Reporter Vincent DiFonzo contributed to this story

HARRISBURG— Today, Erie News Now toured a data center company in the central Pennsylvania region; getting a small business owner’s take on the booming industry.

Andrew Kochanowski launched his data center business, Alerify, last year. The operation fits in one room on the bottom floor of a nondescript office building on the outskirts of Harrisburg.

The company serves mostly small and medium sized businesses, letting them store their computer data in a secure, temperature controlled location.

“We’re really selling peace of mind,” Kochanowski said during today’s tour. “As a business owner, I don't have all of my equipment in my facility— usually in a janitorial closet that's one map away from taking the entire network down.”

Kochanowski pays for backup generators, three different internet providers, and a 20 ton air conditioner with at least two back up air conditioners. Four rows of servers fill the room, with thermostats meticulously tracking temperature and humidity.

The computers generate lots of friction as they process data, which gets released as heat.

Two of the aisles have cooling air coming up through the walkway tiles. The cool air circulates through the servers, but still gets heated up. The warmer air gets sucked into the 20 ton air conditioner— which then re-cools it and sends it back to the floor tiles.

Keeping up with cooling and contingencies come at a cost.

“We use a great deal of electricity. That's my number one expense every month,” Kochanowski said.

Data centers have always been high energy users; but artificial intelligence ups the ante. Alerify and other data storage/cloud services use mostly average “cpu” processors (regular computer levels of power). Comparatively, AI requires graphics processors to generate new data/information— which use a lot more energy and create a lot more heat.

“These new artificial intelligence centers use exponentially more energy than what we use at our operation,” Kochanowski said.

The exponential demand is adding to energy scarcity— which is impacting utility prices for everyone. Just this week, the electric grid for Pennsylvania hosted an auction where officials price how much supply they need to meet demand. Auction prices jumped 22% from last year.  

“I do a lot of reading, a lot of research on next generation of power.” Kochanowski said. Alerify does source around 40% of its electricity from solar power.

Kochanowski has not added artificial intelligence services to his business… yet. He says the technology often evolves so its affordable for small operations like his—and breakthroughs could lead to the industry even requiring less energy in the future.