Digital Crossroads CRO, Bill Winsininski, unpacks the Chicago data center market and talks about some of the innovations at their newest facility in the market - that resides in Indiana.

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On HawkTalk 53, Digital Crossroad’s CRO Bill Winsininski joins David Liggitt to discuss the Chicago data center market as well as their new facility that is slated to go live in 4Q this year. The facility, even though it’s located in Indiana, is less than 15 fiber miles away from downtown Chicago and is directly connected to the carrier hotel in Chicago, 350 E. Cermak.

If you’re short on time, check out a few of our quick takeaways below.

Characteristics of the Digital Crossroad facility

The Digital Crossroad facility is located on Lake Michigan which they take full advantage of by using 900 gallons of water per day from the lake as a cheap and renewable source of cooling, not to mention the views the lake provides.

Digital Crossroad has big plans for its campus just outside of Chicago, including 1.7 million square feet in its final stage. Phase 1 of the campus is planned to go live this October with their first 20 megawatts.

Chicago will be looked at by bigger data center users moving forward

One of the most effective ways for states to bring economic activity to a market is to add incentives. The state of Illinois did just that when they put in place tax incentives that would eliminate sales tax for data center providers who invest at least $250 million dollars to building data center facilities in the state.

This is a clear attempt to attract new IT investment, and it seems to be likely that more of the bigger data center providers and users who are looking to build new facilities will give Illinois and the Chicago market more looks.

Future data center industry trends

Bill has been in this industry for a long time and has seen it grow to what it is today, we took the opportunity to get his predictions on where it’s going to go in the future.

The constant change and improvement in technology is the primary trend for Bill. 5G will continue to become more widespread and relevant, which will make the overall speed of wireless technology increase exponentially.

Specifically, in this time of COVID-19, we’ve seen how so many people have begun to utilize technology more in their daily lives whether their ordering groceries online or jumping on a video conference with co-workers. We’re truly seeing a paradigm shift in the way people use technology in their daily lives.