31 May 2013 (18:11 UTC-07 Tango 30 May 2013)/21 Rajab 1434/10 Khordad 1391/22 Ding-Si (4th month) 4711
“There are compelling reasons why this is a great model. The customer [law enforcement/spying agencies?] has evolved to the point where they want a sexier location, where they can have access to a Starbucks and other retail, because it’s possible they may be there for weeks or months…..There’s a desire to have multiple locations spread costs across multiple areas…….Having rooftop access to the cars and pedestrians around the malls is important. The Sears portfolio can capture that……I will put as many of the rooftops in play as I can.”-Sean Farney, of newly created Ubiquity Critical Environments
Several reports over the past week stating that many of the empty shut down Sears and Kmarts are being turned into data storage/wireless communication centers/disaster centers!
Since 2010 more than 333 Sears/Kmart stores have been vacated. The plan to turn many of the empty stores into data centers is being headed by a newly created subsidiary of Sears Holdings, Ubiquity Critical Environments (UCE).
UCE is run by Sean Farney, a former boss of Microsoft’s Chicago data center. UCE was revealed by trade publication Data Center Knowledge.
One of the first UCE multi-tenant data centers will be created out of the soon to be closed East 79th Street Chicago Sears store near the Chicago Skyway. Once retrofitted into the new Chicago area social spying data center, it will use at least 5 megawatts of electricity! (and they’ve already got an unnamed client signed up to operate it)
Most mall based vacated Sears stores will be used as “business continuity services”, to supposedly keep other businesses running in case of natural disasters or civil uprisings/unforeseen events.
Most vacated Kmarts will be used as data centers, because most Kmarts are not connected to malls or other stores, therefore (as Farney admits) it’s easier to hide just who is operating the data center.
Sears Holdings officials say the vacated Sears and Kmarts were chosen for such population monitoring/controlling operations because, according to UCE’s Sean Farney, 70% of the U.S. population live near a Sears or Kmart!
An retail analysts with Morningstar said this new move to offer Sears Holding’s property for use in social spying, shows how desperate the corporation is. Or is it? In the Data Center Knowledge interview, Farney stated that the new Sears Holdings subdivision, UCE, has the money to pay for the conversion to data centers, even to customize the centers to whatever requirements of the new tenants!