March 17, 2021
Improving Life Through Smart Buildings — How Technology Can Bridge The Gaps We've Created At Home, At Work, And While Shopping | A Cyber Society Conversation With Todd Boucher

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March 10, 2020
What happens to mechanical and electrical equipment during data center decommissioning? When it comes to the end of life and decommissioning of a data center, the focus often turns to IT Asset Disposal (ITAD) and what to do with IT hardware. Learn more from Dan Swinhoe with insights from LEDG's Todd Boucher.

‍https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/what-happens-mechanical-and-electrical-equipment-during-data-center-decommissioning/

October 23, 2020

Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG) is proud to announce its acceptance and certification with the U.S. Small Business Administration 8(a) Business Development Program.  Participation in the program supports the LEDG’s steady growth providing quality data center, smart building, and data intelligence services to the public and private sectors.

According to a Small Business Administration (SBA) 2020 statistics, there are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, and only about 5,000 of them have obtained 8(a) certification. The certification has a nine-year lifespan and allows participants to compete for set-aside and soul-sourced federal contracts. The program also assists participants in navigating federal contracting, guidance in forming partnerships, and management assistance.

‍“We are looking forward to this opportunity to build new partnerships and expand LEDG business with the Federal Government. Our 8(a) acceptance comes at an excellent time for federal agencies as high-performing data centers and smart building digital advancements are imperative for government sustainable and scalable operations,” states Todd Boucher, Leading Edge Design Group Founder and Principal.

‍Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG) provides solutions that shape how we live, work, learn, and heal. LEDG plans, designs, and builds data centers and smart buildings that help customers deliver services with speed, resiliency, and scale. The firm also provides data intelligence services to help unleash the power of data within the built environment and enable secure, data-driven building operations.Since 2007, LEDG has worked on some of the most progressive technology, mission-critical, and building projects in the US and is proud to recognize many high-performing organizations as clients. LEDG is also certified by the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) as a Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) and provides services throughout the United States from locations in New England, Mid-Atlantic, the Southeast.

September 30, 2020
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The Southern Nevada Water Authority has selected Leading Edge Design Group (LEDG) for the data center and telecommunications assessment for the Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment Facility.

LEDG was awarded a professional services agreement to prepare a preliminary study to evaluate the Authority's existing communications rooms, develop recommendations, schedules, and cost estimates to repurpose, consolidate, and renovate rooms. LEDG will also prepare design drawings and specifications to repurpose, consolidate, and renovate rooms for construction.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA), formed in 1991, combines seven local water and wastewater agencies to address water issues on a regional basis rather than an individual water purveyor basis.

Collectively, SNWA member agencies serve more than 2.2 million residents in Southern Nevada. As the wholesale water provider, SNWA is responsible for water treatment and delivery and acquiring and managing long-term water resources for Southern Nevada.

The Alfred Merritt Smith Water Treatment Facility currently treats most of the valley's drinking water. Improvements to the facility enhanced the plant's reliability and increased capacity to treat 600 million gallons a day. The addition of ozone treatment put the facility on the cutting edge of water treatment technology.

A reliable, responsive data center and telecommunications infrastructure are imperative to support technology improvements and provide support across all agencies.

Smart Buildings Leadership, Data, and Accountability
Facility Management Journal, Bill Moten, Fall 2020

In January of 2020, the adoption of a smart building was not imperative for many building owners. Barriers existed, and time and time again, the adoption of a smart building was not technological; it was cultural. Within a few months, facilities managers are managing through unprecedented times, and the industry inflection point is here. Similar to the War on Talent1 when a Human Resource Manager became a Chief People Officer and employees became the most significant asset, technology-advanced built environments and the FMs that run them, are at the forefront of organizational performance. Like how HR mastered workforce analytics, facility teams need to understand the building data available to them to support their strategic planning and technology implementations and hold their teams and the organization accountable.

Read More:
Smart Buildings (ifma.org)

How to Realize the Promise of a Smart Building
Leaders need an integrated, organizational-wide adoption and deployment model.

Building Operating Management, Bill Moten, June 2020

I wouldn’t call the first building I worked in very smart. My desk was in a low-walled cube in the middle of the “cube city,” surrounded by cinder block walls. The air quality depended on what section you were in, and the temperature varied every 20 feet. There were no crowd-based thermostats to keep everyone happy. Almost every air vent had a custom deflector taped on it to personalize the comfort of the one who applied it. If you were cold, your best option was to put on a sweater.
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Times have changed. Today, buildings are required to deliver secure technology services and engaging, productive, personalized experiences to occupants, all while making sure the facility is efficient, reduces costs, and has a lower environmental impact. Going beyond that baseline, a smart building uses an integrated set of technology, systems, and infrastructure to optimize building performance and occupant experience. The key concept is “integrated,” as it applies to technology, systems, and infrastructure.
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Read More:
How to Realize the Promise of a Smart Building - Facilities Management Insights (facilitiesnet.com)

June 29, 2020

We are very grateful to be able to help contribute to this new guide by our partner Fitzemeyer & Tocci. If you work in healthcare and manage information technology and data centers, this is a must-read.
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‍As the storage and use of big data gain greater traction in medical settings, the demand for greater electronic information storage capacity continues to challenge hospital CIOs. The ability to continue to expand an on-premises data center is also challenging for healthcare real estate planners as they compete for space with high revenue hospital clinical offerings. The concept of a hybrid data center scheme, with some infrastructure, maintained on-site and the balance of storage capacity and other services on the cloud, is gaining wider acceptance. Aside from converting IT infrastructure from a capital expense to an operating one, the onus and cost of maintaining the necessary firmware, hardware, and associated security now reside with third-party cloud storage providers. The result is a different form of on-premise data center and supporting infrastructure that still demands high uptime and resilient infrastructure support systems.

The intent of this guide is to assist hospital capital planners, facilities engineers, and CIOs to optimize on-site infrastructure requirements necessary to meet today’s—and tomorrow’s—needs for resilient on-premises data centers that leverage cloud-based services.

Access the guide here‍