"The Synergy Data Center and Services business is
about a
dream we all have of bringing a clean,
green, job–producing industry into Baker County," he says.
CCI and its partners, Arikkan Inc. of Salem, are
investing $1
million in phase one of the data
center, which includes installing 42 racks that each holding 36 servers. The center will be a
data and software storage and services facility, but it will be the related help–desk services
it can offer that Chaves says will create the jobs.
"The data center itself doesn’t require a lot of
people," says
Chaves. "It will create a few
positions. But the spin–off jobs is where the potential exists." One new help–desk project in
the works could create in two to three years those 100 jobs. Chaves says that project, not yet
finalized, involves working with a state agency to be the redundant site for its critical
applications.
Though Chaves "initially resisted" the
data center idea but then "the pieces just fell into place." Those pieces included the renovated
tower that made it an ideal spot for a data center; the 10–story building (left) is the tallest
in Eastern Oregon, is highly secure, seismically sound and in a no–flood zone. Baker’s cool
weather also helps cut energy costs by reducing the number of days when AC is needed; and labor
costs are lower.