We at Cupertino Electric announced last week that the company purchased data center design and commissioning firm California Data Center Design Group (CDCDG). This is an exciting opportunity for both companies. CDCDG exposes Cupertino Electric to new customers and brings a very different process to the mix regarding how they walk customers through setting up a data center. It's a very different approach from how we at Cupertino Electric would go about it and a really great addition to our current offerings.
Don't get me wrong, Cupertino Electric has a great team. However, there is definite value in having a third-party, independent commissioning firm involved with certain data center projects. Where we've provided construction services, CDCDG can supplement our efforts with unbiased commissioning efforts. We see this as a complimentary offering.
Some of our data center developers are adopting a plans and specs, low-bid approach in an attempt to get to the best first cost. While we don't want to second-guess the decisions of our respected customers, this can sometimes expose an owner to quality issues. We see great need for expert commissioning services, like those offered by CDCDG, in this new era of data center construction. The quality piece is extremely critical and CDCDG has it. When customers have the opportunity to use third-party commissioning, it's a great way to get a clean set of eyes to review the design. By keeping the folks at CDCDG agnostic, we can also offer that to Cupertino Electric customers.
CDCDG and its five principals will remain independent. They'll operate as an independent division of Cupertino Electric to maintain the technology- and vendor-agnostic position that the company has forged in the data center industry. Our competitors would say that we're one in the same (CEI and CDCDG), but that's not the case. CDCDG has done more business with our competitors than us at Cupertino Electric. They do a good deal of work outside of the U.S., which is exciting. I can assure you that they'll be completely independent. We are not requiring that either group use each other, so if it happens, it will happen naturally.
What's great for CDCDG is that it will retain its name and philosophy, while leveraging the additional resources and infrastructure of Cupertino Electric. We can augment their infrastructure with things like real-time budgeting capabilities. We've got an enormous staff of estimators, project managers and field personnel who can also provide constructability analysis and scheduling suggestions to give them real pre-construction support.
About California Data Center Design Group
Founded in 1992, CDCDG offers integrated data center design, engineering, construction, project management, and lifecycle operations and maintenance services. The company has successfully completed more than eight (8) million square-feet of data center space in the last decade for public and private corporations, financial institutions and colocation data center operators.
