A couple of weeks ago I got the opportunity to learn a little bit more about Involta from Lisa Bodine. Lisa is the Regional Sales Director for Involta. I happened to meet her at the MHTA Annual Conference and we subsequently met up in St Paul so that I could hear a little bit more about their progress. Involta made a splash in Duluth last summer when they announced that they would be opening a data center in the area.

What I didn’t realize was that Lisa, while now working at Involta, used to work at APEX, a Duluth-based organization that was instrumental in attracting Involta to the area. So I got to hear about attracting high tech businesses to Minnesota from both sides – something I thought might interest readers.

In terms of an update, Involta is looking at opening their second location in Duluth in September. They are on the look for more places as they grow and as they strive to create a robust and redundant network.

In terms of why Duluth? Duluth was very thoughtful in their approach. APEX did a market survey and realized there was pent up demand. They had a natural advantage over warmer climates. They had the workforce and a public and private sectors that were willing to work together. That culture was key to getting on track and attracting likely candidates. As Lisa said – they had clients, community and climate – a perfect recipe for data center success.