Who owns and works at Ayera?

Ayera is a local company, in operation since 2001, owned by local Oakdale resident and CEO Mathew Ford. All of Ayera's 25 employees live in and around the community. We are your neighbors and many of your concerns are our concerns too.

Are we really a datacenter?

Meriam Webster defines "datacenter" as "a facility for housing computer systems and related equipment used for the storage and processing of large amounts of data". By that definition, we certainly are a datacenter.

However, for regulatory purposes and to differentiate between a standard datacenter and the newer class of massive hyper-scalar AI datacenters, the City of Modesto does not technically consider Ayera a "datacenter" (see link here) since we do not place any strain on the local power grid or water infrastructure and our server rooms are integrated within our existing commercial business operations.

What size is Ayera's datacenter?

Our facility, including office space, takes up approximately 8000 sqft of space in a portion in the City Tower building in downtown Modesto. It currently contains approximately 40 racks which contain various switches, servers, fiber optic panels, and other supporting equipment.

How many gallons of water does Ayera's datacenter consume?

In day to day operations, ZERO. Our cooling system is a closed-loop chilled water system. Similar to a refrigerator, a chiller uses a compressor to lower the water temperature to around 44 degF, where it is then circulated via closed-loop insulated piping into the datacenter, where indoor fan units blow indoor air across the coils, transferring the heat into the water and raising the water temperature to about 55 degF. Occasionally, during monthly maintenance, we do use some water from a hose to clean and rinse off the heat exchange coils of the outdoor chiller to make sure they remain clean and efficient.

How much electricity does Ayera's datacenter use?

Our datacenter uses approximately 35k kWh per month, the equivalent of approximately 1000 average-sized homes, and far less than most manufacturing facilities, dairies, ranches, and other businesses in the area. Our June 2026 datacenter MID bill totalled $6,180 (Commercial GS-2 General Services plan, summer rates).

What is Ayera's datacenter used for?

Quite a few great uses!

• We have numerous large nationwide internet backbone providers built into our facility, which allows us to provide extremely high-speed, low-cost internet service to our various collocation customers as well as the many thousands of home and business internet service customers we serve throughout Stanislaus, San Joaquin, and Merced Counties.
• We provide free and discounted internet service to Modesto City Schools' low-income student families.
• We provide free "ModestoLink" WiFi to the downtown Modesto area, some local parks, and attractions such as the McHenry Mansion and the  McHenry Museum
• We host numerous customer's web sites, applications, email systems, and databases, providing a secure and safe environment for their data, and preventing them from needing to purchase and run servers at their own premises.
• Some of our datacenter collocation and business internet customers replicate their critical corporate data nightly to our facility for disaster recovery and business continuity purposes.
• We provide first responder network connectivity to quite a few local and rural fire departments, ensuring resilient and redundant emergency communications.
• Our facility serves as a critical repeater hub for various regional fiber companies.
• We provide private, secure network connections for regional cities, municipalities, and businesses to connect their various offices, branches and business locations together.
• We also act as a relay/caching center to deliver content to local residents from companies such as Netflix, Amazon Live TV, and other streaming services.

At this time we do NOT have or allow any AI companies to host their AI servers at our facility since the power requirements of such servers are insanely high, and their current use is not in line with our local community's ideals.

Does Ayera's datacenter pay local taxes?

Of course! We have a Modesto City business license and pay our quarterly Mill/DID taxes based on our revenues. We also try to always purchase locally and keep our sales taxes circulating in the community. We purchase from local community businesses such as Electicians, HVAC, Industrial and Material/Hardware Suppliers, and many more.

May I see Ayera's facility?

We are happy to arrange a tour for those interested in seeing our operations. Please contact us during business hours to arrange a visit.