In a move company officials say will ensure its data is more secure and will free up its employees to focus on its core business, Baton Rouge-based Lamar Advertising Company has moved all of its data infrastructure to Venyu’s storage and service center on Florida Boulevard.
Venyu says it is now facilitating data services for Lamar’s roughly 200 offices throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, including maintenance of its data for more than 2,000 digital billboards located across the U.S.
There was a time when Lamar maintained all of its data in-house. The company began looking at outsourcing for its data needs—which are continually growing as more of its billboard business goes digital—following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“While we didn’t go down at the time, the hurricane certainly caused us to take stock in our disaster recovery and backup plans,” says Lamar Director of Communications and Services Peter Dunn. “Running an IT facility is not in our core competency; we knew a co-location provider with the expertise to protect our data assets.”
Lamar chose to outsource its data needs to Venyu in large part because of its local presence in Baton Rouge, Dunn says, but also because other providers it considered either lacked the required infrastructure security or could not guarantee uninterrupted service during emergencies.
Venyu, which last year expanded its data center at the Bon Carré Business Center by 23,000 square feet with a $14 million upgrade, serves more than 1,200 customers across industries ranging from government, professional sports and insurance to health care and nonprofits.
Tommy Curb, Venyu executive vice president of business development, says Lamar’s decision to move its data off-site is common among its new business customers.
“At some point, a lot of companies come to the realization that they just can’t keep up with the costs or demands of securing their data, and that it’s taking their employees away from working on their core business,” Curb says. “This is significant because it frees up Lamar to focus on its core advertising business.”
Financial details on the agreement between Venyu and Lamar were not disclosed. —Steve Sanoski
