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New President Pushes Data CenterBy Anastasia Tubanos, theWHIR.com
November 17, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Baltimore Technology Park (baltimoretechnologypark.com), the largest carrier-neutral data center facility in the state of Maryland, recently announced it has expanded its executive team by appointing Jim Weller, a former executive of Switch and Data, its new president.
BTP, which is owned by Alabanza Corporation (alabanza.com) and opened eight months ago in Baltimore, Maryland, is a 30,000 square-foot facility that provides tight security and redundancy for businesses of all types and sizes. The facility is currently in the process of an 11,000 square-foot build-out to create room for an additional 250 server cabinets and more space for cage and suites.
Weller, who has been involved in all aspects of the data center industry including the design, operation, upgrade, site selection and acquisitions of more than 50 centers nationwide, says it feels natural to be back with a fast-growing start-up after 20 years.
"Baltimore and Washington, DC, offer an attractive regional market opportunity for a modern data center like BTP. Being part of a fast-growing startup, for which there is an obvious market need, is both fun and exciting," says Weller. "With Switch and Data, which is out of Tampa, Florida, I've been involved in the early deployment of their sites and then acquisition of their sites around the country, all while still located in Maryland. Baltimore was one of those markets we always used to look past, and now I get to use all the expertise I learned all over North America, right here in my backyard. I just couldn't pass up on the opportunity."
With more than a decade of experience in the business, Weller has a few ideas about how Web hosts might look for with regard to protecting their equipment, including geographic diversity, which he says BTP can provide.
"What I've seen with a lot of bigger Web hosts is diversity. I've seen a lot of the larger Web hosts move their gear around. We are all about uptime but I think the safe play for a lot of hosts is diversity, whether it's West Coast, East Coast or within the same market," says Weller. "The ability to back up into diverse locations I think is critical. One of the larger hosts out there has had some issues in L.A. recently, and it really took them out of service. Nobody can be out of service. It's just not acceptable."
Weller says Web hosts need to focus their business around their skills, which in many cases lie inside the box, and may mean outsourcing the infrastructure side of their businesses. He says managed service providers and Web hosts are well served by leaving the infrastructure to a company like BTP.
He says BTP benefits from its relationship with Alabanza because, although the companies provide very different services, the expertise at Alabanza can be applied directly to BTP's business.
"Alabanza has been in the hosting business for over 10 years and they really have an understanding of the data center business because they have their own organically grown data center to support their hosting enterprise, so that's really the foundation. They know what it takes," says Weller. "Not only does that help with their understanding of what we need to do here, but it's their commitment to the business as well. So if we become the home of a new Web host, these guys know the importance of what we need to do to keep that Web host alive. Second, there are also some obvious synergies in personnel. From NOC personnel that we can share to system admin folks that we can utilize if needed, that's a luxury that not all data center startups have."
But while there are synergies between the two companies, says Weller, there is little overlap. He says that BTP wants to focus on the infrastructure, the power, the communications, the cooling and the space and that if Web hosts require someone to do the application work, they really should go to Alabanza.
As he's settling into his new position as president and guiding BTP through its growth, Weller says the market can expect to see a lot of internal expansion for now.
"As a start-up business, we need to be very careful here of our processes. All maintenance schedules, every component involved in construction and everything that goes on around here, I want it very well documented and followed very closely," says Weller. "Our first plan is to expand this building. We have a 30,000 square foot building and we will be growing that in phases based on customer demand. We're about to start what we're calling Phase Two, a pretty large build initiative that'll add more raised floor and additional generators, amongst other things. Bottom line is our business is all about uptime, so we need to make sure that we follow every last component and every schedule there is."
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