vXchnge Buys Eight Sungard Facilities in Edge Data Center Markets

vXchnge has acquired eight data centers from Sungard Availability Services extending its reach to a total of 15 geographic markets. The data centers are in underserved metros, aligning with vXchnge’s edge data center strategy. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

vXchnge acquired the assets and operations teams associated with former Sungard AS data centers, which are in use by customers. vXchnge’s target user base consists of network-centric businesses needing to extend geographic reach in underserved big metro areas.

vXchnge expands its edge data center footprint while Sungard AS frees up capital to invest into other cities. The data centers largely house colocation customers, according to Sungard AS.

“We will continue to serve our customers located in those centers who are leveraging our managed and cloud services,” Sungard AS said in a statement. “We still support colocation services and it remains a growing business for us.”

The new vXchnge edge data centers are in:

Acquiring the data center operations teams in each location was a key part of the acquisition, said vXchnge CEO Keith Olsen, since it makes the acquisition seamless for the existing customers.

There will still be a period of integration. Sungard AS and vXchnge are different types of companies. Sungard AS focuses on disaster recovery, a different business that vXchnge’s edge data centers but one that happens to do well in the same types of markets.

Content providers want to deliver content from data centers at the network edge, so they desire colocation in or near big metros, while disaster recovery is a big need for enterprises in these cities.

Sungard AS isn't getting out of the colocation business, but it is focusing investment in cloud and managed services. The company was recently named a leader in Gartner’s Disaster Recovery as a Service Magic Quadrant, and the company has been busy expanding its footprint as well.

“This agreement supports our overall business strategy calling for us to invest in the markets where we can deliver our broader, integrated solutions,” the company said in a statement. “That’s why, in the past few years, we have opened or expanded more than 10 data centers, serving Philadelphia, New York, Denver, the Midlands, U.K., Stockholm, Toronto, and other key markets.”

Upcoming Sungard AS expansions this year include Houston, Carlstadt, New Jersey, Dublin, and “potentially other locations,” the company said.

The two companies happen to have Philadelphia in common. It is home to Sungard AS headquarters and where the first Switch & Data data center is located. vXchnge was founded by former Switch & Data executives following that company’s acquisition by Equinix in 2009 and started construction on a 70,000 square foot Philadelphia data center last July.

vXchnge was formed after the Stephens Group acquired Bay Area Internet Services (BAIS), a colocation provider in Santa Clara, California, in 2013. The Little Rock, Arkansas-based private equity firm partnered with what is now the vXchnge management team on the transaction and formed vXchnge.

"We see tremendous opportunities directly tied to this transaction," said Keith Olsen, vXchnge CEO, in a press release. "It accelerates our strategic presence in 'edge' based marketplaces for companies to grow their businesses. These marketplaces operate as deployment points for our customers' network-enabled applications and cloud services that require safe, secure and resilient data centers."