Ron Sacks is a partner at ProvDotNet LLC, a Providence-based startup that provides technology consulting and services. He talked with Providence Business News about the new venture.
PBN: Let’s start with the basics. What is ProvDotNet?
SACKS: ProvDotNet is located in Providence and is the newest colocation and managed-services shared data center in Southern New England. The company provides customers with the critical facilities, computing infrastructure, and technical expertise required to house and/or manage mission-critical computer systems and computer applications.
Specifically, ProvDotNet provides a secure facility; computer racks or cabinets; high-capacity fiber-optics; redundant Internet bandwidth; and fault-tolerant power. As a result, ProvDotNet enables businesses to substantially lower both the operating and capital costs associated with housing their computer and IT infrastructure.
Beyond providing cost efficiencies, ProvDotNet also facilitates business growth strategies by enabling businesses to launch new online services, shared computing resource services (cloud services) or new business applications profitably to their customers or constituents in an accelerated manner. ProvDotNet is also classified as a registered Internet Service Provider (ISP) and provides customers with Internet services ranging from 1 megabit per second to 10 gigabits per second.
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PBN: Could you give some examples of the sort of work you do?
SACKS: ProvDotNet provides Disaster Recovery Site services to customers needing a remote site for their back-up computers and applications. We also provide managed turnkey-like services that include providing all the necessary hardware, operating systems, Internet bandwidth, engineers, and support personnel necessary to establish and maintain a customer’s e-commerce Web sites or online computer applications.
Additionally, ProvDotNet provides data center infrastructure and facilities to online services providers, who in turn provide Software-as-a-Service (SAAS), or emerging “cloud” service providers who provide efficient and shared computing resources to multiple clients.
PBN: There are a lot of IT-services firms out there. How do you differentiate ProvDotNet from the others?
SACKS: ProvDotNet is primarily a provider of shared data-center services and infrastructure. Beyond technical consulting, we are in a unique position to offer customers the ability to share the capital intensive assets associated with a data center facility.
For example, ProvDotNet provides secure space and data center cabinets; high-volume cooling (HVAC); fault-tolerant conditioned power systems; and ultra-high Internet and fiber-optic bandwidth to customers. All of those represent the facilities and infrastructure needed to properly house customers’ core computing systems and business applications. Since the underlying assets are shared by multiple customers, the cost per customer is significantly less. Almost always, small and mid-sized businesses find a shared data center facility more justifiable and cost-effective versus building a similar facility on their own.
Today, there really are no other shared data center facilities like ProvDotNet’s in Providence or Rhode Island, and another provider would have to make a significant capital investment to build one. As a result, any new provider would have to offer services at higher prices in an effort to recoup or achieve targeted returns on their investment.
PBN: You founded ProvDotNet in March, right as the stock market was at its bottom and the economy was in deep trouble. What gave you the confidence to start a new business in that environment?
SACKS: [ProvDotNet President] John Chenard and I have many years of entrepreneurial experience between us, and throughout our careers we have worked with technology- and service-based businesses. Eighteen months ago, we began thinking about ProvDotNet because we felt we had identified an underserved market in the Boston-Hartford-Providence area, one where there was acute demand and limited supply for services we currently offer through ProvDotNet.
As part of our planning, we recognized that the economy was indeed entering a recession so we considered that as one of our many assumptions. However, since our services both help businesses reduce operating costs and also enable growth, we concluded that the economic cycle would have a minimal impact on the overall demand for our services. We believed that as the economy entered a recession, customers would look to ProvDotNet to help reduce operating costs or avoid significant capital investments, and as the economy emerged from a recession those same businesses or venture-backed entrepreneurs would begin investing in developing and launching new services that ProvDotNet would be well positioned to facilitate. We are pleased to report that we are off to a great start and achieving all of our early business objectives.
PBN: Who do you see as typical ProvDotNet customers?
SACKS: ProvDotNet customers fall into five general groups: one, local emerging businesses such as Rhode One Technology, who require significant bandwidth to provide online services; two, telecommunications, mobile-phone or media-content companies such as Clear Channel Communications and T-Mobile that need to use a shared data center in Providence; three, small and local entrepreneurial businesses such as Traction Software or Progressive Leadership who need to have their computers in a local, accessible and secure data center; four, medium and large businesses that that need remote computers and technical support from ProvDotNet for business continuity and disaster recovery purposes; and five, state and municipal agencies who require reliable and fault-tolerant systems that are located in Providence or Rhode Island, rather than out of state. •
How can you call this a new venture or newly founded company? ProvDotNet is nothing more than a renaming of Hosttech Communications which was founded in 1998 by the late Michael Harrison and up until recently run by Casimir Kolaski. Hosttech has cost many of us hours of downtime and thousands of dollars in lost productivity because of antiquated equipment, failing systems, vendor disputes, technical staff errors, and unresponsive management. Even though John Chenard, Ron Sacks, and several other individuals stepped in to try and stabilize the environment at Hosttech last year, things continued to crumble around us with failing HVAC units, water leaks in the datacenter, power failures, and lengthy multi-day network outages. We finally had to make the decision to relocate our equipment, at a significant cost, to another datacenter; and even though the new datacenter is more expensive and 45 miles away, it is reliable and predictable. Changing Hosttech’s name or stating that it is under new management does not resolve the issues that plagued us for years.
James, we are sorry that you had such a bad experience with Hosttech. I can personally assure you that Provdotnet is truly a new venture, new company and not just a “renaming of Hostech”. Provdotnet is a registered RI Limited Liability Company that was established and founded in June 2009. Our data center space is not the old Hosttech data center space. We built out the Provdotnet facility, including, racks, power, HVAC, computing and core network with our own assets and have never used or shared any of the similar assets Hosttech used to provide services to customers. I think most important, we currently have approximately 40 customers that we are providing, hosting, colocation and managed services without interruption and since our inception. I am also certain that any of our current customers would be happy to attest to both our ultra- responsiveness and our flexibility in developing solutions that fit their needs. We are not “Hosttech remnamed”. We would welcome the opportunity to show you our facility and perhaps even provide you with enough confidence in Provdotnet that you might consider moving your computing equipment back to Providence, not 45 mile away,
Ron Sacks
Provdotnet, LLC