FOREVER ON
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HOW T5 DATA CENTERS IS WINNING THE QUEST FOR UNINTERRUPTED SERVICE FOR ITS HYPERSCALE AND ENTERPRISE CUSTOMERS
NOVEMBER 2019
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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S
T5 Data Centers is tripling its staff to support new projects for hyperscale, enterprise and colocation customers both in construction services and facilities management.
T
5 Data Centers (T5) is focused both on real estate assets and supporting services across the global data center
arena, serving hyperscale, enterprise and coloca04
tion customers. A developer of high-quality data centers in the best markets in North America, and worldwide, T5 offers a range of services to meet the needs of the most demanding companies. “That’s why we created our Facilities Management division (T5FM) and our Construction Services division (T5CS),” explains T5’s President & CEO, Pete Marin. T5CS was established in 2014 and offers specialized construction services for missioncritical facilities and renewable energy solutions. The division excels with turnkey data hall construction, facility infrastructure upgrades, equipment procurement, project management and consulting, and green energy projects. With more than 200 mission-critical projects completed across the US, T5CS currently operates in 41 states.
NOVEMBER 2019
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$100mn+ Approximate revenue
2008
Year founded
400
Approximate number of employees
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“ The leading hyperscale users are building large solar arrays, so we’re developing that expertise and see it as complimentary business and part of the symbiotic relationship with everything we’re doing across the industry” 06
— Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers
Those green energy projects are supporting hyperscale and enterprise data center operators. “We’re ready to meet the demands of the latest initiatives,” assures Marin. “The leading hyperscale users are building large solar arrays, so we’re developing that expertise and see it as complimentary business and part of the symbiotic relationship with everything we’re doing across the industry. We are providing construction services to groups that actually own the purchase power agreements, and we’ll also look at investing in those in the future.” T5 has partnered with Cherry Street Energy to expand its renewable energy expertise by adding solar array installation to its growing list of general contracting support services. This will also help further develop T5’s leadership position on an important initiative gaining increased traction in the mission-critical industry. “The solar industry has come a long way over the last five years,” says Robbie Sovie, Executive Vice President for Development & Construction at T5. “The systems have become more efficient economically and the footprint efficiency has also improved,
NOVEMBER 2019
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘T5 DATA CENTERS – PETE MARIN, PRESIDENT & CEO, 2018 YEAR-END MESSAGE’ 07 allowing more watts-per-square-foot
design is so important; we always
in a given area. We anticipate green
make sure we utilize energy in the
energy will continue to expand within
most efficient way. If we have those
the mission-critical sector. We’re very
initiatives, then our customers are
excited to support Cherry Street
going to gravitate towards us because
Energy, and additional clients as
we compliment those initiatives. We’re
we implement solar solutions across
driving towards renewable energy to
North America.”
support data centers and help them
Among these projects will be the largest solar installation yet seen in
become more sustainable.” T5’s award-winning Facilities
the state of Georgia. “We’re always
Management and Operations division,
focused on improving the plans and
T5FM was also formed in 2014 and
reducing the amount of wasted power
now provides third-party mission-
that goes into a data center,” confirms
critical data center management and
Marin. “That’s why cutting-edge
operations services, including remote w w w.t 5 da t a c e nters . com
Nationwide Landscape Civil Engineers Architectures Planners Mission Critical Specialist: Lawson Fanney, P.E. Lawson.fanney@kimley-horn.com 404.201.6132 | 678.333.3387
NOVEMBER 2019
hands, property and asset management,
Right now, we’re focusing on the
consulting, and training.
piece of gear that gets replaced the
The technologies T5 leverages in its
most, and that’s the battery. Knowing
data center operations help support
when they need to be refurbished
its mantra: ‘Forever On’. For a
or replaced, saves money and can
company in the space and cooling
reduce waste.” He believes we’ll see
business, Marin notes that T5 is also
more data analytics tools deployed in
in “the guaranteed lights will never go
the data center and T5 will embrace
out business”. Put simply, reliability
that, while improving BMS (Building
is everything. “We need to monitor all
Management System) and EPMS
of those systems,” maintains Marin.
(Electrical Power Management
“Among the technology initiatives
System) capabilities to guarantee
we utilize is predictive analytics.
100% uptime. T5 has served leading
Being able to predict when a piece of
companies in IT, finance, insurance,
equipment is going to fail is vital.
health care, and telecommunications,
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
Pete Marin As President & Chief Executive Officer of T5 Data Centers, Pete is responsible for setting the overall strategy of the firm, maintaining client relationships, capital management, and creating and executing the firm’s vision for growth. Pete has more than 20 years of experience in the data center sector ranging from development, securing debt and equity capital, to tenant representation including site selection and incentives. Pete’s understanding of end-user needs has enabled T5 Data Centers to reduce project cycle-time and cost, which leads to successful relationships, and repeat business.
