INTERVIEW – Earlier this year, Los Angeles-based colocation and cloud hosting provider Net2EZ announced its official name and brand change to Net Data Centers. In addition, the company completed its move into their new headquarters at 898 Sepulveda Boulevard in El Segundo. Hosting Journalist reporter Derek Vaughan visited Net Data Centers and spoke to President, CEO and founder Pervez Delawalla about their plans and ambitions.
It’s a bit hard to miss the new corporate headquarters of Net Data Centers in Los Angeles: their building has their name on it – eight feet high. The ultra modern interiors of the office immediately tell you that this is a business with an edge and a very modern sensibility. The building and it’s decor serve an important purpose, to tell the city of El Segundo, California that the company has arrived and also to make a statement to the varied businesses in Los Angeles from entertainment to health care – ‘If you need 100 percent reliability in a hosting provider, we are the best.’
“We wanted the name to reflect who we have become,” said CEO Pervez Delawalla about the name change. “We are the same company with the same fundamental goals of offering customers premium customized technology solutions that are always on – like their business, but now we can support more aspects of their business than ever before.”
Delawalla explained, “Net Data Centers is currently focused on expanding managed service offerings to allow colocation customers to take advantage of services they may already consume outside of our facilities. With Vega Compute, Vega Backup, and Vega Secure, customers can take advantage of cloud instances and state-of-the-art backup and recovery all within a Tier IV facility. Additionally, Net Data Centers offers DDOS protection with Vega Secure.”
Modular data center design
The company currently operates data center facilities in a number of highly active geographic areas, including multiple data centers in California and Virginia, plus New Jersey and Singapore. The company boasts one of the highest available power densities for each colocation cabinet in the industry, up to 350 watts per square foot or up to 22kW per cabinet.
Modularity and energy-efficiency are strong themes in data center design at Net Data Centers – especially with their future plans. Most of the company’s data centers are ‘purpose built’ – meaning that the buildings, the power systems, the connectivity and redundant features are built specifically to house enterprise-class server installations.
Delawalla explained, “Modular data center design definitely allows for economies of scale, as well as cost and energy efficiencies. The vision is out there and leaders in this space have started paving the way. It is definitely something that Net Data Centers is exploring. Most of our facilities are designed to LEED standards, and our New Jersey site has attained LEED Gold Certification. In this business it is a must to strive for energy-efficiency and partner with companies that are looking for these type of efficiencies.”
Within each region, Net Data Centers has dark fiber connecting each of its data centers to their network which allows the company to offer a variety of services including IP transit, MPLS services and waves without having to go to outside vendors. In addition to dark fiber, Net Data Centers offers connectivity with a premium bandwidth blend of top-tier providers.
Vega Compute
Cloud computing has gained a major role in the operations at Net Data Centers of late. The company has invested heavily in infrastructure to support large cloud deployments. Delewalla states, “Vega Compute – Net Data Centers’ cloud hosting platform, allows us to offer value to those customers looking to phase out legacy hardware without having to make new Capex investments. Additionally, it allows customers to create development environments on the fly without having to worry about capacity. Customers are able to utilize our managed services paired with Vega Compute to offload IT workload.”
While there are other companies in the market providing cloud hosting solutions, Net Data Centers’ cloud infrastructure solutions would be different. Going beyond just compute capabilities ‘as a service’, Net Data Centers offers customers a completely managed solution, running on fully dedicated hardware and environments. “It’s the on-demand compute power that enterprise customers need coupled with the flexibility, greater control, and worry-free reliability they really want,” explained Delawalla.
L.A. colocation market
In describing the Los Angeles marketplace, Mr. Delawalla explained, “The L.A. colocation market is very competitive. You have a wide variety of players, major colocation companies but you also have a decent amount of small contenders. The customer base is very diverse in Los Angeles. You definitely have a lot more entertainment, creative and technology focused business with the rise of Silicon Beach.”
“The move of our offices to the larger facility in El Segundo enables the continued growth of the company,” said Delawalla. “We are able to create a great working environment with the most modern amenities, facilitate innovation, bring teams together from separate locations, and improve the daily commute for many employees. We look forward to continuing to being part of the local business community and adding great people to our team.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Derek Vaughan is a freelance technology writer and entrepreneur who has been involved with the web hosting industry for a decade. His previous work includes marketing for The Walt Disney Company, and serving as Vice President of Aplus.net and HostMySite.com. Mr. Vaughan holds degrees from Indiana University, Purdue University and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
