Mike Siteman Leaves Digital Realty for L.A.’s Boutique Private Cloud Firm M-Theory

Michael Siteman, former solutions director at Digital Realty Trust, has left the San Francisco-based wholesale data center provider to join M-Theory Group, an IT solutions provider whose primary focus is standing up private cloud infrastructure for clients and managed services.

Siteman’s appointment is part of an aggressive expansion push by M-Theory. Along with him, the company brought on board three more senior executives and acquired the managed services business from a boutique New York City company, all of which took place in July.

“We’re doing some heavy expansion,” M-Theory CEO Chant Vartanian said in an interview. “We’ve been kind of stealthy [with] our private cloud model here for a while.”

Private clouds for the small guys

The private cloud business is relatively new for the company, but its leadership has chosen to pursue it as a primary focus. M-Theory has been around since 2008 but started offering private cloud infrastructure solutions only about two years ago.

It also has a value-added-reseller (VAR) business, which Vartanian said was continuing to do well. But the private cloud opportunity is big enough to become a strategic priority.

The company targets small and medium-size businesses, offering them all-inclusive cloud infrastructure hosted in M-Theory’s data centers, in clients’ colo space or in their on-premise facilities.

Vartanian declined to disclose the name of the company M-Theory bought the managed services business from, but said the acquisition brought about 20 customers.

The company is also expanding operations to New York City as a result of the acquisition. Its current offices are in Los Angeles, and it is also eyeing an office in San Francisco.

Opportunity to make a bigger impact

Siteman will do business development, strategic marketing and relationship development for his new employer. He will act as an “evangelist” for its technology and “build the company from a sales perspective,” he said.

He was at Digital Realty for little over 18 months. Prior to that, he spent three years working as executive vice president of data center solutions at the commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle.

He said he decided to leave Digital Realty because he wanted to be at a smaller company where he could make a much bigger impact than was possible working for a behemoth like the real estate investment trust.

“I feel like I can really contribute something here,” he said. “Digital is a massive company, and I want to help grow something.”

Siteman said he believes M-Theory’s strategy is right on the money. There is a lot of small and medium-size companies looking for services that will help make their IT operations more efficient, he said.