Cavern Technologies builds area’s largest data center underground

Pete Clune, CEO of Cavern Technologies, is pictured in one of the data suites in its underground data center at Meritex Lenexa Executive Park.

Cavern Technologies, located in the underground portion of Meritex Lenexa Executive Park, has begun a $10 million, 100,000-square-foot expansion that will make it the largest data center in the Kansas City region.
The company, which has developed 60,000 square feet of underground space since its founding in 2007, will leapfrog ahead of 1102 Grand LLC in Kansas City, now the region’s largest data center with 110,000 square feet.
Pete Clune, founder and CEO of Cavern Technologies, said several factors were driving the company’s growth.
One is the fact that the data-storage needs of Corporate America are roughly doubling every year and a half, Clune said. Cavern Technologies’ more than 90 existing tenants are expanding their data-storage capacity by 30 percent annually, he said.
Another growth driver is the cost and reliability of electric power provided by Kansas City Power & Light, Clune said. KCP&L charges 8 cents per kilowatt hour, about half of what utilities on the coasts charge.
Cavern Technologies charges its tenants based on power consumed rather than square footage occupied. But as part of its unique data center colocation model, Clune said, it developed the concept of data suites, which allow clients to house servers in dedicated spaces rather than on racks in a huge shared space.
Tenants also like the advantages of having their data center space underground, Clune said. Being “a data center without walls,” he said, Cavern Technologies gives tenants the flexibility of moving and expanding their space quicky. It also protects data from natural disasters and offers a 65-degree ambient temperature that helps tenants minimize cooling costs. A remote energy monitoring system and suite-design recommendations from Cavern Technologies’ staff also keep power costs down, said Scott Herron, the company’s vice president of data center operations.
In addition to providing access to multiple KCP&L substations, Cavern offers high-capacity bandwidth from multiple carriers. The data infrastructure is so robust, Clune related, that a London-based company with space in the center reported that it could send data from London to Lenexa to Scotland faster than it can send it directly to Scotland.
“With Cavern’s focus on the infrastructure piece, including the space, power, cooling, security and bandwidth, our client’s IT department can focus on their unique mission-critical business operations,” Clune said.
The model has attracted some of the nation’s leading health care, financial services, legal and tech companies, said Clune, whose son John is president of the company.
They have guided the underground business to full occupancy in its present 60,000-square-foot-space. In addition, the company has secured commitments for 25 percent of the 100,000 square feet now being built out.
The company will finish the year with nearly $6 million in revenue, Pete Clune said, and will be posting $15 million to $20 million by the time the additional 100,000 square feet is fully occupied.
JE Dunn Construction is the contractor for the expansion. Bell/Knott & Associates is providing the data center design, and Gibbens Drake Scott Inc. is the engineering firm.
Bill Seymour, a senior vice president with Meritex Enterprises, which owns the underground park, said he began working with Pete Clune 10 years ago, when he operated a managed services firm at Meritex.
“I never imagined the type of scale Cavern has now achieved,” Seymour said. “Pete and John have proven the concept, done what they said they would do and give the customers what they want.”