Teraco appoints data centre `top gun`
Vendor-neutral data centre operator Teraco has appointed Guy Willner, an industry "top gun", as a non-executive director.
He will advise the new company on sales cycles and develop ideas, says Teraco CEO Lex van Wyk.
Willner was a co-founder of European-based carrier-neutral data centre company IXEurope, which was bought by US group Equinix in 2007, in a $482 million deal.
He has also invested in Teraco for an undisclosed amount, alongside other international and local shareholders, including black-owned private equity group Treacle Private Equity and British industrialist Sir Peter Michael.
Teraco was formed about 18 months ago using seed capital from several founders of telecommunications utility Storm, which was sold to Vox Telecom in 2007. Among those investors are Tim Parsonson and Tim Wyatt-Gunning. Michael was also an investor in Storm.
Willner, 45, has more than 15 years of senior leadership experience in hi-tech companies. He founded the UK-based co-location provider IXEurope in 1998, forging strategic relationships with key accounts as the company`s turnover grew over 600% in the first three years.
His leadership team grew IXEurope into a London Stock Exchange-listed business, operating 14 large-scale data centres in four countries, before it was bought by Nasdaq-listed Equinix.
Equinix is the largest global operator of network-neutral data centres and Internet exchange services. Willner now serves in a non-executive role as president of Equinix Europe.
"I`m excited to be involved with Teraco. SA`s telecoms is now at a similar stage of liberalisation as Europe was when we started IXEurope, opening up a new world of opportunity for businesses to connect cost-effectively and reliably," says Willner.
He says carriers and service providers will increasingly see the value of a neutral point to interconnect their networks and do business. "The time is now right to create a real home for the Internet in SA, and I believe the Teraco management have addressed the opportunity in the right way," Willner says.
Van Wyk says Teraco is forging ahead with its plan to open a new data centre in Isando, Johannesburg, and that construction of the site should commence within the next two weeks.
Teraco`s first data centre, in Cape Town, was opened in January.
"We will be making announcements about new clients soon, and we are seeing increased interest from industry to outsource their data centre operations, especially in the current economic climate," notes Van Wyk.
He says the local market still needs some education on what a vendor-, or carrier-neutral, data centre is - a data centre that allows connections from any telecommunications utility of the customer`s choice.