Datapipe

Datapipe
Name	Datapipe
Type	Private
Industry	Information technology services
Fate	Acquired
Successor	Rackspace Technology
Founded	1998
Headquarters	Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Area served	Global
Products	Managed hosting; cloud computing; colocation; disaster recovery
Num employees	800+ (2016)

Datapipe

Datapipe was a managed hosting and cloud services provider founded in 1998 that operated data centers and provided managed cloud solutions for enterprise clients. The company offered services spanning managed hosting, cloud migrations, compliance, and disaster recovery, serving sectors that included financial services, healthcare, and retail. Datapipe grew through a combination of organic expansion and acquisitions, establishing a presence in North America, Europe, and Asia before being acquired by a larger managed services firm.

History

Datapipe was established in the late 1990s amid rapid expansion in the hosting and web services market alongside contemporaries such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM Cloud, Rackspace Technology, and Google Cloud Platform. In the 2000s the company expanded its footprint with data centers in markets where competitors like Equinix, Digital Realty, NTT Communications, and Verizon Business were building capacity. Datapipe made strategic moves during the 2010s similar to peers such as CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies) and AT&T Business to address enterprise demand for managed cloud services. The company executed acquisitions and partnerships to bolster offerings in compliance-heavy sectors, aligning with standards advocated by entities like PCI Security Standards Council, ISO, and regulators such as U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for financial clients. In 2017 Datapipe was acquired by Rackspace Technology in a deal that consolidated managed service capabilities in the global hosting market, a transaction notable within the consolidation trend that included companies like CSC and Hewlett Packard Enterprise divestitures.

Services and Products

Datapipe's portfolio included managed hosting, private cloud, public cloud management, hybrid cloud orchestration, colocation, network services, and managed security. Its managed hosting solutions competed with offerings from IBM, Oracle Corporation, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, and HPE. The company developed managed services around platforms including Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, VMware ESXi, OpenStack, and Kubernetes, and provided migration and optimization for workloads built on Apache Hadoop, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle Database. For application stacks, Datapipe supported environments using Adobe Experience Manager, Drupal, Magento, SAP NetWeaver, SAP HANA, Oracle E-Business Suite, Microsoft SharePoint, and SAP BusinessObjects. The company also marketed managed security and compliance services addressing standards referenced by HIPAA, PCI DSS, and SOX-influenced controls for clients in regulated sectors.

Infrastructure and Technology

Datapipe operated a global network of carrier-neutral data centers and leveraged partnerships with network carriers such as Level 3 Communications (now CenturyLink), Comcast Business, BT Group, Verizon Communications, and NTT. The company's infrastructure incorporated virtualization technologies from VMware and orchestration tools inspired by open-source projects like OpenStack and container ecosystems from Docker and Kubernetes. Monitoring, automation, and configuration management relied on tooling and integrations compatible with Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Nagios, and Splunk. Datapipe emphasized redundant power and cooling designs similar to standards promulgated by organizations like Uptime Institute and worked with hardware vendors including Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, and Arista Networks to deliver resilient platforms.

Customers and Market

Datapipe served enterprise customers across industries, competing for business alongside Accenture, Capgemini, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Cognizant. Its customer base included clients in banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, and media—segments that also engage vendors like Fiserv, Cerner Corporation, Walmart, Comcast Corporation, and Netflix. Datapipe positioned itself to attract organizations requiring managed services, compliance support, and global hosting footprints, targeting multinational corporations and technology-intensive enterprises much like Salesforce's enterprise customers and institutional clients of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs who require secure, audited IT environments.

Corporate Structure and Ownership

Datapipe was privately held for most of its existence, with investment and ownership arrangements involving private equity and growth capital investors similar to other mid-sized managed service providers. Executive leadership oversaw global operations from corporate offices in locations comparable to major tech hubs such as New York City, San Francisco, London, and Singapore. In 2017 ownership changed when Rackspace Technology acquired the company, integrating Datapipe's assets and personnel into a larger managed cloud and hosting organization and aligning with prior consolidation activity seen in transactions involving Verizon Enterprise Solutions and Atos.

Controversies and Incidents

Datapipe's public profile included operational incidents and service interruptions typical of data center operators, in contexts where similar events affected providers such as Amazon Web Services (notably the AWS outage of 2011), Google Cloud Platform outages, and Microsoft Azure incidents. Customers occasionally reported service disruptions and contract disputes comparable to disputes seen between enterprise customers and vendors like AT&T and Level 3 Communications. As with peers, Datapipe dealt with security concerns, vulnerability management, and compliance audits; such matters drew scrutiny analogous to incidents involving Equifax, Target Corporation, and Sony Pictures Entertainment where data handling and breach response became public issues. Following the acquisition by Rackspace Technology, responsibilities for remediation and customer communications transferred to the acquiring organization.

Category:Cloud computing companies Category:Defunct technology companies of the United States