Bick Group History

Driving value from data centers
for more than four decades

James Bick was in the computer business when punch card systems were leading-edge technology. Today, the company that bears his name, Bick Group, is still on the front edge of technology and business trends, enabling customers to gain the most value from their data centers to drive their businesses.

1964
When the computer industry was in its infancy, Jim Bick saw the need for specialized environments and systems to house and support the new, large, sensitive mainframe computers. In 1964, he founded Bick Corporation to address these special needs. The subsequent solutions Bick Group developed were the first-generation data centers.

In these early years, many of the computers—as well as the systems and equipment needed to support them — were literally just being invented. As a result, clients were unsure how to deploy these new systems and how to support them. Jim Bick sought out and found solutions. He mastered the technical requirements of these data centers and developed relationships with equipment vendors in essential disciplines that were required for the complete data center environment. Chief among the disciplines: cooling; power conditioning, distribution and backup; fire detection and suppression; site monitoring; and access flooring.

From the beginning, Bick Group’s holistic approach to data centers has provided IT teams with turnkey solutions and single-source accountability. As early IT teams were inundated with requests and overwhelmed with determining what IT technology to deploy, having a specialist address the critical environment was a tremendous benefit.

1970s
In the early ‘70s, Bick Group formed a Service Group to answer the need for 24-hour repair services for data center critical support systems. Initially focused on break/fix repairs, the Service Group soon developed a more proactive approach to service. The group added Preventive Maintenance services that enabled clients to dramatically increase availability.

1980s – 1990s
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, IT became increasingly important to organizations. With this importance came C-suite expectations about availability and reliability. The industry responded by providing systems and designs that offered redundancy and resiliency. Bick Group increased its staff of in-house engineering and construction management to keep pace with the new complexity in system design and project delivery. But improved systems and design were only part of the issue. Uptime was still influenced by how well systems were maintained. Appreciating this, Bick Group developed Managed Maintenance Service, an offering that viewed data center maintenance differently.  Operators were faced with limited time and budget to manage a dozen maintenance vendors and ensure they were performing to best practice standards. Bick Group offered a highly qualified, single-source solution to managing maintenance to eliminate downtime.

The Present
Passing through the new millennium, the reliance on IT continued. Data center uptime was paramount and Bick Group continued to develop new approaches. We realized that the business climate demanded yet an additional perspective for the data center. The data center has become an engine that should be tuned for total performance — not just horsepower, but gas mileage as well. Bick Group began helping clients get the most out of this business-critical asset by performing assessments and implementing solutions for clients across the United States.

Today, Bick Group works in more than 1,000 data centers each year.  Our clients include Fortune 500 companies,  government agencies of all sizes, and many middle-market companies.

We help a range of organizations navigate the challenges associated with reliable and efficient data centers. We work around three objectives:

1. Optimize the Data Center – space, power, cooling and technology
2. Transform the Data Center – IT strategy, consolidation, migrations and design-build
3. Sustain the Data Center – maintenance programs, process, practices and people

As each new wave of technology comes into the data center, Bick Group will continue to understand its importance to the business, assess its impact on the current environment and develop solutions for customers to derive the most value from all of their data center assets.