Equinix首席执行官Stephen Smith很联系

In his nine years as CEO of Equinix, Stephen Smith has had more than a few people confuse the name of his Redwood City, California–based data center company with that of fitness club operator Equinox. Smith tells a funny story about an appearance he made on CNBC a few years ago when the guy being interviewed prior to him was the CEO of Equinox: “After he finished his interview, I introduced myself and asked him, ‘Does anybody ever confuse you with Equinix?’ He just paused for a second and said, ‘No, never. Steve, we’re in the health club business.’”

史密斯承认，名称等因素 - “平等，中立和互联网交换”的首字母缩写 - 很难发音，但他沿着“一些大型CEO”来抵制建议，以考虑改变它。“现在已经太晚了，”他说。“我们太深了互联网。”

With 145 data centers in 40 of the biggest markets in the world, Smith’s outfit is well known today among the Internet’s largest players — cloud computing firms, digital media companies and network providers — most of which house at least some of their computer servers and networking equipment in locked cages within Equinix facilities. Known for their state-of-the-art design and uncompromising security, Equinix’s cavernous data centers provide a place for companies in dozens of industries to connect directly with one another — creating an “interconnection” platform that brings “data and applications closer to end-users in pursuit of a modern cloud strategy,” according to a recent report by Stifel Nicolaus analyst Matthew Heinz.

Equinix已经投资超过125亿美元，建立了其全球足迹以来，该公司于1998年由前数字设备公司成立设施经理Jay Adelson和Al Avery。当史密斯离开惠普·皮卡尔德有限公司于2007年成为Equinix的首席执行官，它的年收入约为4亿美元，市场上限为60亿美元。5月，Equinix在第一季度收入中报告了8.44亿美元，其顺序高度增长53季度直线增长，帮助公司将其市场上限增加到近240亿美元。最近的价格为340美元，股票的股份于2015年1月转换为房地产投资信托（REIT），自2011年初以来飙升了365％。

史密斯将于本月晚些时候转变60岁，在布拉斯赫瀑布长大，一个大约60英里的西北北部普莱德，纽约湖西北部。他的父母是老师。史密斯举行了一名狂热的高中运动员，招募在西点美国军方学院踢足球。在1979年毕业后，在工程学中，他在军队中度过了八年，其中包括两个驻扎在夏威夷作为太平洋舰队指挥官（CINCPAC）的辅助办事处。

史密斯于1987年辞去了军队，并“去了另一名叫做EDS的军方” - H. Ross Perot的Plano，德克萨斯州的电子数据系统公司 - 这招募了西点毕业。在他在eds的16年期间，他始于销售，史密斯生活在世界各地。“那些日子里，这就像IBM，”他说。“如果你想上身，你必须愿意四处走动。”2004年，他留下了已经开始发抖的EDS，以引领朗讯技术的外包业务。两年后，他被惠普招募了160亿美元的外包，咨询和技术服务业务。

亚博赞助欧冠编辑Michael Peltz最近会见了Equinix Ceo，讨论了他的业务以及他在军队中的时间如何以他管理它的方式。

亚博赞助欧冠机构投资者: What did you learn from your Army days stationed in the Pacific, working for CINCPAC?

Steve Smith:这是非常有趣的。我曾与一个完整的包ch of generals. It’s a four-star post, and they run all the forces in the Pacific. I traveled all over Asia. I went to all these countries where the U.S. had forces. My job was to make sure that when the generals traveled, their schedule was ready, the interpreters were there. I worked every day for 18 months. It was 24/7. So you see and touch a lot — very highly confidential information about what was going on in Asia. I learned a lot about discipline. I learned a lot about planning. I learned a lot about great leaders. That pretty much shaped my early leadership philosophy, for sure.

你会如何描述这种哲学？

有很多元素。我在这家公司有一个咒语，我们谈论三个LS - 听，学习，然后领先 - 以及我们呼叫公关的术语。我在那些日子里学到的东西之一是你必须成为一个伟大的倾听者。在你开始领先之前，你必须学习你的工作以及你正在做什么和你的团队。所以这是许多年份的与我一起携带。PR代表耐心和尊重人。当您是一家全球公司时，您必须非常耐心，尊重多种文化。亚慱体育app怎么下载

In the military I definitely learned the art of acting from understanding versus from bravado. It’s easy when you’re a captain and when you’re, for example, an aide to a general. You can get stuff done by just showing up and saying, “Hi, I’m General So-and-So’s aide.” People tend to jump really high. But in the business world, it’s all about consensus and acting from understanding and bringing people along.

equinix的文化有多重要？亚慱体育app怎么下载

亚慱体育app怎么下载文化对我们来说非常重要。我认为文化决定了亚慱体育app怎么下载你的命运。它决定了你的寿命。我们真的很难在一个文化中，如果人们互相享受，他们相亚慱体育app怎么下载互信任，他们相信他们的领导者，他们为他们工作的地方感到自豪，你将有一个神奇的地方。所以，我们花了很多时间练习它，思考它，谈论它，记录它。

What was the culture like when you got to Equinix?

