DC BLOX
DIGITAL REPORT 2020
CONNECTED DATA CENTRES FOR EDGE MARKETS IN ASSOCIATION WITH
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CONNECTED DATA CENTRES FOR EDGE MARKETS
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DC BLOX
JEFF UPHUES, CEO OF DC BLOX, DISCUSSES HIS ORGANISATION’S EXPANSION IN UNDERSERVED MARKETS AND HOW IT INTRODUCES ITS DATA CENTRES LOCALLY WHILE SERVING GLOBALLY
F
ounded in 2014, DC BLOX develops core infrastructure that empowers businesses in smaller growing cities to achieve their
digital transformation goals, and enables local governments to accelerate economic growth by attracting technology-dependent companies and 04
jobs to their regions. Jeff Uphues has been the CEO at DC BLOX since 2017. He is responsible for setting and leading the company’s strategy in building and operating a fabric of edge connected, cloudenabled data centres and driving the growth and profitability of best-in-class infrastructure for digital services. “My background has primarily been in the communications sector, both from a cloud, data centre and communications perspective,” says Uphues. “I’ve got around 30 years experience of increasing responsibility across various areas of the communications sector from fiber to network services to cloud-based hosting services to data centres. It feels like I’ve come full circle.” DC BLOX currently has four data centres: Atlanta, Georgia, Chattanooga, Tennessee,
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DC BLOX
“ WE’RE REALLY FOCUSED ON OUR ABILITY TO SERVE LOCALLY AND CONNECT GLOBALLY ON BEHALF OF OUR CUSTOMERS”
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on behalf of our customers,” explains Uphues. “We bring a Tier 3 or higher rated facility, which is the industry standard for reliable data centres, according to The Uptime Institute. When we look at these markets, we ask ourselves whether there is a Tier 3 data centre already there. Would the market benefit from us delivering
— Jeff Uphues, CEO, DC BLOX
a service that serves them locally, is
Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama,
society? It’s key that there’s a value.”
a part of that community, and connects them as we live in a global
all built with a high level of security,
Uphues affirms that his company’s
reliability and connectivity. Uphues
data centres all have rich connectivity
believes the challenge is to find a mar-
built-in and must be resilient in terms
ket that is underserved while ensuring
of its network architecture and qual-
there is a demand to gain benefit.
ity of equipment. “We use premium
“We’re really focused on our ability
products, driven by premium service
to serve locally and connect globally
level agreements. We engineer and operate our own private data network across the Southeastern US between our data centres and then
DC Blox’s Views on the networking challenges that companies are facing with Covid19 CLICK TO WATCH
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2:27
07 we connect them privately to core
and the type of vendors that we use.
Internet exchanges and to the public
It’s in the architecture for how we con-
cloud providers. We really look at that
nect them together.”
connectivity and the uptime of our
Bill Thomson, VP, Marketing and
facilities as a key value that we bring
Product Management at DC BLOX,
to our markets.” Achieving DC BLOX’s
affirms there is a significant amount
high standards also requires a high
of evaluation performed when decid-
standard of construction. “Beyond the
ing on the location of a data centre.
connectivity, it’s a question of how we
“We do a considerable amount of quan-
build these facilities to be Tier 3-rated.
titative analysis of these markets. We
It comes down to being concurrently
first look for markets that have limited
maintainable, meaning that if any one
access to secure, reliable data centre
system in the building fails, there is a
facilities. We don’t just look at the mar-
backup system that can take over. It’s
ket size but also their growth potential.
part of the design, it’s in the materials
We look at the amount of fiber access www.dc bl ox. com
DC BLOX
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in the markets, IP traffic, and land and power costs. These are all big indicators of potential business growth and
2014
Year founded
value. We also consider state, county and city tax incentives.” Currently, Uphues’s focus is on accelerating growth in edge markets. “It’s all in how you define the edge,” he explains. “DC BLOX defines the edge as where the application meets the network. And some would look at our markets as edge data centre markets, while others might look at it as a hub that then connects to an edge device where
HQ
Atlanta, Georgia USA
35
Number of employees
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Jeff Uphues Title: Chief Executive Officer
Location: Atlanta
Industry: Information Technology & Services Jeff Uphues has been the CEO at DC BLOX since 2017. He is responsible for setting and leading the company’s strategy in building and operating a fabric of edge connected, cloud enabled data centres and driving the growth and profitability of best-in-class infrastructure for digital services. “My background has primarily been in the communications sector, both from a cloud, data centre and communications perspective,” says Uphues. “I’ve got around 30 years’ experience of increasing responsibility across various areas of the communications sector from fiber to network services to cloud-based hosting services to data centres. It feels like I’ve come full circle.” Uphues previously served as Executive Vice President for Liquid Web, a global managed hosting and data centre operator that serves over 30,000 customers in over 150 countries. Having been in the communications industry for almost 30 years, he is a tireless tech-savvy executive and business strategist, having held several C-suite leadership positions in sales, marketing and operations for Cbeyond, Bandwidth, ACSI Network Technologies and MCI. He serves as an active board member at several technology firms and has also co-chaired the SE New Venture Competition for Harvard Business School to select the regions’ best start-up ventures. Uphues graduated from the Harvard Business School, Rice University’s Jones School of Business Executive Education program in Finance and Accounting and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Having initially joined DC BLOX in 2016 as an Advisory Board Member, Uphues stepped into his current role as CEO in March 2017 and he affirms that together with employees and investors “we’ve built a really great company” during his tenure.
