CIO Bulletin

Andrew Schaap, CEO of Aligned: A Visionary Leader Setting a Standard of Innovation in Every Employee

Digital transformation is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Unpredictable usage and growth models are becoming table stakes. A new breed of data center is required to address today’s changing business requirements. Demand for wholesale data center space is on the rise, and today’s deployments must achieve the necessary speed-to-market and scale with minimal exposure to risk factors, which can lead to inflated capital and operational expenses. Your business is dynamic. Your data needs evolve. Dynamic infrastructure responds. It supports high, mixed, and variable power densities. It enables you to evolve without stranding capacity. It is efficient and reliable in any climate, at any load. Ultimately, dynamic infrastructure enables you to use technology as a differentiator and gain a significant competitive advantage.

Aligned is an infrastructure technology company that offers adaptable colocation and build-to-scale solutions to cloud, enterprise, and managed service providers. Its intelligent infrastructure allows densification and vertical growth within the same footprint, enabling customers to scale up without disruption, all while maintaining industry-leading Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). By reducing the energy, water, and space needed to operate, its data center solutions, combined with the patented cooling technology, offer businesses a competitive advantage by improving reliability and their bottom line.

The VSAS™ Data Center Platform

Aligned’s data center platform and operations are underpinned by four pillars that they refer to as VSAS™ — Velocity, Scalability, Adaptability, and Sustainability. From an advanced, standardized supply chain methodology that streamlines delivery, to its patented Delta Cube (Delta³) cooling technology that enables scale and efficiency without the added CapEx, VSAS™ defines Aligned’s data center platform, and how it sets itself apart from the rest. Aligned’s colocation and Build-to-Scale solutions are designed with this flexibility in mind. Intelligent infrastructure, combined with incrementally scalable technology and a nimble, standardized supply chain allow us to more dynamically meet customer needs. Aligned was founded on the premise of solving the world’s toughest challenges associated with data center infrastructure, energy consumption and water usage. The platform is focused on helping companies deliver greater business value with less costly energy and infrastructure resources.

“We are on a mission to make critical infrastructure adaptive and intelligent enough to enable customers to Expand on Demand where, when and at whatever capacity they need to, while helping improve their sustainability, reliability and bottom line.”

Next-Generation Infrastructure Development Solutions and Services Offered

Build-to-Scale: Your data challenges are ever-changing. You need a partner who sees problems and finds solutions. That’s where its decades of engineering, building, owning, and operating critical infrastructure come into play. Aligned is putting its experience to work for you. Thereby it is building complete data center solutions that can scale locally or globally to solve the complex needs of today’s large enterprises and cloud companies. It can integrate its patented infrastructure technology into your existing facilities, or they can deliver a new data center to suit your specifications. If a multi-tenant solution doesn’t fit your needs, Aligned will work with you to design and build data center facilities to your specifications. Its dedicated site selection team will assist in market research, site selection, sizing, standardized layouts, design/review, and even BIM modeling

Colocation Services: Scale up and out, quickly with colocation solutions that accommodates your needs today and easily meets your demands tomorrow. Support standard, high, and mixed densities all in one footprint. Fully-enclosed footprints allow you to scale from one rack to thousands with its dynamic infrastructure. Aligned’s award-winning cooling system absorbs heat directly from your contained enclosure, creating an ultra-efficient environment that supports variable and high density power configurations. Get expert assistance with colocation equipment racking, reboots, disk changes, triage, cross connections, and more. Regardless of your configuration or commitment, the company’s systems engineers and network technicians are available on-site whenever you need them.

Data Center Services: The company’s seasoned employees and valued alliance partners have years of experience engineering, building, and operating data centers. This is their passion. You can count on them for data center services that help maintain the performance, reliability, and transparency you need to support your most critical business systems. Included with every footprint, Aligned’s client portal features a fully integrated user experience that spans asset monitoring, ticketing, business intelligence, and capacity forecasting. Its solutions offer broad transparency and control from a convenient and singular entry point.

Leading From the Front: Andrew Schaap, Chief Executive Officer of Aligned

Andrew is a data center, IT, private equity and real estate executive with over 20 years of complex transactional experience and multi-disciplinary senior leadership. As CEO of Aligned, he is dedicated to accelerating business growth by driving the delivery of data center solutions with industry-leading technology and adaptive infrastructure. Since beginning his tenure with Aligned three years ago, Andrew has exponentially grown company revenues, completed several successful capital raisings, and cultivated an ecosystem of innovation that advances Aligned’s commitment to reducing the social, economic and environmental impact of the digital era to position Aligned as the number one performing private data center company in 2019.

Prior to joining Aligned, Andrew held numerous leadership positions over an 11-year period with Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR). Most recently serving as Senior Vice President, he was responsible for global large-scale, client-driven data center builds and was part of the executive leadership team that grew revenue to $2 billion. He also oversaw all major international transactions, including the successful negotiation and execution of projects in Osaka, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sydney. Prior to Digital Realty Trust, Andrew held leadership roles at Sterling Network Services and Sysix Technologies.

Andrew is the Founder and Board Member of DC Delta, an advisory council comprised of global data center end-users and innovators, connectivity providers and sustainability thought-leaders focused on improving data center efficiency and sustainability. He also sits on the Infrastructure Masons Advisory Council, an organization that provides infrastructure executives and technical professionals an independent forum to connect, grow and give back. Additionally, Andrew serves as a mentor for Great Minds in STEM, an association dedicated to keeping America technologically strong by promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Math careers, especially in underserved communities.

Mr. Schaap holds a B.A. in Business Administration and Marketing from Cornerstone University, in addition to completing graduate programs in Executive Negotiations and Management Training at Harvard University.