We’re Bringing Applications Home to a New Hybrid Data Center Environment

This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services

About the author: With more than 27 years of broad IT, data center and telecommunication experience, Jeff specializes in technology startups, high growth and corporate turnarounds in the areas of cloud technology and professional services. He has held senior leadership positions at Terabeam, Inteliant Corporation and Andersen Consulting and has enabled successful global go-to-market strategies for companies including Telecom Italia Mobile, Iridium, AT&T Wireless, Intel and MCI.

They say you “can’t go home again”, but when it comes to bringing applications and data back from the public cloud, that notion doesn’t apply. Nor does the thought ring true for IT, which became a cost-cutting opportunity and has now evolved back to its rightful place in business again. Still, these returnees find themselves in a new home, one brought on by digital transformation, consisting of a hybrid environment.

Because of a substantial migration to the cloud, IT is now dealing with latency and performance issues, so we are seeing many organizations move applications into regional hybrid colocation centers like the ones we built with the help of Schneider Electric.

As our model has developed, so has our partnership. In the early days of LightEdge, the Schneider Electric team was the only one that could talk colocation design. Along the way, we’ve built, not only data centers, but a trusted, flexible partnership.

We’re not in the real estate business and are not construction experts. We’re IT guys who happened to get into the facilities-based business, so we rely on Schneider Electric’s depth and breadth of knowledge so we can focus on our core capabilities.

Hybrid Colo
LightEdge’s data center model was built to help companies handle today’s intricate mix of IoT data, bandwidth-intensive technology and demand for speed and processing power. These needs cannot be met by cloud alone, but rather through a combination of public and private cloud and on-premises data center. We’re also seeing an emergent need for edge in order to support customers on site and form controlled IoT environments.

We think of our model as an ecosystem of technology where edge meets the backbone, public cloud meets private, and security and compliance are notably in place. As we expand, Schneider Electric will play a key role. We know Schneider’s Mission Critical Services (MCS) team truly understands our vision and the colocation industry as well.

To learn more about our partnership with Schneider Electric, read the case study: Supporting the Evolution of IT with Hybrid Colocation or watch the video that highlights our work together.