Positions Basefarm as a data center that offers IT operations as an additional option

After four years, Petter M. Tømmeraas has left Green Mountain to become the leader of Basefarm’s data center business area. According to Tømmeraas, having a single organization supply both the data center and enterprise-critical operations is a crucial competitive factor in the data center market.

“You can see a trend in today’s market where companies are transitioning from managing their own IT operations and infrastructure to hiring enterprise-critical IT operations from external partners, who are also focused on functions that are high on the value chain, such as cloud services and big data. The transition to these types of services is quick and simple for Basefarm’s data center clients. The way I see it, this will continue to become more significant in the market, and that makes it an exciting element of my new job,” says Tømmeraas.

Colocation refers to a setup in which many companies co-locate to obtain economies of scale. Data center providers such as Basefarm provide extensive infrastructure with regards to locations, redundant power, internet, cooling, security, physical access control and emergency solutions. Individual data center users rarely have financial capacity for this.

In a colocation data center, companies can place their equipment in a rack, in a cage with multiple racks or in separate rooms. They send in their own employees and suppliers to perform physical work on their infrastructure and attend to the daily IT operations themselves.

PETTER M. TØMMERAAS
SVP Data Center Services

– This requires IT skills, which there is currently a shortage of in today’s market. Many companies would rather use their resources on strategic development tasks. When selecting a colocation partner, many companies put weight on the fact that Basefarm is more than just a fixed supplier of data center services, as we can also take over operational tasks. Additionally, we have the ability to automate operational tasks, keep the costs lower and have a more flexible infrastructure than what the standard colocation client can achieve, he says.

There is rarely a situation where clients either want colocation or operational services. For instance, Basefarm has competent personnel at work 24/7/365 with continuous surveillance of all operations around the clock. Establishing and operating such an organization requires a lot of resources but allows for an entirely new level of operational security. This possibility can be the first step for data center clients purchasing services, for example, as a kind of substitute in the event of illness, annual leave or at times of the day when staff are not at work.

“For many companies, it is only a matter of time before they will start using cloud services. Here the transition to using Basefarm as a supplier of enterprise-critical, hybrid cloud solutions is quick,” he says.

Tømmeraas emphasizes that combining colocation and the purchase of operational services is not suitable for everyone. For example, the data center department of Basefarm opens the door to competitors of the company’s own IT operational enterprise who need a location in Norway for data processing and storage so as to operate in accordance with client requirements and governmental laws.

Tømmeraas has a bachelor’s degree in international business with a major in economics, administration, law and international marketing. Since 1998, he has worked in the fields of IT and telecommunication services, in which data center services have always been an integral part of this spectrum of services. Between 1998 and 2008, his CV shows he worked for a number of different companies which in reality were the same company (that went through multiple mergers and subsequent name changes in this period). He started working for Ventelo Hosting in September 2009, which was sold to the Swedish, publicly listed company Phonera, that later became Availo. He left his position there as a Sales Director in August 2014 and moved to Green Mountain. He started in his role at Basefarm in February 2018.