COO Jarrett Appleby Leaving Digital Realty Trust

The giant data center provider Digital Realty Trust announced today that its Chief Operating Officer, Jarrett Appleby, is stepping down effective September 15. According a company press release, Appleby is leaving “to pursue other opportunities.” The company indicates that a search for his replacement is already underway, and that it plans to engage the services of an executive search firm to assist with the search. Until a replacement is found, the company says that members of the company’s management team will assume Mr. Appleby’s duties on an interim basis.

Appleby has put in nearly two and a half years at Digital Realty, and was the company’s first COO when he signed on in April, 2015. Previously, he had served a two year stint, starting in 2012, as COO for data center operator CoreSite Realty. The departure from Digital is evidently amicable.

“On behalf of the entire Digital Realty team, I would like to thank Jarrett for his service to the company and wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Digital’s CEO, A. William Stein, said in a statement. “As Digital Realty’s first Chief Operating Officer, Jarrett helped to launch and advance several important initiatives, such as expanding and standardizing our global product offerings in addition to streamlining our property and technical operations to drive operating efficiencies, all while maintaining and extending our track record for ‘five nines’ of uptime to a 10th consecutive year. As we search for his successor, we are looking for someone who will be able to build upon this solid foundation and further enhance our global operating platform to meet our customers’ growing and evolving needs for data center solutions.”

San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust is the world’s largest wholesale colocation data center operator, with its market share in January reported to be 20.5 percent. According to the company’s website, it operates 156 data centers in 11 countries and serves over 32 global markets.