What Do Miami Data Center CEOs Have in Common?

If you look at a Miami data center today, you will find that their operations and business targets are more or less the same within the state and country. If you look at the Data Center Map, there are 84 colocation centers in Florida with 25 data centers located in Miami. This is just a fraction of the 3,600 data centers located around the world, but Florida’s total ranks fourth in the country.

Some of the leading colocation centers in Miami include:

• ColoHouse
• CoreSite Miami (MI1)
• Miami-Connect
• Telx MIA1 – Miami

This might come as a surprise as Florida does not boast any natural cooling and is in an area that is at risk of natural disasters like hurricanes. However, this perceived risk was found to be only low to moderate when it comes to natural disasters. Further, it’s not difficult to build a data center that can withstand the force of a hurricane.

Focused on Growth

Miami data center CEOs are generally focused on expansion and growth. This is a direct result of growing investor confidence in the colocation industry. This phenomenon is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.

According to Cisco’s Global Cloud Index, annual data center traffic will increase globally by 23% until the end of 2018. This makes sense as Florida is among the top five hubs for telecom worldwide and Miami’s Network Access Point (NAP) functions as a key Internet traffic switching station for heading to or coming from Latin America.

Other drivers of growth in the area are as follows:

• Significant amount of fiber access
• Stable utility infrastructure
• Great real estate options
• Market proximity
• Large pool of tech professionals in the state

They Are Not Techies

If you look at Miami data center CEOs, you will notice that they are not from an IT or tech background. For example, The Telx Group’s CEO, Chris Downie was formally their President and Chief Financial Officer. Further, Tom Ray, the President and CEO of CoreSite comes from the real estate field. This phenomenon can be attributed to the significant investment coming into the industry from different sources. The right individual leading a colocation facility can attract investment.

Common Habits

Not just in Miami, but all around the country and the rest of the world, heads of colocation centers have some common habits. They are all focused on building brand value, developing new business opportunities, and developing and expanding their data centers.

Some of the common colocation CEO habits include the ability to:

• Attract capital from real estate investment trusts, banks, and investors
• Design and build mission critical IT facilities
• Develop and improve processes
• Lead strategic initiatives
• Manage and develop staff
• Manage major customer accounts
• Speak at industry conferences

What do you think of Miami data center CEOs? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments box below.

And if you’re responsible for bringing in new clients and revenue to a data center in Miami, be sure to download your free copy of “Lead Generation Best Practices for Colocation Data Centers.”