I'm very happy to announce that the cooling phase of our current datacenter expansion is now complete. The two new Aaon 70 ton Air Handlers have been installed, and started up successfully. This is the largest project we've taken on since our move to the Seattle datacenter in 2005, and like that project this one finished on time, and with no major headaches or heartbreaks. Plenty of hard work, but everything went very well. The weather caused us some delays, however today was clear (though a bit cold to be having a party on the roof!)

We gathered on the roof to celebrate:

Above L-R: John Ford (Sabey), Connie Bradley (d.f), Shawn Hammer (d.f), Lee Pallat (d.f), Larry Harbison (MacDonald-Miller), Steve Flink (MacDonald-Miller), Andre Bearfield (d.f), Spike Graham (d.f), Tim Beyer (d.f), Paul Sampson (d.f), Rick Russell (d.f).

And of course launch our new machines in style:

Taking a bottle of champagne in hand, digital.forest CEO Kris Bourne on the southern HVAC system, and Connie Bradley from our Billing Department on the northern unit, we listened to Facilities Manager Kevin Teker give a toast and christened the units with their new names "Rainier" & "Baker" (named after the ice-covered mountains on either horizon) ... and the ladies let the bottles fly!

We then enjoyed champagne and some smoked salmon, basking in the hum of the running machines.

Huge thanks go out to our primary contractor, MacDonald-Miller for a job well done! Sub-contractors involved were VECA Electric, ATS Controls, Ness Crane, Aaon, & Centimark Roofing. Here at digital.forest my hat goes off to Shawn Hammer and Kevin Teker, who planned, budgeted, contracted and managed this project start to finish... all while carrying out day to day operations of our facility. Great job guys!

In the coming weeks we'll be massaging the controls to get the air balanced and the multiple systems all working together in perfect harmony. We also need to finish the hot-air return/recover ducting in DC2. The next phase of the expansion is beginning work on DC3. Stay tuned for more information about that.

Above: Always mindful of every detail about the facility, Kevin sweeps up after the celebration.