US data center firm Novva has partnered with Brigham Young University to deploy robot dogs at its Utah Campus.

The university has customized Boston Dynamics Spot robots specifically for facility monitoring.

BYU’s WIRE (Wes’ Industrious Robot Employee) machines will fulfil “multiple mission-critical roles” at the Novva’s campus including temperature and equipment monitoring, greeting guests, confirming building occupant security clearance via facial scanning and recognition, and other general ‘tasks and missions’ by staff.

“At Novva, our goal is to be the most future-focused new data center campus in the world”, CEO Wes Swenson explains. “WIRE exemplifies innovation and the future, while addressing crucial data center needs and providing a one-of-a-kind experience for patrons. We are very thankful to the students at BYU for helping us with this project and creating a truly unique product for us to feature at our facility.”

“We’re really excited about this project,” adds BYU engineering student James Green. “We’ve created a product that will genuinely save a lot of time for everyone at Novva so they can focus on more strategic initiatives. WIRE represents the future of data center environments.”

In July 2020 Novva announced plans to develop a $1bn hyperscale campus in West Jordan, Utah. The construction is taking place over four phases and will total over 1.5 million sq ft of data center space when fully developed.

The first phase, involving a 300,000 sq ft (28,000 sq m) data center and 120MW substation, is due for completion soon. As well as robot dogs, the company said it plans to deploy rooftop drone security for the exterior.

Last month the company acquired a 6MW facility in Colorado Springs and announced plans to expand it to 30MW.

Headed by CEO Wes Swenson, the company is funded by CIM Group, a REIT owner, operator, lender, and developer. Since it was founded in 1994, it has worked on a portfolio of around $60bn in real estate and infrastructure projects, including data centers.