Hosted Solutions Acquires Boston Datacenters

Regional data center services provider Hosted Solutions will expand into New England by acquiring Boston Datacenters, the company said this week. The acquisition will be the first foray outside North Carolina for Hosted Solutions, which was previously known as Springboard Managed Hosting and has focused its business in Research Triangle.

The move gives Hosted Solutions four data centers, including North Carolina facilities in Cary, Raleigh and Charlotte. The deal was announced at a networking event in Charlotte. Gary McAuliffe, general manager of the Charlotte office, will soon move to Boston to run the former Boston Datacenters operation as vice president and general manager. Hosted Solutions, which is privately held, did not disclose financial details of the deal.

"The technology community in Boston is really expanding," McAuliffe told LocalTechWire. "They are really coming back (from the "dot com" crash). We're excited to be entering that market."

Boston Datacenters traces its roots back to the 1994 founding of HarvardNet by Bill Southworth. In 2001 HarvardNet was bought by Allegiance Telecom, which later filed for Chapter 11 protection. Southworth and another HarvardNet alumni, Vin Bono, formed Boston Datacenters Inc. to re-purchase the company's data center at 500 Rutherford Avenue in Charlestown, Mass. from the Allegiance Telecom Bankruptcy Trust.

Hosted Solutions said it will absorb all 20 of Boston Datacenters employees. The deal will have short-term benefits for existing Hosted Solutions customers, who will now have access to out-of-region data backups and other data center services. "Obviously, this gives us good physical diversity," McAuliffe said. "Some of our customers were looking for diversity beyond the Carolinas."