Flexential Hires Equinix SVP Mallory to Lead Its Colocation Business as COO

Flexential has hired an Equinix executive to fill a key strategic role that was recently vacated.

Ryan Mallory has left a senior VP role at Equinix to run the competitor’s colocation and interconnection business as chief operating officer. He comes to Flexential after close to nine years at the world’s largest data center provider by revenue.

Mallory was Equinix’s global VP of technology roughly through the first half of last decade, the rest of which he served as senior VP of global solutions enablement.

He is taking over the COO role from Mike Krza, who has left the company after more than 20 years there, 18 of which he worked for ViaWest, one of the two data center providers that merged three years ago to form the company that would later be named Flexential (the second was Peak 10).

The merger created a national-scale data center provider, offering colocation, interconnection, and a variety of managed services, with a focus on serving secondary markets.

Ryan Mallory, colocation COO, Flexential

"Adding Ryan as a leader is a big step forward for Flexential because of his extensive experience with all sizes and formats of IT infrastructure services," Flexential CEO Chris Downie said in a statement. "Interconnection, network operations and edge computing are also in Ryan's DNA, which aligns to Flexential's key differentiators. His deep understanding of hybrid IT architectures on every scale, makes him the ideal fit for this critical role. We are very excited to have him join the Flexential team and start this new chapter in our history."

Related:US Data Center Operators Have Financing Advantages Over EU Counterparts

Flexential in February raised $250 million in a secured notes offering, citing a need for capital to pay off existing debt and fund further expansion.