Data center development gets traction

Creating 32 new jobs at an average salary of $90,000 each, NJVC Inc. last week resoundingly confirmed that development of data centers is likely to be big business for northern Nevada.

Still more appear on the way, following Apple and NJVC.

Executives of the several biggest names in the data industry have been in town in recent weeks, and the region appears poised to do well as the data-storage industry prepares to deal with a historic shift in the way it does business.

Among the locations that are getting a close look is Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, south of Interstate 80 from the location east of Sparks where Apple plans to build a major data center expected to create jobs for 41 employees and 200 contract professionals. (See story below.)

NJVC, eager to transition quickly and cost-efficiently into a new corporate strategy, is moving into an existing 20,000-square-foot data-center facility at Reno-Tahoe Tech Center in South Meadows.

From its initial staff of 32, the company headquartered at Vienna, Va., projects that it will grow to 45 employees by its second year.

It's recruiting network engineers, network administrators, system security engineers, virtual environment designers, data center facility engineers and administrative support personnel.

The new facility is a linchpin in the new strategy of NJVC to expand into commercial markets from its traditional base as a contractor to the federal government.

"I view the addition of the data center in Reno as the gateway to NJVC's future," says Jody Tedesco, president of the company.

By mid- to late August, the company expects that the Reno facility will begin hosting cloud-based data center services for industries that need high security for their data industries such as healthcare and financial services.

"The commercial markets represent a huge opportunity for us," says Tedesco.

While the privately held company doesn't disclose its revenues, Tedesco says contracts with the U.S. military and intelligence agencies in the past have represented "the vast majority" of the company's business.

NJVC has no worries about finding skilled employees for its new operation, even with the possible competition from Apple for staff.

"Northern Nevada has a good number of skilled technical experts, and we are committed to 'hiring local' as much has possible," Tedesco says.

The company is retrofitting the home of its Reno facility 20 percent at a time. The space originally was home to Redundant Networks and has served several other technology companies in the past decade.

Because it's moving into an existing facility where past users made big investments, NJVC will have a cost advantage against competitors who need to build new facilities from the ground up, Tedesco says.

He says the company seeks to hire local contractors for its work, and executives have been pleased with the support they have received.

"We expect to become an active member and contributor to the economy of northern Nevada for the long haul," he says. "We are here to stay."