Five-year-old DC Blox, a multitenant data center provider, is formalizing its DC Blox Partner Program and is looking to add strategic partners in underserved areas, specifically in the southeastern U.S. DC Blox’s core services are colocation, network services and cloud storage. 

The data center provider has locations in Atlanta; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Huntsville, Alabama; and on June 3, will open a new data center in Birmingham, Alabama. The company’s facilities are in underserved markets that support the needs of enterprise businesses, government entities, content providers and MSPs. 

DC Blox’s Benny Middleton

“We’re looking for resell partners, agents and local MSPs in the markets that we serve,” Benny Middleton, director, partner channel sales at DC Blox, told Channel Futures. “We’re strictly infrastructure-only and most of the MSPs and VAR partners have their own product sets that they’re supporting, and what we’ve found is that they can layer their own services on our infrastructure — and it’s a good pairing.” 

Prior to putting a structured partner program in place, DC Blox worked informally with some partners. Middleton provided an example of how an MSP could work with DC Blox: The MSP leases colocation facility space from DC Blox, uses the internet services and hosts managed services for its clients and/or VoIP.

The data center provider has identified about 75 MSPs in the areas it serves. It has on-boarded 16 partners to date with a goal of attracting 24 partners this year. DC Blox recently partnered with master agent MicroCorp.

DC Blox will work with partners on a co-sell model with the company’s sales and engineering team. The company is looking for strategic partners in strategic areas. DC Blox customers tend to work in verticals such as banking and finance, health care, higher education, state and local government, and manufacturing. 

Middleton says DC Blox pays partners residuals, or a percentage, on a monthly recurring revenue for products and services for the life of the contract. Partners can stay involved through the contract and get paid for any services added to it. DC Blox also pays for renewals. 

DC Blox’s Bill Thomson

The company has a referral program for anyone who runs across a one-off network or cloud deal but isn’t through the partner selling process. A fee is paid if the referral works out. 

“There are many major cities with strong data center options, but when you get into the secondary cities there are few options available and DC Blox focuses on those markets,” said Bill Thomson, vice president, marketing and product, DC Blox. 

Growth is in the company’s future with additional locations on the map, including: Orlando and Tampa/Sarasota, Florida; Augusta and Savannah, Georgia; New Orleans; Louisville, Kentucky; Jackson, Mississippi; Charlotte, Greensboro/Winston-Salem, and Raleigh, North Carolina; Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville/Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee.