Tract Capital introduces data centre development platform
Author: Simon Rowley
Tract Capital, an alternative asset manager focused on creating businesses that enable rapid scaling of digital infrastructure, has introduced Fleet Data Centers to programmatically meet the next phase of hyperscale data centre growth.
Fleet Data Centers enters the market with a specific focus on mega-scale campuses with a prioritised target of single-user campuses. The Fleet Data Centers team consists of industry veterans who have already made a lasting imprint on the evolution of global digital infrastructure and believe they are uniquely capable of enhancing data centre development scale and operations in the face of rising demand.
Tract Capital CEO and Executive Chairman of Fleet, Grant van Rooyen, comments, “We are focused on meeting the capacity and scale needs of tomorrow. Predictable and flexible data centre delivery on large-scale contiguous campuses is the logical solution for customers trying to navigate divergent demand forecasts.
“The scope of our opportunity is expanding daily as customers search for new models to replace legacy building blocks and to meet the pace of demand for new infrastructure. Chris and I first worked together 26 years ago. I have immense admiration and respect for his body of work, his leadership anchored by a bias for action, and his character. It is a privilege to welcome him to our business family and to entrust the Fleet business into his capable hands.”
Fleet Data Centers intends to build some of the largest data centre campuses in the world, combining gigawatt-level capacity with a campus-based commercial model that gives customers the ability to confidently secure capacity to meet their high-side demand forecasts. Fleet Data Centers’ campuses and operations will be designed in collaboration with customers to deliver seamless augmentation to their existing data centre fleets and access ongoing design innovation to intercept new technologies.
Chris Vonderhaar joins Fleet Data Centers as President, most recently coming from Google Cloud where he served as Vice President of Demand and Supply Management. Prior to his time at Google Cloud, Vonderhaar served in a decade-plus tenure at Amazon Web Services (AWS) where he was responsible for the design, planning, construction and operations of the AWS global data centre platform, including energy and sustainability. Vonderhaar is joined by industry veterans from hyperscalers, wholesale data centre providers, network infrastructure providers and equipment vendors, who have collectively deployed dozens of gigawatts of data centre capacity across hundreds of data centres globally.
Chris states, “Our team has direct insight into the challenges hyperscalers face as they scale. Designing, building and operating these platforms is getting harder while demand is accelerating. Hyperscalers need infrastructure that is going to deliver predictability and flexibility decades into the future. Our collaborative, long-term model backed by our engineering, system and operational excellence positions Fleet Data Centers to be an integrated extension of our customers’ data centre platforms. Grant and the Tract Capital team have been successfully starting new and innovative businesses for decades and have a proven and respected record of success. I am thrilled to be their partner.”
