In the past decade, DATA4 has made a name for itself in the data centre sector across Europe. Founded in 2006, the company, which is part of the investment portfolio of US private equity fund Colony Capital, is a relatively new force in the industry, but it has made a major impact in that time.
Olivier Micheli, CEO of DATA4, spoke to The CEO Magazine about the company’s journey over the past 10 years, his personal expertise and areas of focus, why he believes DATA4 is going to succeed in changing the industry and how he plans to make the company one of the top five pan-European data centre operators.
The CEO Magazine: When you first came into the role as CEO of DATA4, what were your key areas of focus?
Olivier: Let me first offer some background about DATA4.
The company has been in existence for almost 10 years. It was founded in 2006 and has a proven track record of winning the trust of major accounts with their data centre outsourcing projects.
Data centres are the lifeblood of our customers’ businesses and we are therefore extremely proud that numerous international blue chips and web giants have chosen our data centres, earning us a reputation for unimpeachable quality. The company’s development in those first 10 years has been meteoric. However, it is important to understand that there has been a paradigm shift in the market in the past three to four years; increased competition combined with enterprises embracing a cloud-based model for an increasing number of applications. This IT transformation entailed enterprises moving from a centralised IT model to a dispersed one.
