For a few years, Norman Jester ran a colocation data center in name only.
Clients hired him to house their computer equipment, but he had no place of his own to put them. So he rented space from competitors.
“We were a customer of many, many data centers across the United States,” said Jester, CEO of Otay Mesa Data Center [outside San Diego], which, until recently, was called Suavemente.
Jester started the business in 2004. In 2006, he decided to build out his own self-standing data center in Otay Mesa and spent about two years and $1.4 million renovating the facility, adding environmental systems, waterless fire suppression, server racks and wiring.
“I did it slowly out of my own pocket. I cash and carried the whole way through because I don’t like owing anyone money,” he said.
Data centers are essentially large, air-conditioned warehouses — connected by multiple Internet lines — that provide a place for clients’ servers. They save customers headaches associated with running an in-house computer operation.
“They come to the data center and we provide the connection,” Jester said.
Clients can also rent equipment from the data center.
The Numbers
Typical customers pay $5,000 to $10,000 a month. Smaller ones pay $500 a month, and the largest customers will pay as much as $75,000, he says.
OMDC has 22 employees in the United States and seven in Mexico. U.S. revenues were $1.2 million in 2007 and are on pace to reach $5 million this year. Revenues from a smaller data center in Mexico average about $1 million a year, says Jester.
The 22,000-square-foot facility is the only data center in Otay Mesa. It’s near state Route 905 and the U.S.-Mexico border to serve South County clients and Mexico businesses, more and more of which are hosting their Web sites in the United States, Jester says.
“I live in Chula…