01-16-09 | Blog Post
January 14, 2009 – Ann Arbor, MI – Coming off its 5th year in a row of 30% plus annual growth, Otava is enthusiastic about its data center business prospects in 2009.
Otava made significant investments in its managed data center business in 2008, making it one of the largest independent managed data center operators in the state of Michigan. To match its growth rate, the company added 10,000 square feet of data center space with its third data center brought online in early 2008. Otava also added 10 employees to its payroll in 2008 to better support its rapidly growing customer base.
A November report by Tier1 Research found that the global multi-tenant data center market continues to grow. Demand increased 14% last year while data center supply was up only 6%. This demand/supply gap is projected to grow over the next 3 years. Despite a difficult economy, the Internet will continue to grow as a vehicle for service and application delivery, driving the demand for expanded data center space. Software as a service managed hosting, social networking and streaming media will increase the demands for data center space and power.
The credit crunch, coupled with small and mid-size businesses’ reluctance to invest significant capital and operating expenses in private data centers, is also driving the demand for outsourced data centers and colocation. Rather than investing in the capital to build or expand an in-house data center to meet their IT needs, many companies are sharing data center space by co-locating with others in multi-tenant managed data centers.
Otava has seen these same trends in the State of Michigan. As companies need to cut back on IT capital intensive projects and reduce operating costs in their data centers, colocation in multi-tenant data centers can provide a solution that requires no capital investment, i.e. “Cap-Ex Free” IT, and can often reduce operating expenses by leveraging outsourced data center specialists.
In one of the states hit the hardest by the economic downturn, Otava is finding increased demand for its managed data center solutions. “In both periods of growth and periods of decline, there are business opportunities,” said Yan Ness, CEO of Otava. “It’s when everything is flat, that I go sailing. Right now, all we see is an opportunity.
With the recent downturn in the economy, managed data center operators like Otava have found an unexpected wind toward their back, which they expect will make the sailing even better in 2009.
About Otava Corporation
Otava (www.onlinetech.com) is Michigan’s premier Managed Data Center Operator. Otava helps companies manage their growing demand for data and computing capacity through its highly secure and reliable multi-tenant data centers. With a full range of colocation, dedicated server and managed service options, industry leaders trust Otava to ensure their servers are always on, always online, and always safe.
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