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“ WE DO A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THESE MARKETS. WE DON’T JUST LOOK AT THE MARKET SIZE BUT ALSO THEIR GROWTH POTENTIAL” — Bill Thomson, VP, Marketing and Product Management, DC BLOX
As a result, DC BLOX has become
that local hub where a significant amount of data traffic can pass through its facilities. “We like to think we’re
that network meets the application,
the centralised place in our markets
like a cell phone or a cell tower. We
where content, carrier, cloud, wire-
find that many people consider DC
less and network enterprise traffic
BLOX locations as edge markets out-
passes through our data centres,”
side of the larger core market areas
explains Uphues. “We’ve become the
where large hyperscale or larger data
Grand Central Station where con-
centres are located.”
nectivity originates and terminates
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DC BLOX
C O V ID- 19 CHALLEN GE
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With the challenge of COVID-19 impacting organizations worldwide, Uphues acknowledges that the network has shifted. “Pre-COVID-19, the network used to be delivered at people’s offices,” he says. “However, people are now working in lots of remote environments, it’s changed the way that people connect to VPNs and driven a more hybrid type world. This means that some of the things you’re connecting and working on are in your office and in a data centre that’s close to you, whereas, there’s also companies embracing cloud computing at a faster rate. That’s
a hybrid environment to us.” Uphues understands the network challenges that have resulted from the pandemic and stresses the importance of customer-centricity. “At DC BLOX, we have access through how we’ve created our network and pulled things together to give our customers immediate access and connect to over 50 carriers globally from one of our facilities,” says Uphues. “We provide it to the fingertips of our customers. If you’re a customer at one of our centres, you have access to change to whatever business demand you require.”
“ IT’S NO LONGER JUST A FACILITY DECISION ABOUT WHERE MY IT INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS TO GO. IT’S A STRATEGIC IT DECISION ABOUT WHO TO PARTNER WITH IN ORDER TO PROVIDE AGILITY AND FLEXIBILITY” — Bill Thomson, VP, Marketing and Product Management, DC BLOX
with larger markets. For example, in the state of Alabama, we have two of the most connected sites where computing, internet and cloud services traffic can be connected, managed and exchanged.” Thomson adds that although DC BLOX is building in what could be considered an edge market, it doesn’t mean that these are traditional edge data centres. “Edge data centres have lots of different meanings. We’re building a full-service 13
E X E C U T I V E P R O FILE :
Bill Thomson Title: VP, Marketing and Product Management
Location: Atlanta
Industry: Information Technology & Services Bill Thomson joined DC BLOX in 2018 and heads marketing and product management for the company. He is a technology industry veteran having developed and marketed a considerable number of enterprise software, SaaS applications and cloud services products geared to SMB and enterprise markets. Thomson has led strategic product planning, marketing and product growth for many leading technology companies including AT&T, Citrix, Unisys, NTT, Cbeyond and Vonage. He has served on the Technology Association of Georgia Product Management Society Board, holds a Master of Science degree from Stevens Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Rutgers University. www.dc bl ox. com
DC BLOX
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“ PRE-COVID-19, THE NETWORK USED TO BE DELIVERED AT PEOPLE’S OFFICES” — Jeff Uphues, CEO, DC BLOX
With an eye on the future, Thomson believes it’s important to recognise that data centres aren’t what they
multi-tenant data centre built to Tier
used to be. “It’s no longer just a facility
3 standards in these markets. The
decision about where my IT infra-
business needs aren’t any different
structure needs to go. It’s a strategic
in these edge cities than the major
IT decision about who to partner with
markets, so they don’t consider them-
in order to provide agility and flexibil-
selves edge markets and are looking
ity,” explains Thomson. “You need to
for the same quality of services that
be able to follow your digital transfor-
they could get in the major cities.”
mation goals, you need to connect
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to the cloud, you need to move data
and growing markets,” he explains.
to and from devices, and it’s difficult
“We want to be the centralised
to do it on your own in the old-fashioned
exchange point for all cloud, content,
way. A new modern, highly connected
carrier, wireless and enterprise traf-
data centre is an important tool and
fic in our markets as we extend the
DC BLOX is a great partner for those
network edge. We’re continuously
types of relationships.” Uphues adds
seeking to expand that a bit further
that the future is bright for DC BLOX
and really accelerate our footprint.”
and the company has a plan to continue to serve underserved markets. “Today, we have four data centres. But with the future in mind, we want more than a dozen over the next three to five years within many underserved www.dc bl ox. com
DC BLOX 6 WEST DRUID HILLS DRIVE NE ATLANTA GEORGIA 30329 USA T 877 590 1684 www.dcblox.com
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