SupraNet racks up business

While large data centers are regularly popping up in Wisconsin’s Capital Region and beyond, SupraNet Communications CEO Bryan Chan isn’t worried about a competitive threat.

Different data centers fulfill different niches, and the large, hyperscale variety are being built to accommodate the massive energy needs of artificial intelligence (AI).

In contrast, SupraNet’s data center, located on the first floor of the Excelsior Drive office building the company calls home, has its own mission.

“What we’re doing is fairly specialized,” Chan said. “It’s not for everybody. The clients that we typically get don’t want to be in a larger data center or don’t want to be with one of the larger cloud providers for security reasons and for other reasons.”

SupraNet, founded in 1994, began as an internet service provider and later added a data center at its location. It also evolved its business model over time, starting as a use-based model and now is “pretty much at a flat (monthly) rate,” Chan said.

“We don’t charge for power, which is somewhat unique to our industry,” he said. “We charge for the availability of the power based on the number of circuits that we have to bring in or use for the clients, but basically it’s a flat-rate model.”

When it comes to data centers, smaller does not mean less powerful. Chan said the SupraNet data center has a little over 100 customers who lease space and it specializes in high-security applications.

“We have a customer that does children and family data for counties across the U.S. We do a medical school application process, so if you’re applying to a medical school like Harvard or Stanford … all that data comes in here,” he said, adding the customer is a company that provides the service to medical schools.

“We tend to specialize in high security, very privatized and then definitely local.”

For the monthly flat rate, data center customers get support services and, more importantly according to Chan, they get SOC 2 compliance.

SOC (system and organization controls) is an auditing framework designed to provide assurance to customers that a service provider’s controls are operating effectively to protect sensitive data.

“A lot of the data center clients require that, so we specialize in some of the higher security types of transactions for those types of customers. SOC 2, type 2, is sort of our strength in that area.”

While the Excelsior Drive data center is about 2,000 square feet, SupraNet also has data center space in Chicago, Minneapolis and downtown Madison at Network 222 on West Washington Avenue.

Large data centers use water for cooling purposes, but SupraNet uses a traditional heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system.

Chan firmly believes that data centers, regardless of their size, must do what they can to mitigate their environmental impact. Chan does so by buying green energy whenever possible to help power SupraNet’s data center.

With its ISP business, SupraNet provides free wi-fi service to Dane County Regional Airport, the Overture Center for the Arts and several major arts institutions in Madison, and a more affordable rate internet service to more than 5,000 low-income families.

“We have a big emphasis on trying to do affordable internet, especially for low-income housing,” Chan said. “We also do commercial rates, but the biggest impact we have on the community is our ability to live in the world that I want to live in — using the internet.”

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