文化非常亚慱体育app怎么下载好。它谦虚。这是非正式的。人们努力工作。他们完成了东西，他们知道如何玩得开心。我所做的大多数东西都是保存它的工作。我们将文化描述为非正式的，因为当亚慱体育app怎么下载你是非正式的时，你倾向于更快地完成。它只是速度速度。你没有很多官僚主义和决策层。这是一个非常独特的互联网基础设施业务文亚慱体育app怎么下载化，这些企业并不广为消费者界广为人知 - 对于一种像思科一样的基础设施公司。 Although Cisco makes the stuff that makes the Internet work, we design and build data centers that house all the servers and storage arrays and networking gear that makes the Internet work.

网络中立如何适合Equinix的商业模式？

We have over 1,100 networks connected into 145 data centers, and companies can choose any of these networks when they come into our data centers to move their traffic around the world. We don’t favor one network over the other. We’re neutral. That was the premise of the original model, and it’s been preserved now for more than 17 years.

然后我们拥有我们构建的所有这些技术平台以交换流量。我们有互联网交流和云交换，所以我们可以在云提供商之间交换流量。我们可以在互联网提供商之间交换流量。我们可以在网络提供商之间交换流量。这是公司的秘密酱。我们称之为互连，我们有一大堆不同的方式来货币化。这是公司核心的主要部分，因为如您所知，整个世界都变得越来越互联。因此，随着网络的前提是互连网络，导致了像Yahoos和Googles等内容公司，并且微软来到Equix，因为他们可以找到所有网络并在世界各地移动内容。

equinix的业务组合多年来如何发展？

Seven or eight years ago, when the whole financial system went electronic and all the different asset classes needed to be traded around the world, they found Equinix because of two things: latency — they could move traffic in microseconds — and proximity. We facilitate trillions of dollars of electronic trading every day in probably eight or nine of the biggest financial markets in the world.

过去五年，云已经找到了我们。我说“发现我们”;我们显然有助于找到它。但是世界上所有最大的云提供商都会因为网络而进入Equinix，他们让企业进入并找到它们。

然后是过去三年，它已经到了这个“作为服务”模型。您仍然必须将物理基础设施全世界均在您的收入旁边，旁边的员工，然后在这些市场我们有这些数据中心，您可以找到Microsoft Office 365，您可以找到Microsoft Azure，您可以使用Google应用程序，您可以将其突发到亚马逊Web服务中。

因此，所有这些大型云提供商 - 软件家伙，硬件家伙，平台家伙 - 在许多市场上填充了他们的数据中心，其中包含了他们呼叫访问节点或网络节点或高速缓存节点，而这些只是服务器和存储阵列的机架这使得一家公司进入并互连非常容易。当他们这样做时，我们可以将他们的交通和视频及其世界各地的东西移动。亚慱体育app您可以在世界上10到12秒内下载Netflix视频的原因是他们拥有一堆服务器亚慱体育app，坐在世界各地的世界内部等地区。

你能谈谈Equinix的企业业务吗？

For the first 15 years of our history we mostly focused on four industries: the networks, content digital media companies, financial services and the cloud providers. That was where the company focused. And then along the way, we accumulated nearly 1,200 enterprises: pharmaceutical companies, health care companies, travel and transportation, oil and gas. There’s probably a dozen industries out there that we call the enterprise.

嗯，世界各地有约35万家企业，销售额至少为1000万美元，约500人。在接下来的十十岁到15年里，Equinix将获得更多这些企业来从内部部署的数据中心出来，并利用我们的设施利用多云。

What was the rationale behind turning Equinix into a REIT?

A lot of the other data center providers were already real estate trusts, and we were 17 years into the game here, and we were looking at our tax position around the world. We were looking at what was the best structure for Equinix as we continued to scale the company and determined that we were qualified as a REIT. You have to apply to the IRS. It took several months for the IRS to opine on it. They finally approved it last year.

How does being a REIT change the way you approach the business?

它根本不会改变模型。我们仍然是一家技术公司，围绕着全球税收优化结构。我们的日常活动，它不会改变。对于法律和财务人员来说，它在如何报告的方式变化，我们如何为房地产型度量计算。但它根本没有改变与客户的关系。•

在Twitter上关注Mike Peltz@mppeltz.。