BJK Planning Managed Services Focus
Former COLO.COM assets may become platform for KeyBridge offerings

July 24, 2001 -- BJK Investments, the lead bidder for the assets of COLO.COM, hopes to use the chain of 25 data centers as a platform to deliver managed hosting solutions.
BJK, a California corporation, was the high bidder in an auction held last week for the assets of COLO.COM, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. The creditors committee is supporting BJK's bid, which awaits approval by a federal bankruptcy judge.
BJK includes some executives and shareholders from London-based carrier hotel developer Global Switch, but is a separate company. Global Switch itself has no direct involvement in the deal.
If all goes as anticipated, the chain of data centers almost synonymous with "colo" will gain a new business focus.
"We are of the belief that colocation space will be a commodity," said Mark Lambourne, a representative of BJK. "We see this as a perfect opportunity to supply the market with a managed services product."
To do that, BJK will team with another satellite in the Global Switch universe, KeyBridge Corp. The Reston, Va.-based managed services provider was founded last November with $60 million in funding from Global Switch. In April KeyBridge began providing services in Global Switch's carrier hotels in London and Amsterdam, and has since expanded into Equinix data centers as well.
KeyBridge offerings include dedicated hosting, firewalls, data storage and traffic load management.
"What we would like to do is modify (KeyBridge) product offerings to meet customer needs," said Lambourne.
"We believe there's a phenomenal market potential (for managed services)," he added. "We don't believe it will happen overnight. It will take time for the market to embrace managed services. We hope and believe it will happen sooner rather than later. We are debt-free and patient."
Lambourne said that on a portfolio-wide basis, COLO.COM's facilities are about 25 percent leased. He said it was too early to know whether the data centers will need much work to execute BJK's business plan.
"We're reviewing the specs and status of the data centers, and will invest money, time and assets as appropriate," said Lambourne. "We've got teams charging around right now. Upon closing, we will rapidly deploy our sales strategy and get to the market very quickly with bundles and a pricing schedule."
BJK intends to purchase the contracts with COLO.COM's 170 current customers.
"They should know that the purchaser is extremely knowledgeable in this industry, and intends to develop the highest level of specifications and service standards," said Lambourne.

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