Episode 005 - Data Center Trials, Fiber Optics, and House Music - Garrick Sturgill

I Love Data Centers

In this week’s I Love Data Centers episode - Data Center Trials, Fiber Optics, and House Music - Sean’s guest is Garrick Sturgill, the Director or Technology, Carrier Relations and Colo Operations at Centeris Data Centers based in Puyallup, WA, just south of Seattle. First, Sean explores the three main threads within Garrick’s early and eclectic life (because it's just that interesting); creating with 1980’s computer hardware, working as a Cyberpunk community DJ at tech savvy parties in Seattle, and learning how to work with fiber optics. Next, you'll hear how these threads merged, eventually connecting Garrick into the broader world of the data center marketplace. Once inside the data center marketplace, Garrick experienced numerous trials by fire at the Westin Building Exchange (WBX), which has serves as the primary Internet Exchange in the Pacific Northwest. Finally, Sean helps introduce you to Garrick’s inner geek and how it grew into the ultimate geek job of playing with all the cooling, power and network infrastructure that makes a data center work. Garrick and Sean also explore Big Brother's role in the data center marketplace, although an attempt was made to keep the conversation light, because Big Brother is always listening.