TierPoint, the Liberty Lake-based data center and hosting service originally launched by tech guru Bernard Daines, got a little recognition this month.

It was named the Fortinet 2012 VIP Partner of the Year for North America.

A press release noted the award is for outstanding achievement and is awarded annually to some of Fortinet’s more than 1,000 distributors and resellers around the world.

TierPoint, which was acquired in May by Cequel Data Centers, is a Fortinet Platinum Partner and has established a growing presence in the education, retail, medical, and enterprise markets as a leader in managed security services, in addition to traditional data center and cloud services.

In short, that means Fortinet is used by TierPoint to help its data hosted companies be protected from security break-ins and cyber attacks.

The Spokane area’s largest data center, TierPoint in Liberty Lake, has been acquired by Cequel Data Centers, LLC, a St. Louis-based company with similar operations across the United States.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the size of the transaction was “significant,” according to TierPoint CEO Octavio Morales. He said he could not elaborate on the sale.

While the amount of the purchase was not disclosed, a press release noted that five financial services firms were involved: Goldman Sachs, CapitalSource Bank, US Bank, ING Capital and CoBank.

Morales said TierPoint’s 24 current employees will not be affected. The main goal of the deal, he added, was to provide more capital to help the company grow and reach more Northwest customers.

TierPoint operates three data centers at its campus in Liberty Lake. Together the buildings provide more than 30,000 square feet of raised-floor data-center space and almost 4.4 megawatts of power. Its third data center building also pioneered using geothermal cooling water to control building heat.

The founding investor in TierPoint is Bernard Daines, one of the area’s leading technology advisers. Daines is no longer a manager of the company, having sold his interest to the company’s other partners.

TierPoint’s list of regional clients includes several banks and dozens of Northwest companies including f5, Coldwater Creek, IT-Lifeline and Red Lion Hotels.

The decision to acquire TierPoint was largely based on its offering a location in “one of the safest areas of the United States, with relatively low power costs and high fiber connectivity,” said Paul Estes, the CEO of Cequel Data Centers.

TierPoint’s strategic focus will continue on expansion into colocation, managed technology services and cloud computing services, Estes said.

(Photo: 2007 SR photo)  TierPoint executives, from left, Bernard Daines, Octavio Morales, Chris Walter and Dan Seliger at their headquarters in Liberty Lake.

Both the Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls school districts are ramping up their broadband connections, installing 2-gigabit fiber connections provided by Fatbeam Inc.

Liberty Lake-based TierPoint recently announced it's finished a major backbone upgrade. For businesses and major enterprises, this amounts to fairly major news. The upgrade involves full 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections all across the company's network

The privately held data operations center and hosting company upgraded both the Liberty Lake and Seattle locations, said Craig Brandvold, TierPoint's marketing manager.

TierPoint has six 10Gbps carrier links that carry Internet in and out of the Liberty Lake site, plus two 10Gbps links that connect that location with its Seattle center.

Said Dan Seliger, the company's chief technology officer: “Those who get their Internet service from us will see a faster connection, very low latency, and even more reliable service, and those who host with us will also find more bandwidth available at very attractive rates.”

Matt Gerber, who’s held key jobs at area firms Itronix and SprayCool, has become CEO of Liberty Lake-based IT-Lifeline.

Gerber, who’s 46, takes the reins of the company started by Steven Tabacek, the firm’s only other CEO. Tabacek told board members he felt it was time for another person to direct IT-Lifeline, said Gerber.

IT-Lifeline provides backup and recovery-of-data services for companies across the region. It’s based in the TierPoint building in Liberty Lake. Most of its customers are health care providers and financial service companies.IT-Lifeline is focusing on gaining new customers in the Seattle area, Gerber said. At present about 30 percent of IT-Lifeline’s customers are from that area. “We want to make that 50 percent in the next two years,” Gerber said.

Gerber held a number of positions, including senior vice president for marketing at Itronix, which was acquired by General Dynamics.  He moved to SprayCool where he became CEO in 2007 and then left after the company was acquired earlier this year.

He said Tabacek remains an owner of IT-Lifeline but is pursuing other entrepreneurial interests.

Come Sunday, Spokesman.com and our print version Spokesman-Review business section will have a story on TierPoint, in Liberty Lake, using aquifer water to cool its servers.

The new project is called TierPoint 3, and is estimated to cost more than $8 million to put together. It may be just one of a few data centers anywhere that use underground water to chill their interiors.

To read a bit about the innovative idea, here’s a link to the TierPointe announcement.

TierPoint’s managers say they hope to make it one of the biggest non-dedicated data centers in the Northwest. Once the work is finished, the new center should start operations in spring 2011.

The story draws a comparison to other buildings that also tap the aquifer. Also covered is the method used by Yahoo in taking outside air to cool its very large data center in Quincy.

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Liberty Lake-based data center TierPoint has two announcements this week. First, it’s upgraded its network to 50 gigabits per second capacity.

Second, it’s announced an $8.2 million project to build a third center, TierPoint 3, just down the street from its first and second centers.

The network upgrade means customers who provide Internet and network services from TierPoint will see a faster connection, and even more reliable service, and those who host from the Libery Lake center will have more bandwidth available, said Dan Seliger, one of the partners of the company.

With the new data center, roughly 10,000 square feet, TierPoint is adopting a Green approach to cooling, relying on a system that will draw underground water and use it to cool off the rack room.

About $4.1 million of capital for the project came from financing from Bank of America/Merrill Lynch; another $3.1 million came from Evergreen Business Capital; with another $3.1 million provided by a small business loan through the Small Business Administration (SBA).

TIerPoint, which was founded by tech guru Bernard Daines, provided the remaining $1.0 million.

It’s expected to be operating next spring.

The Spokesman-Review and Spokesman.com do a weekly feature, “Here’s the Dirt.”
Today we’re more inclined to feature something called “Here’s the Gravel.”

Liberty Lake-based TierPoint, one of the region’s strongest-growing tech companies, is adding a third data center building on its property on Mission Avenue. On Monday, a 15,000-gallon underground tank went into the ground at TierPoint’s innovative new building, which will be designated TierPoint 3. The tank is roughly 35 30 feet long.

While there are some major innovations being installed there (we’ll get to them in a later story), the center will need a power backup system and diesel generator to insure customers never see a power disruption.

This tank, delivered by Xerxes Corp., of California, is the below-ground solution for having enough diesel should Avista lose power in Liberty Lake.  Many centers insure uninterrupted backup power for two days. TierPoint plans on having nine or more days of backup power if needed.

The photo shows the tank partly buried in gravel. Trucks were hauling in additional gravel that will surround the tank up to its cap.

The company plans on opening the center in spring 2011.