Celebrating Mile Markers on the Road to Success, Sustainable Innovation

After six years of exponential year-over-year growth, Expedient, a mid-sized cloud services and data center Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, stands strengthened in its vision and continues to broaden its solutions portfolio while moving the brand into new nationwide and global markets.

The company’s ongoing success was given an extra boost in July when, for the second consecutive year, Gartner, Inc. positioned Expedient as a Niche Player in its 2018 Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS). It was a celebratory nod to the firm’s key differentiators, company officials maintain, including its ability to rapidly failover entire sites without IP or DNS modifications.

"That was exciting because the list was narrowed from 23 to 10 providers and out of those providers, there were only two like Expedient," says Derek Hahn, regional vice president. "When I say, ‘like Expedient,’ I mean, we’re a unique organization. We’re one of just a few [our size] out there that own and operate our own data center and own and operate our own cloud platform."

More than a little impressive, considering Expedient is holding its own in a ring that includes the "hyperscale providers" like Amazon and Microsoft, Hahn points out. "Rarely do you see this type of success with organizations like us, and that is partly due to conflicting priorities.  Providers our size are often looking to take on many new technologies, resulting in becoming a ‘Jack of all trades’ but not establishing yourself as an expert or leader in anything . But we’ve been able to execute well. It speaks to the success we’ve had and the people, talent, and partnerships we’ve had in place over the years."

"We’re very thankful to be one of the 10 firms positioned in the Quadrant," adds Steve Gruetter, Expedient’s director of market strategy, Central Ohio. "That’s out of more than 500 solutions providers globally who offer a disaster recovery type of solution. This listing separates organizations who can execute from those who simply have an offering."

Add the Magic Quadrant recognition to Expedient’s other recent industry honors – ranked No. 7 managed services provider worldwide (according to Channel Futures 11th annual MSP 501 Worldwide Company Rankings) and the 2018 Zero Growth Partner of the Year – Cloud Services Provider at ZertoCON 2018.

"Business is going really well, and we are thankful that Expedient is garnering some recognition" Hahn observes.

Expedient reported record growth in its 2017 DRaaS revenues, which doubled from 2015. Underlining that milestone was Zerto naming Expedient as a Platinum Partner in April of this year, making Expedient one of only four cloud services providers globally to earn that distinction. That gave Expedient unprecedented access to Zerto’s technical and executive teams, enabling the organization to continue to provide the best-in-class DRaaS solution for its enterprise cloud customers.

With the widespread adoption of cloud-based solutions among enterprises of all sizes, Expedient officials note, the DRaaS market is expected to continue to experience rapid growth, with some forecasts estimating global market size at $12.54 billion by 2022. Being named Zerto Platinum Partner on the heels of Expedient’s first-ever positioning in the 2017 Gartner Magic Quadrant for DRaaS is, Hahn and Gruetter agree, a testament to the organization’s continued innovations in the DRaaS space.

In May, Expedient announced a network backbone upgrade to enable its 100Gbp/s speed connectivity across multiple data center locations and carrier neutral points of presence (POPs) used for IP transit and peering interconnection. That project represented more than $1.8 million in infrastructure investment, driving increased customer demand for solutions requiring data replication, including Expedient’s Push Button DR. The investment in upgrading its fiber backbone, organization officials say, represented Expedient’s commitment to its customers’ businesses and their increasingly complex networking and connectivity needs.

Strategic Focus Paired with Perfect Timing

Expedient was built through a series of acquisitions in the early-to-mid-2000s, with all its markets offering experienced data center colocation services for 10 years or more. Expedient’s legal name is Continental Broadband LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC, a firm with more than a century of experience operating media and technology interests. It was in November 2015 that Expedient announced the completion and opening of the first phase of the then-new 60,000-square-foot data center in Dublin, Ohio. The Dublin data center followed Expedient’s 2013 expansion at its Upper Arlington data center, which opened in 2010.

The increasing demand arising from the Columbus technology community was the primary driver for adding the Dublin facility, predicted to triple Expedient’s footprint in the Columbus market while making the company the region’s only data center provider capable of offering both in-market geographic diversity and seamless out-of-market, off-site hosting. Expedient’s other data centers are in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Cleveland; Baltimore; Boston; Memphis, Tennessee; and Indianapolis.

"It’s our technical acumen and our unique blend of people, partnerships and processes," Hahn says of Expedient’s local and global success. "Without any one of those components, we wouldn’t be anywhere near the solution provider we are today."

Clearly, there is nothing serendipitous about Expedient’s growth.

According to Hahn, it’s the result of the organization’s strategic focus on both the region’s tech market and the industry. Perfect timing, however, has also played a part in establishing Expedient’s burgeoning role at the head of what some analysts and experts have dubbed a next generation IT "Industrial Revolution."

"The IT industry is absolutely booming right now. We know what we bring to the table is world-class, and we also know it’s perfect timing. We also know we don’t want to change our identity, and we don’t want to turn into one of those larger organizations I was involved in earlier along my career path. They were very successful, but lacked Expedient’s nimbleness, so they struggled with the agility to execute. It was like trying to turn the Titanic."

A Growth Model on the Verge of Take Off

Expedient is planning to expand into new markets nationwide and is on the cusp of expanding its recently-entered global market presence as well.

"Our chief strategy officer, Bryan Smith, is at the helm, evaluating new markets as we speak,"says Hahn. "We’re most interested in expanding our geographic presence and reach, not to mention folding new solutions into our portfolio around our partnerships that include data backup protection, IT resiliency and a number of other solutions."

Gruetter describes Expedient’s plans to grow their products/solutions as "robust."

"We have a group looking at what solutions we will be delivering to our clients in 2021 right now," he says. "They’re very skilled, and they’re making sure we have the products that will mature as our clients and markets mature and change Our clients are smart and we have plenty of smart people on our staff, but no one knows exactly what our clients will need in three years, so we need to be agile and adapt to their changing requirements."

"Expedient is always looking three to five years ahead to where we are going and where we need to be," adds Hahn. "The struggle is, of course, that technology is changing so fast. We might not know what the technology will be five years from now, but we do our best to predict that so we can start to adopt at least some of the cutting-edge technologies to see if they make sense for our clients."

Expedient also maintains an exceptionally high level of community focus.

"We’re supporting organizations that bring together our community of IT leaders, catalysts, investors and start-ups," Gruetter notes. "It makes sense for Expedient to be a part of this because we care very much about the communities we are in, and how we can build them up.. We want to make sure the next generation is equipped to lead. Not every organization is as forward thinking as that."

While many organizations are wholly focused on meeting quotas and delivering projects, he adds, Expedient is also looking to strengthen various local IT communities for the future.

"We know we are going to be here. We know we are part of the community fabric. So, we want to make sure the community is as strong as it can be. So we say, ‘Let’s put our money and time where our mouth is.’ "

While there is plenty of IT talent in Central Ohio, there is still a desperate need for more, Gruetter concludes.

"Without a doubt, it’s a great time to in technology in Central Ohio, but we really need more talent to fill hundreds of jobs. Expedient is investing time to - support the top end of the talent pipeline with our IT Leaders program, and there are numerous other organizations trying to drive those just entering the workforce toward entering the IT space and preparing them for these integral roles."

For more information about Expedient, visit www.expedient.com