SBTG Hosts Open House

By Tamara L. Cravit

On Friday, several hundred people attended the Santa Barbara Technology Group's open house to showcase its new headquarters at 402 E. Gutierrez in Santa Barbara.

The remodeled warehouse will now provide office space for companies being funded by the Santa Barbara Technology Incubator and to other technology companies needing flexible and affordable office space on a month-to-month basis.

The Santa Barbara Technology Group provides technical, management and financial assistance to startup high-tech companies in the Santa Barbara area. Office space in SBTG's facility includes a full range of business services, including furniture, computers, parking, telephones and high-speed Internet access.

Larry Green, the CTO of SBTG and designer of the technological infrastructure of the facility, pointed out that the renovated building was formerly used for the manufacture of military motors as well as for cellular phone repair.

"The Gutierrez building has always been a factory, and it really still is," Green noted. "Now we're manufacturing companies here."

The facility's state-of-the-art technological infrastructure includes a 6-megabit-per-second Internet connection, 100-megabit-per-second LAN with "virtual LAN" capability, and wireless LAN access. Green noted that the Internet connection, provided by a fiber-optic cable from Cox Cable's data network, provides room for additional bandwidth as the needs of the building's tenants grow. "We can go up to 600 megabits per second," he said.

"We're very anxious to provide space with full services, so that a company can get economically started," said Dennis Cagan, SBTG's CEO. "We put money into (creating) a very clean, technically advanced and flexible facility. We think people will be amazed when they see it."

SBTG is actively seeking tenants for its new facility.
"We hope that anyone having an early stage company will consider looking at this space and taking advantage of these resources," Cagan said. "We encourage them to contact us."

Companies interested in space in the remodeled building should contact Jim Acos at 805. 564.8005.

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Tamara L. Cravit is a software developer and partner of Taylored Software, a Buellton firm providing custom Web and business software development services.