Cervalis, Webloyalty show rapid growth
Published in the Advocate, October 13, 2006
by Richard Lee, Assistant Business Editor
Stamford-based Cervalis LLC has become a provider of off-site data storage for corporations, and the company plans to build another data facility to stay ahead of demand.
The terrorist attacks of Sept.11, 2001, made it clear to companies across the country that they needed a place off-site to keep their backup electronic data, and Cervalis was quick to react.
The company is at near capacity at its 70,000-square-foot facility in Wappingers Falls, N.Y., and a 9,000-square-foot facility in Stamford. The new site planned for Stamford has generated much interest, said Michael Boccardi, president and chief executive officer.
“It’s possible that a good portion will be spoken for before it's built out,” he said, expecting plans to be filed with Stamford building officials in November. Boccardi would not reveal locations of the data centers for security reasons.
The company will spend $15 million to convert a commercial building into a state-of-the-art facility, he said.
Plans call for the building to be ready by the middle of next year. It will house three 2-megawatt generators to provide emergency power for its clients’ servers should electricity from Connecticut Light & Power Co. be lost.
“We'll have two feeds from CL&P. We're redundant for everything. There’s not a facility like this in the area,” Boccardi said, adding that 20,000 square feet is allotted for storage, with the remaining 10,000 square feet designated for support equipment.
Companies are outsourcing to modern off-site data storage facilities, he said, because their facilities may be too small and unable to house the cooling equipment needed to preserve electronic data, and the cost for expansion is exorbitant.
“They leverage our IT experience and staff,” Boccardi said, adding that the new facility would be continually staffed.
The power outages that hit Stamford this summer should not deter companies from using Cervalis because of the measures taken to ensure the capabilities of its buildings, he said.
A reliable power supply is essential for data-dependent companies, said Michael Friemuth, Stamford’s economic development director.
“They can't afford to go down for a nanosecond,” he said, adding that the city will reap tax income from the Cervalis operation because of the high-tech equipment used at the facility.
Cervalis, which the Connecticut Technology Council and Deloitte & Touche rank third in the state’s Fast 50 list for technology companies, has a solid reputation in the data storage industry, said Mark Pruner, president of Web Counsel LLC, a Stamford-based interactive marketing company.
“Cervalis has done an excellent job in a very competitive area,” he said. “The data storage business, because of homeland security and a huge increase in audio and video and e-mail and other documents created by corporations, has led to a big demand for this kind of service. However, it's a business that's easy to get into but difficult to do well.”
Establishment of the new facility would result in the addition of more than 15 information technology employees, Boccardi said, and more sites are planned.
“We'll be in an expansion mode for the next several years,” he said.
©2006 Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
About Cervalis
Cervalis is a premier provider of IT Infrastructure Services, Business Continuity and Rapid Recovery solutions that enable customers to achieve higher level of business resilience and accelerate the way companies meet their business objectives. Through its state-of-the-art, fault-tolerant Operations and Recovery Centers, Cervalis offers world-class customer support with the technology needed to scale complex environments reliably and cost effectively. To learn more about the Cervalis advantage, please visit www.cervalis.com or call toll-free 1-866-602-2020.
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For more information please contact:
Mr. Zack Margolis
Vice President
Cervalis, LLC
(203)-602-2044
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