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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S
building a strong reputation for data center reliability as a serial recipient of The Uptime Institute’s Continuous Uptime Award for uninterrupted service. T5’s Senior Vice President & Director of Sales, David Horowitz notes that, even though the data center industry is still in its infancy, five to 10 years from now many of the legacy facilities will be considered outdated. He adds: “As enterprises continue to look to monetize their data centers, either by shifting to the cloud or adopting the wholesale outsourcing 10
model, being smarter in how we design our buildings and by utilizing improvements in technology will be a key factor for us when planning the future for T5.” T5 has been investing in that future through its alliance with QuadReal. The global real estate investment, operating and development company boasts a $27.4bn portfolio spanning across 23 major cities worldwide and was established to manage the real estate program of British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), one of Canada’s largest asset managers with a $145.6 billion portfolio. In the past year T5 and NOVEMBER 2019
QuadReal have joined forces by launching a $2.5bn fully integrated platform to develop, acquire and operate data centers. “We were able to raise capital with QuadReal with a long-term view across our differentiated platform of assets and services,” explains Horowitz. QuadReal had been looking to invest in the data center industry for several years. Horowitz notes the company was attracted to T5 above its competitors for a very good reason. “We offer a full suite of data center services and solutions: asset-based development and leasing, construction services, and facility management and operations. That’s our true differentiator that no other competitor in the data center business can offer.” Marin adds: “There’s plenty of capital out there looking to invest in the data center space, but there’s a very short list of qualified management teams. Most of the providers are just aiming to construct and lease buildings, few also have the expertise to operate them. Our alliance with QuadReal is a game-changer for current and future customers in the w w w.t 5 da t a c e nters . com
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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S
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enterprise and hyperscale markets, allowing us to build the world’s most advanced and customized data center facilities faster and at scale.” T5 is equipped to take on the challenges of a demanding marketplace. Marin explains it’s natural for the customer to want the highest quality product at the most competitive price. “Construction costs are increasing,” he adds. “We’re seeing upward pressure on labor costs but in the end, it’s all about our processes and our team. We have a tried and tested approach to managing the
“ We offer a full service: asset-based, construction services, and facility management and operations platform. That’s our true differentiator that no other competitor in the data center business can offer” — Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers
E XE CU T I VE PRO FI LE
David Horowitz David is Senior Vice President, Director of Sales for T5 Data Centers. David is responsible for overseeing business growth and promoting T5 Data Centers’ global portfolio and full services capabilities. David’s role includes developing the go-to-market strategy for new markets and leading the national sales team with its strategic initiatives. David has led multi-market searches for some of the world’s largest companies and has closed over 300MW and more than $1bn of data center real estate transactions. Prior to joining T5, David spent 10 years managing data center practice groups for commercial real estate firms.
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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S
C OM PA N Y S TAT S
• T5FM active in 15 US markets • T5 operating 28 data centers – mix of owned and third-party assets • 600MW of IT load managed • 200 mission critical projects completed across the US by T5CS
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• $2.5bn platform launched with QuadReal to develop, acquire and operate data centers
NOVEMBER 2019
people at each of our facilities and the strategy we have for delivering our products and services has proven to be successful.” That success is leading T5 to nearly triple its staff (from 150 to 400) to support new projects. “After building data centers for more than a decade, we are seeing changes in the market, and so we are adapting our operations and scaling to meet the evolving needs of our customers,” says Marin. T5 is committed to supporting veterans and “we were among the first in the data center industry to recruit former nuclear personnel from the navy,” he reveals. “We find that within that talent pool we’ve been able to identify great candidates to be retrained for the data center business.” In August this year, T5 was nominated among the top ten places to work in Atlanta, so clearly Marin and his team are on the right path. “We’re a small, private company,” reflects Horowitz. “But we have the communication and the collaboration across the business from our investors, down to the folks in the field, fueling a culture I believe is superior to any of our peers in the industry. We’ve developed this from w w w.t 5 da t a c e nters . com
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T 5 D ATA C E N T E R S
CPGbeyondthecloud.com
the ground up by giving everyone on our teams a voice in how we grow the business, implement change and introduce tools to improve our assets while empowering them to speak to our customers.” And, thanks to T5’s ability to provide customized real estate development solutions, the customers keep coming. “After an extensive national search by a large Fortune 100 company, we were awarded a demanding build-tosuit project designed to meet a client’s exact specifications,” explains 17
CLICK TO WATCH : ‘HOW T5 SECURES LA COUNTY DATA’
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“ Our alliance with QuadReal is a game-changer for current and future customers in the enterprise and hyperscale markets” — Pete Marin, President & CEO, T5 Data Centers
Horowitz. “Because of our collaborative and transparent approach, the project was a great success and we exceeded expectations on all fronts – budget, schedule and now the operations on an ongoing basis.” Moving forward, T5 will continue to ramp up its efforts. “We’ve been busy acquiring additional land holdings by investing out of our new venture with QuadReal to kick off developments,” reveals Marin. “We’ve purchased land in Portland, Oregon, in Atlanta, Georgia, and we’ve got land holdings
NOVEMBER 2019
QuadReal & T5 – a data center alliance “The data center market continues to experience very strong growth, driven by the accelerating digitalization of information,” says Jameson Weber, Head of Special Situations for QuadReal. “This strategic investment ($2.5bn) puts us in a very unique position to participate in this growing market alongside a
trusted company with a proven track record in data center development, construction, and management. T5 Data Centers is the logical partner to help us build a long-term business in tech-related real estate while ensuring our users receive the highest levels of service and security for their mission-critical data.” 19
in Charlotte and in Colorado. We also
they too grow their footprint and, from
have an active data center in LA and
an operational perspective, put our
we’re getting ready to launch a new
T5FM stamp on those facilities and
project in Dublin, Ireland.” Meanwhile,
reap the rewards from the strong
the company will also focus on
platform we’ve built over the past
growing its services while looking for
decade.” T5’s platform for excellence
M&A opportunities that will support
in the data center industry looks set
the scaling of T5’s platform. “Right
to march forward, forever on.
now, we’re on target to boost our employee levels to 400 and I can see that growth triple in the coming years,”
F o r e v e r On .
says Horowitz. “We have a lot of growth in front of us. We’re ready to support the top hyperscale users as w w w.t 5 da t a c e nters . com
3344 Peachtree Road, NE, Suite 2250 Atlanta GA 30326 T 404-239-7140 www.t5datacenters.com