Next week, the Data Center Citizens Advisory Committee will hear from two more interested developers who will present their ideas for building data centers in Merrillville. One would be located in the Ameriplex Business Park off of 93rd Ave and Broadway, the other in the far southeast area of Merrillville in the panhandle area.
The last committee meeting vetted an approved site on 101st Avenue east of Mississippi Street. That development could eventually host nine buildings of data equipment. Are these data centers needed in our area? Committee member Stephen J. Muenstermann is offering his thoughts on this topic.
Does Merrillville need a Data Center? They do, and here is why...
In today’s technology, changes are happening more rapidly than what is known to the everyday person. As technology advances at an unprecedented pace, the demand for reliable data access has skyrocketed. “In today’s world, your demand for online services is growing exponentially—spanning everything from goods and meals to education, communication, entertainment, healthcare, social connections, mass media, networking, marketing, and beyond. Every aspect of your life is increasingly driven by the digital landscape, shaping how you live, work, and connect. The average American spends over 4.5 hours on smartphones and over 3 hours streaming media daily. Since 2010, the demand for cloud-connected services has increased by over 600%, with new developments in AI poised to amplify this growth further.
So why do I say, ‘YOUR?’ First, if you’re reading this, you’ve already navigated multiple data centers to access this article. You are a user—whether part of the majority or a minority, you are a user statistic. In today’s fast-paced world, people expect immediate access to their data, 4K quality on every TV, and seamless connectivity through their devices. They want to be mobile without restrictions. The truth is. Most people grow frustrated if there’s a half-second delay or the screen freezes during a call. Today, surgeons perform complex, successful robotic surgeries hundreds of miles away from their patients. This demand for instant gratification underscores the critical need for reliable, high-performance data exchange.
How does all this happen? Through data centers!
Modern data centers are very different from those of a few years ago. Infrastructure has shifted from traditional on-premises physical servers to virtual networks that support applications and workloads across pools of physical infrastructure and into a multi-cloud environment.
In this era, data is connected across multiple data centers, the edge, and public and private clouds. The data center must be able to communicate across these various sites, both on-premises and in the cloud. Even the public cloud is a collection of data centers. When applications are hosted in the cloud, they use data center resources from the cloud provider. –Source Cisco Systems
The Northwest Indiana economic development teams are trying to invite more emerging and growing businesses to the NWI region. Many of these invites are to the healthcare industry, as it is our most significant and fastest-growing regional employer sector. These businesses provide numerous jobs in the region for our residents and future. In doing so, industries like healthcare have rigid government regulatory data requirements. The company must seek other locations if the desired community cannot access these requirements.
We have a unique opportunity that may soon vanish. NWI has amazing potential. We have access to some of the fastest international networks and excess capacity in the Midwest energy market. However, these resources are only advantageous if the invited businesses can access them.
With the rapid growth of technology worldwide, businesses today require both edge and cloud-level data centers to remain competitive. Latency requirements cannot be compromised, and the risks and costs associated with operating on-premises are too high for long-term business sustainability.
Need reasons? One primary reason is security. Businesses are being relentlessly attacked by bad actors seeking to access their data and your personal data. Six of 10 businesses fail within 6 months of a data breach or cyber-attack. If you want your data to be secure, it is best stored in a data center where access is granted only through multiple authentication processes. Power, efficient cooling, and network access are consistently available due to designs that eliminate single points of failure. Even the cooling systems have been upgraded to minimize ambient noise. Many of the newer data centers today are quieter than hospitals and generate minimal to no road traffic. Additionally, colocations for small businesses offer significant benefits, including 24/7/365 connectivity, support, and cost efficiency. They are continuously optimized for competitive operational performance, energy efficiency, and noise mitigation.
Do you need to be more concerned with how precious energy resources are being used or troubled about air pollution? This elevates the advantage of a local Data Center. A joint Microsoft-WSP study found that cloud computing may reduce energy consumption by 93% and carbon dioxide emissions by 98% compared to traditional on-premises IT infrastructure. Over half of the 35,000 businesses in NWI running their digital operations internally are creating much higher energy waste and more aggressively feeding the carbon footprint. Think of the commonsense reasoning behind data centers. First, they reduce energy consumption. Thus decreasing operational costs. Second, they reduce carbon footprint. GOOD for the environment. Uninterruptable operational continuity & security, far beyond on-prem server capability.
In many ways, think of digital data like your drinking water supply...
- Would you want to drink from a lake, knowing it may taste unpleasant and could contain harmful bacteria? (This represents vulnerabilities in small businesses with on-premises digital operations, like managing PCs or desktops.)
- Would you prefer to drink from your well? This requires you to manage your water quality, maintain the pump, replace it when it fails, control water pressure, pay for electricity, buy filters and conditioners, maintain reverse osmosis systems, manage salt levels, address odor control, and deal with potential dry-ups or heavy iron issues—all without notifications if the water becomes tainted. (These are the challenges small to medium-sized businesses face managing on-premises data centers.)
- Or would you choose city water? This water comes with a Service Level Agreement guaranteeing cleanliness, continuous quality monitoring, and a steady supply of water pressure at all faucets, all the time. You are informed immediately if anything changes. There’s nothing to maintain—you pay for what you use. (This is the level of service provided by data centers for businesses. The critical difference is that the water market is public, which fosters competition. As a result, cost structures, technological advancements, equipment upgrades, and optimized processes are continuously improved for cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency.)
In the past, the steel industry provided ample opportunity in the local area. However, since 1990, over 60% of the US steel industry workforce has been depleted, and the demand has declined over time. We have all felt the changes locally. We are creating high-paying jobs by strengthening our community with state-of-the-art, highly efficient data centers. We provide a resource so local businesses can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions in a facility designed specifically to do just that function. As an edge data center, it can offer the last-mile speed and security the healthcare industry needs for increased operational effectiveness and security.
This should be our essential vision for Northwest Indiana’s future. As the steel industry, once the region’s backbone, has receded, it’s critical to reimagine growth and employment opportunities. Pivoting to high-tech sectors, particularly data centers, aligns perfectly with the current economic landscape and the push for sustainability. Data centers offer high-paying jobs and lay a foundation for attracting tech, healthcare, and research institutions, diversifying the economy and enhancing resilience.
Moreover, strategically locating these centers will allow communities to maximize benefits while potentially minimizing environmental and infrastructural burdens. Northwest Indiana’s prime location—central to transportation networks—makes it ideal for such a transformation, connecting new tech industries with national and global markets. Embracing data centers could be transformative, positioning the region as a technology leader while addressing economic and environmental concerns for a sustainable future
The following steps would involve engaging stakeholders, local leaders, and community members to understand better data center requirements, regulatory needs, and site selection to ensure these centers are sustainably integrated into the community.
Stephen J Muenstermann
President/CEO Cloudbusters Inc.
From Rick Bella – My position on data centers has been that as long as they are built-in locations with little or, more importantly, no impact on residential properties or harm existing businesses, we should support them with open arms. The town can use the increase in tax base, which in turn lowers property taxes paid by homeowners and other businesses as more contribute to the property tax ‘pool’ so existing payers will pay less. The other added economic benefits are enormous, and Steve did a great job pointing them out above.
As the new AMAZON signs go up on the one-million-square-foot building on Mississippi Street, we should feel proud that these amazing companies are being attracted to Merrillville for long-term major investments.