CentriLogic — a rapidly growing global provider of cloud, managed hosting, co-location and IT outsourcing — is setting up shop inside the University of the Virgin Islands’ Research and Technology Park at the 64 West collocation data center in Frederiksted.
CentriLogic Chief Executive Officer Robert Offley, during an interview with the Source, said he sees a big opportunity to grow operations and build customers by leveraging the massive, reliable bandwidth available at 64 West through its connection to Level 3 Communications’ undersea fiber optic cables. Those cables, with a beachhead in Frederiksted, carry the bulk of all communications in and out of the Virgin Islands and much of Latin America. RTPark tax breaks of up to 90 percent are a draw and an asset too, Offley said.
CentriLogic purchased Adveniat, a local subsidiary of Baltimore Technology Park, and is taking over Adveniat’s web hosting services.
"We see good opportunities here, with a number of assets in the region that are not necessarily well promoted," the U.K.-born Offley told the Source. "I’m talking about the access to bandwidth of course. We see it as an interesting opportunity to start growing our business not only in the Caribbean but in South America.”
By purchasing Adveniat, CentriLogic was able to get inside the Level 3 facility, which not only provides direct access to effectively unlimited bandwidth, but has multiple, independent power sources and other redundant features that help make it very robust and unlikely to go offline, he said.
"A data center is like a lock box," Offley said. "These facilities need to have a continuous presence. They need to be totally available and totally secure. You can’t afford to go down. Really, a facility would have to keep working without external power or external cooling.”
And he can get that here, which means he can provide super-fast, super-reliable, cloud-based and IT services to companies here and throughout the region, he said.
Offley sees huge potential for growth in the sort of customized data solutions he offers, saying IT as a field and cloud-based computing "is experiencing 30-40 percent annual compounded growth," and that his own company, "over the last five years, had over 1200 percent growth, so is growing very quickly," he said. "There is an opening and an opportunity there. We are living in a digital economy and I don’t think that is going to change. It is going to get even more prevalent.”
One big advantage of contracting a company like CentriLogic is you no longer have to make huge computer purchases, set aside an air conditioned room for servers, or have an in-house technical team, he said.
"What we are finding more and more is people don’t want to be bothered finding hardware and procuring software and making sure all the latest patches are loaded and secure. So we provide a managed environment on a customer-by-customer basis," he said.
He expects to build a customer base of both local and global businesses.
"We have a lot of experience in running IT for Fortune 500 companies as well as mid and small companies, and we are going to take some of that experience and we are going to apply it here, bring some of those customers here and also offer some of those services locally," he said.
The RTPark was set up to offer tax breaks in exchange for educational investments and cooperative arrangements with UVI.
"We still need to explore that more," Offley said. “I think there are clearly opportunities through internships or getting work experience in running applications. … I am learning and we are trying to see where we can really help. But being a part of the local community is something that is important to us.”
Born and raised outside London, Offley has been involved with the Internet since 1995. He currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.
"I built up a company in Europe, which was sold, so I came across to live in Canada, where I founded and grew CentriLogic," he said. "So I am passionate about entrepreneurs and I love building teams and growing businesses. I like the industry we are in because we are offering a service. We are not selling widgets, we are offering a service and helping companies take advantage of technology. It is not always easy and it is a complex field and helping people through that, guiding people through that, to me, is very fulfilling and something I am passionate about," he said.
Headquartered in Toronto and Ontario, Canada, and Rochester, New York, CentriLogic owns and operates data center facilities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.centrilogic.com.
