Savvis

Savvis

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Information Technology
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Town and Country, MO, United States
Key people	Jeffrey H. Von Deylen (President)
Products	IT services including Cloud, managed hosting, colocation and network services
Revenue	US$933 million (2010)
Operating income	US$24.5 million (2010)
Net income	US$53.9 million (2010)
Number of employees	2,440 (as of December 31, 2010[update])
Parent	CenturyLink (2011-present)
Website	www.savvis.com

Savvis, formerly SVVS on Nasdaq and formerly known as Savvis Communications Corporation, and, later, Savvis Inc., is a subsidiary of CenturyLink, a company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. The company sells managed hosting and colocation services with more than 50 data centers (over 2 million square feet) in North America, Europe, and Asia, automated management and provisioning systems, and information technology consulting. Savvis has approximately 2,500 unique business and government customers.

Savvis was founded in November 1995 under the name DiamondNet by CTO/COO Timothy Munro Roberts and CEO Andrew Gladney. The two had met in the St. Louis area in 1994 where both lived, with Roberts working for a computer store and Gladney a customer. Gladney put up the initial capital ($600,000 or $1 million, according to different sources) for a 75% stake in the startup, with Roberts’ stake the remaining 25%.

Gary Zimmerman, recruited by Roberts from SBC Communications Inc. to become Vice President of Engineering at Savvis in November 1995, built out Robert's first national network design. The original network design was unique within the industry at the time it became fully operational, and there was significant coverage and discussion in the trade press regarding both the network and its architect, Roberts. In 2001, the last year in which Robert's original design was in use, Savvis was ranked the #1 fastest Backbone Network by Keynote Systems, an independent network ratings service.

Roberts closed a revenue contract with Apple Computer, Inc. as their first large customer, dealing with David Zimmerman and Marty Suzuki at Apple's Cupertino headquarters. By leveraging the Apple Computer customer reference and testimonials, the company was able to close additional large contracts with other industry providers, and it quickly gained wide industry recognition.

During this growth spurt, the company attracted the notice of St. Louis' Gateway Venture Partners, who subsequently invested millions of dollars. After the Gateway investment, Sam Sanderson, former CEO of Rogers Cable, was brought to helm the company. Sanderson brought much needed support to the company, closing substantial contracts and placing the company into an aggressive marketing position. Contemporaneously, Bob Murphy was named to the Chief Financial Officer position (Murphy was previously the CFO of Williams Communications). Murphy in turn attracted additional capital, and a sound financial management team.