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Syracuse's Tech Garden receives needed upgrade

Ellen Abbott
/
WRVO
Seth Mulligan, Tech Garden Innovation Services vice president, loading websites in an instant with the facility's new fiberoptic capacity.

Technological times have changed since the Tech Garden set up shop on Warren Street in Syracuse almost ten years ago.

Six months ago, the technical infrastructure at the Tech Garden was sadly lacking.

"The projection wasn’t widescreen, it wasn’t high-definition," said Seth Mulligan, Tech Garden Innovation Services vice president. "The Internet was crashing and it was slow.”

Mulligan says that wouldn’t do for the home of more than 40 on-site high-tech companies, and the more than 400 companies connected to the facility through programs they offer. So the Tech Garden, run by CenterState CEO, upgraded. It installed the latest audio-visual equipment in a new Fibertech Networks Theater and new fiber networks that bring blazing fast Internet.

He admits the tens of thousands of dollars spent on this upgrade is necessary, noting that things have changed from the days when people shared laptops in their offices.

"Now they have a laptop, a phone, a tablet, and that’s per person," Mulligan said. "So there’s been a two to three increase in the number of devices."

Mulligan says the upgrade also keeps room open for any future new technological devices that companies could be packing.

"What we’ve done is build in extra capacity," Mulligan said. "So we have something like a gigabit switch. So we’re only using a third of that switch capacity. That’s just a setting. We’ve talked to our service providers, we can change that setting up or down, and that changes our monthly cost. So we have the capacity to grow more in the future.”

And he says that extra space is definitely going to come in handy.

“The more devices everyone has, from computers and laptops, to all of a sudden everyone has a smartphone, to smart watches and my Fitbits, and everything else that’ll be enabled," Mulligan explained. "So who knows what’s next? But the demand doesn’t seem to be stopping. One things for sure, it’s moving more and more towards wireless.”

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.