a lot of electrical heat. They require lots of cooling. And with air conditioning comes condensation.

So Server Technology's advanced versions of the home power strip are smart. They monitor environmental factors, such as humidity levels and total energy use, to help data-center managers head off problems.

Server Technology, after doing business in the Bay Area for 20 years, relocated to Reno in 2000. It just added a 25,000-square-foot warehouse, bringing total workspace for engineering, design, assembly and shipping to 55,000 square feet.

It just opened an office in the United Kingdom. And Asia is in the plans.

It's building market share with a reputation for quality as well as the development of new products such as a specialized transfer switch, says Nicholson.

Server Technology was just issued a key patent on a vertical cabinet power distribution unit.

Meanwhile, the company must choose where to spend research and development dollars today to meet the needs of a market that's still evolving. It's chosen to invest that R&D money on new communication protocols, Nicholson says.

The company markets on line and at 30 trade shows a year. But of late, it's started to cultivate a public presence locally.

It's getting involved, for instance, with programs through the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada, says Brandon Ewing, executive vice president. The thinking is that more public exposure gets the word out about the company and that helps to recruit employees.