Pierce County’s the right place for leading-edge data center

ScaleMatrix CEO Chris Orlando welcomed attendees at the March 14, 2019 launch event

South Hill Puyallup’s Centeris data center campus officially welcomed an exciting new tenant in March that may help the region usher in the future.

San Diego-based ScaleMatrix, a high-density colocation and managed-services provider, brings Dynamic Density Control (DDC) technology to Centeris’ 86-acre South Hill Data Center Campus, owned and operated by The Benaroya Company. The data center is the first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

A colocation facility is a data center in which several businesses lease space for servers, as well as other computing and networking hardware. ScaleMatrix contracts with Centeris to provide the physical environment and security, then leases to a variety of customers who provide servers for storage. The center’s unique capabilities around density, energy and cost efficiency help ensure better infrastructure performance and better outcomes for even the most demanding technology systems. That’s good news for the region’s diverse mix of industries and a big draw for companies looking to relocate to the area.

“The push for advanced computing in applications such as artificial intelligence, genomics, aerospace, and automated services is truly a global movement,” said Larry Benaroya, Centeris director. “Here in Pierce County lies one of the very few data center examples of IT infrastructure that is ready and capable of supporting these activities today.”

The EDB was on hand for the ScaleMatrix exclusive launch event held March 14, joining Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier, representatives from The Benaroya Company and ScaleMatrix, and others to tour the data center and learn more about the facility’s cutting-edge features and capabilities.

Setting up shop on the Centeris campus made perfect sense for ScaleMatrix. “The region is home to an exceptional mix of enterprise business organizations that depend on technology to help them succeed in today’s competitive market,” said Chris Orlando, ScaleMatrix CEO and co-founder. “By combining ScaleMatrix technology and services with the resources at this fantastic location, we can now deliver capabilities to the Pacific Northwest market that were previously unavailable.”

By partnering with The Benaroya Company at South Hill, ScaleMatrix has access to significant real estate, competitive power pricing, regional, national and global connectivity options, and Centeris’ exceptional management team.

“This unique data center is a big win for Pierce County,” said EDB President and CEO Bruce Kendall. “DDC technology will go a long way to support the needs of existing and future South Sound companies.”

In a recent opinion piece in the  Puget Sound Business Journal, Bruce Kendall and Jonathan Smith, executive director of the Yakima County Development Association, explain why Washington State’s tax structure should be revised to encourage data centers to locate in urban areas of the State.