The Georgia Cyber Center.
"We talk about academics, government and industry being the three legs of this, the three important ingredients," said Michael Shaffer, the center's executive vice president of strategic partnerships and economic development.
With cybersecurity company SealingTech moving an office into the center's Shaffer McCartney Building in July, about 90 percent of the two-building center is occupied. Only one 33,000-square-foot floor of the center is vacant, as talks among Augusta University officials continue in earnest about erecting a third building.
"If you'd have told me five years ago that downtown Augusta would have some of the international companies that are downtown now, I would've said no," Shaffer said. "My dream would've been 'Yes, eventually. How do we get there?' "
Now, many are already there. Technology companies vying for government defense contracts are attracted by Augusta's proximity to Fort Gordon, home of the U.S. Army Cyber Command. Defense and aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, intelligence and security contractor BAE Systems and cybertech firms Parsons Corp. and Peraton Corp. are among the center's industrial tenants.
Other companies have expressed interest in the remaining space, Shaffer said, including tech consultant Accenture and CDW, which provides cybersecurity hardware and software.
BAE already had office space in the center, but announced a 17,000-square-foot expansion last November. That build-out, Shaffer said, underscores an increase in corporate commitments for the Augusta area.
"From my years when I was in congressional and government work, I used to complain that a lot of these companies were here but they service their contracts with a single person in their home with a computer," he said. "It's not like some of these are now to Augusta in the sense that they haven't done work here before. But what they're now doing is putting a true footprint in Augusta."
Augusta also appears to be retaining more of the types of professionals that cyber companies look for when considering a move to the area, Shaffer said. He said when SealingTech tried to recruit Georgia workers to its offices in Maryland, nearly all the workers said they'd prefer to stay.
"Instead of operating where they were they just said, 'We'll move there,' " Shaffer said.
In turn, more available cyber jobs mean that more ex-military choose to stay in the Augusta area after ending their Armed Forces careers at Fort Gordon, he said.
They're also trending younger, Shaffer said. Five years ago, "old colonels" were more likely to stay in Augusta for retirement.
"I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm saying it just to point out that what we're seeing now is a younger generation separating. They don't necessarily stay here 25 years, but they're coming out and they start a new career in their 30s. They still have a lifetime in front of them for a career. The jobs weren't necessarily here for them a few years ago. Now they're here, and we're seeing it because we're able to retain them and keep them here as we hire them."
Rather than being mere office space, the Cyber Center is "just crawling and about to grow" into its next phase of activity, Shaffer said — cultivating ideas.
"We really want individuals and their companies that are there to be doing something innovative," he said. "So no longer is it really kind of 'Come in the facility,' and you're just doing cyber. What are you doing? What are you creating? What are your ideas? That's just now starting to happen."
The Cyber Fusion Innovation Center, for example, is a partner with Army Cyber Command. CFIC is one of several "innovation hubs" operated nationwide by Defensewerx, a company that helps connect and simplify swift tech partnerships between the private sector and the military.
"In the cyber world, unlike building a ship or a new gun or helmet or vest that can take years, the solutions to their challenges have to come quick," Shaffer said. "They solve those challenges by using anybody that has the right solution. It can be an industry that exists. It can be an individual with a great idea. It can be an existing company. It can be a university. That universe is open across the country."
There is no firm timetable for when ground might be broken on a third Cyber Center building, Shaffer said, but it definitely will be a building devoted to academics. It will be anchored by AU's new School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, which he says has "exploded." Teams of recently hired researchers are running out of workspace, and the downtown AU Riverfront Campus is expected to be their next destination.
"The beauty of it is, if you think of all the industries that are there, that is what they are looking for. They need research. They need researchers. They need those graduate students who can capstone projects." Shaffer said. "Now you start seeing where we get to the next level of what truly the Georgia Cyber Center and that campus is about."
©2021 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
