By Shannon Fiecke

QLogic testing engineer Susan Grandys laughs when asked how different her new lab in Shakopee is from her old one in Eden Prairie.

"Night and day," the Minneapolis resident says.

Susan Grandys, right, and Laura Mikrut raved about how much quieter, roommier and more comfortable their new lab is.

Although all QLogic staff proudly showed off their digs during a tour of their new facility last week, the employees who test and develop products in the labs were probably the most happy with their move this fall to Shakopee.

The old labs were cramped, loud, hot and often had power outages.

"This layout is much better," said Laura Mikrut of Shorewood, who manages a lab that runs 12-week test cycles to ensure QLogic equipment is compatible with customer products. "I’m amazed. We’ve had no hiccups at all."

QLogic — a Californian-based company that designs devices to connect computer servers with data storage areas — relocated its Minnesota division 14 miles south from Eden Prairie into a custom-built facility in the Dean Lakes development. Visible to passerbys on Highway 169, the The lighting makes QLogic's new 110,000-square-foot office building a pretty sight from Highway 169.is more than double the size of its former facility.

At an open house last Thursday, CEO H.K. Desai spoke to community leaders and employees and their families. He said he’s been amazed with how much the Minnesota group has grown since QLogic first acquired Eden-Prairie based Ancor Communications in August 2000.

After outgrowing the Ancor facility, even moving one department off-campus, QLogic decided to build Shakopee.

Desai said there’s further room for expansion on the Dean Lakes campus: "It’s up to you and the team to grow the business."

About 200 employees relocated from QLogic’s facility on Bury Drive in Eden Prairie. The global services department, which provides technical support for the entire company, remains at a different site on Valley View Road in Eden Prairie, but will also make the move once its lease expires. The new building should accommodate another 10 years of business growth.

QLogic expects the Shakopee building — which has large empty corridors available for more offices — to be big enough to house growing operations for another 10 years, but some lab staff speculated it might not last even that long.

Jesse Parker, general manager of the Network Solutions Group, said the increased need for more data storage is fueling business growth.

The Shakopee site was attractive, Parker explained, with its spot along the freeway, location in a high-growth area, as well as the uniqueness of the Dean Lakes development, which offers marshlands, walking trails and a balance of housing and businesses.

It’s a "neat complex," he said.

Besides providing more room, the Shakopee office building — which also houses business functions like marketing, finance and sales — offers nicer amenities.

"This is a much more modern facility and could certainly handle our growth," Parker said.Program manager Cindy Campbell shows how QLogic equipment is tested under different heating conditions during the development phase.

In Eden Prairie, employees would grill out in the back parking lot, so the Shakopee site was designed with a patio suitable for grilling.

The building caters to employees who exercise before work or during breaks. While there were showers available at the old site, there is also an exercise room now.

Parker said this is the only case he knows of a company also providing a room for employees to store their bicycles if they ride to work

The site also caters to business customers. On the building’s upper level, there are rooms for them to make phone calls and use laptops while visiting the facility.

QLogic staff had a hand in developing their new quarters. A contest was held to come up with names for the conference rooms — all ended up being named after Minnesota bodies of water — and employees voted on what type of desk chairs to order. The chairs were a little complex to use, however.

"We actually had to have training on the chairs," said Angela Christopherson, OEM program manager, while providing a tour.

QLogic has two main divisions, Parker said. One makes its own computer systems and the other designs adapter cards that go into customers’ own systems.

Minnesota is part of the systems division, which uses two different technologies: Fibre Channel (which the Minnesota site primarily deals with) and InfiniBand (used by the Philadelphia, Pa., site).

QLogic designs its products and does prototype testing, but it outsources the manufacturing of its equipment.  Chances are some computer users have used QLogic products at their jobs, without even realizing it.

QLogic designs equipment like this, which enables numerous computer servers to connect with data storage areas.QLogic sells its storage area network products to all the major computer companies — IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, etc. — as well as through distribution partners, Parker said. Some companies relabel equipment to match their own name, while others keep the QLogic label.

Although QLogic is a Californian-based company, Parker noted that it has a Minnesota heritage due to the Ancor acquisition. He also noted that QLogic's products help support high-tech businesses in Minnesota.

"It’s been a heck of a ride," he said. "We plan to continue to grow the company."

Shannon Fiecke can be reached at (952) 345-6679 or sfiecke@swpub.com.

More about QLogic
QLogic is a leading supplier of high performance storage networking solutions, which include the controller chips, host adapters and fabric switches that are the backbone of storage networks for most Global 2000 corporations. The company delivers a broad and diverse portfolio of products that includes Fibre Channel HBAs, blade server-embedded Fibre Channel switches, Fibre Channel stackable switches, iSCSI HBAs and iSCSI routers. The company is also a leading supplier of InfiniBand switches and InfiniBand host channel adapters for the emerging high performance computing market. QLogic products are delivered to small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises around the world via its channel partner community. QLogic products are also powering solutions from leading companies like Cisco, Dell, EMC, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, Network Appliance and Sun Microsystems. QLogic is a member of the S&P 500 Index.

Source: QLogic