There are few individuals who have experienced the breadth and depth of the data center era more than Tim Dueck. His father, Abe Dueck was a master electrician, electronics engineer and pioneer in mainframe computing design for Sperry Univac, responsible for some of the early innovations in computer systems design and manufacturing in the mid to late-60s that helped put a man on the moon which occurred on his 40th birthday on July 20, 1969. Son, Tim became an apprentice at 14 years old and by the time he turned 26 in 1985 had started his own electrical contracting company, beginning a career in data centers and large scale computing that has spanned the next 32+ years.
From installing and configuring IBM System 36 mini computers for mid-market, government, institutional and corporate clients in the mid-80s, to architecting 21st century data centers for Fortune 500 and Global Internet clients worldwide, his experience spans architectural, electrical, mechanical, and civil engineering and construction - as well stints at Information Technology giants Intel and Dell where he helped optimize and re-architect server, network and storage subsystems. He has performed over 200 data center assessments in over 23 countries on four continents. In the late-90s, he was selected by General Motors to develop their Global Infrastructure Critical Facility Standards which defined three levels of criticality for infrastructure supporting the GM organization, prior to the Uptime Institute’s development of Tier Levels.
He was a member of the editorial committee for ANSI/TIA-942 from 2004 through 2007, and was a contributing editor (he wrote Chapter 6 on reliability) for BICSI’s ANSI/DC-002 Data Center Design & Implementation Best Practices originally published in 2011. From 2010 to 2013 he was an active member on The Green Grid as the Dell representative, and chairman of the Technical Committee. In 2016 he was invited to join the Infrastructure Masons, where his breadth and depth of experience in designing, building and managing over 3 million square feet and over 500MW of infrastructure in overe 20 countries make him a 1st Degree Master.
He has performed work for IBM in both the US and in Brazil. In 2005 he was selected by the US National Archives to define the standard for storing and archiving computer media such as compact tape, optical disks and flash technologies. In 2010 he was the principal architect for Chinese Internet giant Baidu’s 75MW cloud computing campus near Beijing, as well as social media giant Tencent’s 36MW cloud campus near Tianjin. He is a well-known speaker and presenter at industry associations such as AFCOM, 7x24Exchange and Data Center Dynamics.
He has been certified in many construction and engineering disciplines including:
Audio Engineering (AES),
Lighting Design (IES),
Construction Estimating (Dunwoody Institute, ASPE)
Contracting Management (MEA),
Information Technology Infrastructure Library, ITIL (Dell)
Network Design (Dell)
Data Center Energy Practitioner (DCEP, US Dept. of Energy).
In 1998 he developed RA/Quicktest™, a reliability engineering tool created to illustrate the concepts of reliability engineering as applied to data centers.
He was an engineering project manager for Ellerbe Becket and in 1996 became Director of the Mission Critical practice, and in 2000 made a partner and principal in the firm.
In 2002 he joined Mazzetti & Associates as the data center practice leader operating out of their Minneapolis office, and in 2004 he bought the practice and renamed it Reliable Resources, Inc. (RRI). He has served as a third party expert in appraising the value of data center facilities and leasehold improvements, enabling both landlords and tenants to fairly negotiate terms.
In 2007 he sold his stake in RRI and became senior data center engineer for Intel’s Solution Services division, and a year later helped transition the division to Dell and served as a practice executive for the next five years.
In 2014 he joined California-based electrical contractor Cupertino Electric where he led and managed over $300 million in Data Center design-build electrical work annually.
In 2018 he joined St. Paul-based Gephart Electric where he launched their new data center division as its Vice President. He resides in Robbinsdale, MN with his wife Ruth and has ten children and eleven (and counting) grandchildren.
T.A. Dueck & Associates LLC
Tim Dueck is a veteran change agent and catalyst whose talents have been used to help re-define auto manufacturing, enterprise technology, railroad management, financial services, cloud computing and insurance industries for over twenty years. He is a true renaissance man who isn't constrained by convention and who is happy to search for the right answers wherever they can be found. T*A*D*A is T.A. Dueck & Associates consulting. A collaborative to conceive, design, create, model, implement and improve strategy, business, marketing, technologies and process with breakthrough innovation and game changing results.
