Our Mission
To create a data center services firm that adjusts its business model to accommodate the business objectives of our clients. Further; to deliver these "flexible" services within the bounds of internationally recognized process standards resulting in audit-ready data centers and services.
Horizon Data Center Solutions
Horizon Data Center Solutions and its subsidiaries have been providing managed services, hosting and co-location since 2000. The company began providing services to Dallas based customers out of a single data center location and quickly grew to providing full IT outsourcing and hosting services to clients across the US and internationally. As the business grew, a second data center location was added and new clients such as the Susan G. Komen Foundation, The Hunt Sports Entertainment Group (Pizza Hut Park) and the Hunt Capital Group became long time clients.
In 2007, with an eye on servicing a growing co-location marketspace, Horizon Data Center Solutions entered the enterprise co-location space by adding over 35,000 square feet of Tier III data center space in Dallas. In 2008 the co-location and hosting/ITO practices were merged into a single entity, and today Horizon services include enterprise co-location for the Department of Defense, leaders in the energy, technology, education, medical and retail markets. Today Horizon has over 100 customers worldwide and four data center locations. Horizon clients represent every vertical market sector and a breadth of services from enterprise co-location to managed services and cloud computing.
In 2009 Horizon received a robust round of institutional investment which it has used to serve customers via its data center and services portfolio in the Northern Virginia and Northern California markets.
Our Strengths
- Our people. Experienced professionals from the data center and managed services industries, including ACS, Atos Origin, Savvis, Sungard, Mareechi, and others.
- Flexibility. We set out to create the most flexible solution in the marketplace. Our FlexSpace program allows clients to build space, contracts, services and SLAs to fit their business requirements.
- Our facilities. Our real estate is the best in the industry and we are actively growing our portfolio of data centers to service our business and government clients.
- Our processes. We adhere to ITIL and ISO process standards in order to satisfy client compliance. All our data centers are audited for SAS 70 compliance.
The Team
Lance A. Smith, President & CEO. Lance is the former North American Data Center Operations leader from Atos Origin, an international IT outsourcing firm. Lance is responsible for the operations at HDCS and is the architect for HDCS ITIL/ISO-based process. Lance is published and a speaker at various industry events.
Chuck Smith, CMO & EVP. Chuck is a specialist in business development in the data center industry. Chuck has held positions as Director and Vice-President of sales for various data center organizations. Chuck is responsible for strategic relationships, marketing and sales.
Lance Black, Executive Vice President of Operations. As the former CEO of Mareechi and the founder of that Dallas-based company, Lance spearheaded a managed services business that provided a range of services to businesses of all sizes. At Horizon, Lance continues to lead his team in supporting outsourced IT functions for all Horizon clients.
Jeff Kuerzi, Vice-President of Marketing and Sales Operations. With over fifteen years of traditional and digital marketing and advertising experience, Jeff leads the demand generation and marketing efforts for HDCS. Jeff has held Director and Vice-President positions with interactive media firms such as Centro, Belo Interactive, Knight-Ridder Digital and The Dallas Morning News.
Jeff Luetzow, Director of Technology. Jeff is a former VPIS of a Fortune 100 company and has spent his entire career of almost three decades servicing and supporting computer systems and their environments for organizations that manufactured computer systems. Starting as a Field Engineer and working his way to Global IT Operations, Jeff is uniquely qualified to manage the technical staff at HDCS.
Clark Huffstetler, Director of Data Center Facilities. Clark has managed or construction-managed over 1 million square feet of data center space in his twenty-five years in the industry. Clark brings Director level experience from EDS, SBC and Atos Origin to his role as data center operations over-seer.
Eric Carter, Director of Technology-ITO. Eric is the former Director of IT of Mareechi and leads Horizon Virtual IT and ITO outsourcing operations. Eric has certifications from Cisco and MIcrosoft. He and his team support over 100 managed-services clients.
James Mangus, RCDD, OSP, TPM, Director of Service Delivery. Jim has fifteen years of service delivery and program management experience. He is responsible for operations and service delivery for all HDCS data center and hosting clients.
Julie Middleton, Controller and Client Services. Julie served Mareechi for over seven years as Operations Manager and Controller. She continues her role as Controller for Horizon and leads the Client Services team in its mission to achieve zero client turnover.
Brian Oravetz, Director of Government Services. Brian has fifteen years in the information technology industry, beginning his career as a solutions engineer for Bell South and most recently has worked with Software-As-A-Service product sets within the government and data center sectors.
