Peak 10 Changes Name to Flexential Following ViaWest Acquisition

After months of work with consultants and interviews with hundreds of customers and employees, the leadership of Peak 10 and ViaWest, the two companies that merged last year to become a top data center provider in secondary US markets, has chosen a new name for the combined entity.

Flexential – which combines “flexible” and “essential” – ended up being the winner. The new brand is meant to reflect flexibility within the company’s product line and the essential nature of the mission-critical services it provides, Mike Krza, the company’s COO, said in an interview with Data Center Knowledge.

Peak 10’s $1.67 billion acquisition of ViaWest, announced in June and backed by Peak 10’s private equity owner, San Francisco-based GI Partners, made the company one of two largest providers of data center services that serve markets outside of the top-tier regions like Northern Virginia, Dallas-Fort Worth, or Silicon Valley. The other provider (which is of similar size) is TierPoint.

The deal was the fourth-largest acquisition in the data center provider market in 2017 – a record M&A year in the space.

Rebranding is an important step in the integration process, which Krza expects to last throughout this year and into 2019. One of his top priorities this year will be integrating back-office systems and creating a unified customer platform.

Another big priority will be executing on Flexential’s go-to-market strategy, which was completed and launched with the national sales team earlier this month.

Edge data centers will play a big role in this strategy. That is, using its national data center footprint and network assets to provide digital content producers and cloud providers data center space and access to local networks within second-tier regions. ViaWest and Peak 10 weren’t positioned to execute on this strategy individually, Krza said.

“Bringing that to market will be incredibly important,” he said.

The company doesn’t have any immediate plans to expand into new locations, but it will continue adding capacity within the regions it already serves, depending on customer demand.

Before the deal, Peak 10 was an East Coast data center provider. The acquisition expanded its reach from 16 data centers in 10 markets to 40 data centers in 20 markets, reaching as far west as Portland.

Portland will be a particular focus for Flexential this year, Krza said. The company sees an opportunity in providing access to submarine cables that land in the Pacific Northwest, linking the US West Coast to Asia Pacific markets.