Data Center Systems announced that industry veteran Chris Crosby will join the company as President and CEO and will have a significant ownership stake in the company. Crosby joins Data Center Systems from Digital Realty Trust, among the world’s largest providers of wholesale data centers, where he was a senior executive who helped lead the company’s dramatic growth over the past several years.
Data Center Systems founder and current CEO Kevin Ehringer will work alongside Crosby in the new role of Chief Technology Officer and Chairman.
“Chris is one of the most respected people in the data center industry not only because of what he has accomplished in his career but also because of his integrity, passion and intelligence. We are excited about Chris’ decision to join our team and his commitment to build our company into the world leader in structured cabling systems and data center infrastructure solutions,” said Kevin Ehringer. “This is a perfect situation for both Chris and me. I will be able to focus on things I am passionate about, determining our customers’ needs and using those insights to develop state-of-the-art solutions that exceed their expectations. In his role as President and CEO, Chris will put his business acumen and boundless energy to work driving the company’s growth. It’s a great fit, and it positions Data Center Systems for a very bright future.”
“The parallels between Data Center Systems today and Digital Realty Trust prior to the company’s IPO are remarkable: Both focus on a segment of the IT stack that is ripe for an innovative company to cut through long-standing inefficiencies and offer a solution that saves customers a huge amount of money on their data center projects while delivering a better environment for the customer,” said Chris Crosby. “The infrastructure solutions that Data Center Systems has pioneered have the potential to impact the industry as much as the wholesale datacenter model that Digital Realty Trust did.”
Crosby added: “Large companies can spend tens of millions of dollars on cabling and datacenter infrastructure as they build out and fill their data centers. The typical approach they use for this can be frustrating, costly and unwieldly. Simply put, it takes too long, too many resources, and too much money to get infrastructure in place to bring servers and storage online, regardless of whether it is in an existing datacenter or brand new facility. Data Center Systems has developed a tailored solution that can save companies millions of dollars on their datacenter infrastructure as well as a significant amount of time on implementations. I’m pleased to be working with Kevin and the rest of the team to pursue this significant market opportunity.”
Chris Crosby has nearly two decades of experience as an executive and thought leader in the data center industry. At the end of his tenure at Digital Realty Trust, Crosby was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development leading global growth initiatives for the company including its expansion into markets such as Asia-Pacific. Prior to that role, Crosby was the senior executive overseeing sales and technical services, including marketing, engineering and construction. He was a member of the team of co-founders who formed Digital Realty Trust and organized its initial public offering as the industry’s first data center-focused REIT in 2004.
Prior to that IPO, Crosby was Managing Director of Proferian, an operating partner of GI Partners. While at Proferian, Crosby was responsible for leasing and sales within the GI Partners portfolio with an emphasis on technology-related leasing including turn-key data center space. Prior to that, he was a consultant for CRG West (now CoreSite), an operating partner of The Carlyle Group, formed in 2001 to oversee and enhance strategic telecom assets managed by Carlyle Realty Group. Crosby also worked for Nortel Networks, and earned a B.S. degree from the University of Texas at Austin.
Data Center Systems will attend and exhibit at Computerworld’s Storage Network World (SNW) from April 4-7, 2011 in the Santa Clara Convention Center. For more information, visit http://www.datacentersys.com.