Venyu opens new $14 million data center in BR

Data center and cloud-based services firm Venyu is today celebrating the opening of its new $14 million, 23,000-square-foot facility at the Bon Carré Business Center on Florida Boulevard, saying the new data center will allow the firm to provide customers with increased storage capacity and security. “In today’s highly competitive market, industry demand for crucial data center services such as colocation, cloud hosting, managed hosting and cloud backup are on the rise—as businesses seek more cost-effective IT solutions to drive efficiencies and generate revenue,” says Venyu CEO Scott Thompson in a prepared release. “This expanded footprint opens new doors for customers with heightened levels of elasticity and on-demand IT capacity—while enabling us to drive future innovation and services.” The new center—which was built in the space once occupied by a movie theater at the old Bon Marché mall—is roughly half the size of the firm’s existing facility at the Florida Boulevard business center. Venyu, which was acquired in September by Gonzales-based EATEL, has a second data center in Shreveport. Between that center and the flagship center in Baton Rouge, Venyu serves more than 1,200 customers across industries ranging from government, professional sports and insurance to health care and nonprofits. Brian Vandegrift, who heads sales and innovation at Venyu, is featured in the new issue of Business Report in a story on cloud computing and off-site digital data storage. Read the full story. —Staff report