Williston fiber optic data center doubles capacity

Related Company:FirstLightby Hilary Niles vtdigger.org
FirstLight Fiber is doubling capacity at its data center in Williston. The facility is one of the larger of FirstLight’s four data centers in Williston, Albany, NY, and Lebanon and Keene, NH. The expansion will increase data capacity at the Krupp Drive location without expanding the building’s footprint. No new employees beyond the current seven will be added.
Formerly Tech Valley Communications, founded in Albany in 1994, the company rebranded as FirstLight in September 2013. In July, Tech Valley acquired Vermont-based TelJet Longhaul LLC — and with it about 190,000 miles of fiber optic cable, according to a news release.
FirstLight now operates one of the largest and most dense fiber optic networks in upstate New York and Northern New England, with connections to Canada.
The firm provides high-speed data, Internet, co-location and voice services to businesses and institutions in the region. Customers range from home businesses to banks, hospitals, universities and state and local governments, including the state of Vermont.
Greg Kelly, FirstLight’s senior director of business development and data services, said the company’s data centers technically can accommodate customers from Hong Kong or Los Angeles. FirstLight’s business model, however, is to market itself regionally. Kelly founded TelJet more than a decade before it was acquired by FirstLight.
Major institutions with heavy data needs can back up their data at any of FirstLight’s centers, or locate their primary data servers in FirstLight’s facilities, Kelly said. He added that the advantage of regional marketing is access: Clients are just a drive away from their servers.
FirstLight is backed by Boston-based private equity firm Riverside Partners, which invested in Tech Valley in 2010. Riverside targets investments toward middle-market health care and technology companies.