Data Center POST interview with Kurt Stoever, Chief Product and Marketing Officer, DC BLOX
By Contributing Editor Sarah Chamberlain
Kurt Stoever is Chief Product and Marketing Officer for DC BLOX, an Atlanta-based data center company providing connectivity for today’s distributed IT infrastructure. At DC BLOX, Kurt spearheads new product development, P&L, lead generation and market engagement. Prior to his work at the company, Kurt served as Executive Vice President of Cloud and Managed Services, Executive Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Service Support for Quality Technology Services (QTS). He has also held senior management positions at Aptegrity, Globix and Electronic Data Systems. Kurt has garnered over 30 years of industry experience driving growth, optimizing operations and increasing client satisfaction.
Data Center POST recently had the chance to chat with Kurt about the future of DC BLOX and how their goals intersect with those of PTC ‘19.
Data Center POST, Sarah Chamberlain (DCP-SC) Question: Tell our readers what problems DC BLOX is attempting to solve right now?
DC BLOX, Kurt Stoever (DCB-KS) Answer: We’re solving some of the challenges of digital transformation in mid-markets though our platform of interconnected data centers. Businesses have increasingly distributed IT infrastructure across their own data centers, mobile apps, public cloud, IoT devices, Software-as-a-Service solutions, and partners. Connecting all of this infrastructure is becoming increasingly challenging and DC BLOX offers secure reliable colocation with a software-defined network fabric and an ecosystem of connectivity partners, helping IT become more agile. DC BLOX is powering digital business.
DCP-SC Q: What milestones did you achieve in 2018 and how will these developments help DC BLOX keep up with the demands of the quickly growing and ever-changing telecommunications industry?
DCB-KS A: Big milestones in 2018 included: certification of our Atlanta to Chattanooga network, acquisition of managed service provider Infrapoint, purchase of over 25 acres of property in downtown Birmingham, commissioning of our Huntsville data center 22 weeks after groundbreaking, launch of our Cloud Storage product, and the introduction of our Cloud Ramp service for connectivity with public cloud providers. The additional footprints, supporting network capacities and capabilities will enable hybrid multi-cloud architectures, distributed data and access to geographically diverse business ecosystems supporting increasingly distributed IT environments.
DCP-SC Q: What are you most looking forward to accomplishing over the next year? The next 3-5 years?
DCB-KS A: Growth! In 2019 we will have opened additional interconnected data centers with others in flight, acquired property for additional sites, rolled out our Service Delivery Platform, and reached the tenure in our operating history where we will be pursuing attestation for numerous compliance initiatives. In the next 3-10 years, we look forward to supporting the businesses and communities we humbly service and watching how our services have enabled digital change for our customers.
DCP-SC Q: What do you think is the greatest challenge(s) that is impacting your industry and how are you working to overcome it?
DCB-KS A: Year over year, some challenges rise and then fall. These have been consistent for the past 5 or so years: efficiency, sustainability, and the cost and schedule of deployments at various scale. DC BLOX has been working on these challenges by positioning the data center as a secure and reliable utility and taking out the cost of anything that does not contribute to secure and reliable power. DC BLOX assembles (vs. builds) smaller footprint data centers designed for simplicity (fail small) and efficiency (low PUE) commissioned in 6 months of groundbreaking. In addition, digital transformation is impacting every industry by increasing digital customer experiences, significantly improving operational effectiveness, increasing competitiveness and disrupting established players. DC BLOX’s connected data centers are increasing the speed and agility of IT teams attempting to harness the explosion of technology enabling this revolution.
DCP-SC Q: The theme of PTC’19 is From Pipes to Platforms. How do you believe that theme relates to DC BLOX and your mission?
DCB-KS A: The DC BLOX mission is to power the digitization of business. We have a platform or fabric of data centers interconnected via high-speed, high-capacity networks tethered to internet exchanges. Our data center platform is a smaller footprint, highly efficient and modular. The “pipes” are software defined, routes are optically engineered and mesh protected. We view the platform and network as an essential pair. The platform only reaches its true potential with the pipes.
DCP-SC Q: What are you most looking forward to accomplishing at PTC’19?
DCB-KS A: We look forward to learning from our industry peers, networking with customers and messaging our strategy and plans.
DCP-SC Q: Thanks so much for your time, Kurt. To learn more about DC BLOX, please visit www.dcblox.com.
