The Client
A startup that was about to land a Series A round of funding after successfully proving their SaaS application designed for call centers.
Deal Type: Bay Area Colocation, Hardware and Complex Network Requirements
Specs: A single cabinet in the Bay Area, servers, switches, transit and transport.
The Challenge
The team, though experienced with UI and application development, had no extensive or current data center experience. They had chosen to take the path of owning and managing their own infrastructure and needed expertise selecting the data center, hardware and complex network components that would serve as the backbone of their application as it scaled and went live around the world. The client was unfamiliar with local data center and network providers and also hoped to work with a VAR that could quickly jump in and help work through complex questions and specifications relating to server, firewall and switch needs. Their outsourced CFO referred the CEO to Mentat Partners as a firm that was knowledgeable and eager to sit and chat, at no charge, to discuss their needs and walk through available options. Through a single hour long Q&A white board session, Mentat Partners was able to document what the existing resources were and what pieces of the puzzle could be leveraged to ensure system reliability, scalability and on-time delivery of services.
The Solution
- A hardware VAR experienced in working with the specific needs of an early-stage SaaS company that would scale quickly over a short period of time.
- A specialist with extensive experience architecting complex network solutions and who could leverage deep relationships within the industry to get circuits delivered quickly and navigate past the “yes we can” salesman to the actual engineers delivering the solution.
- A data center provider that had the right network providers on net within the building and deliver a quality, reliable, flexible and cost effective solution for the client to scale into over time.
Conclusion
Start to finish, the client was able to walk through all relevant options, tour facilities, architect and purchase the hardware to be installed, and have data center and network contracts in hand within 2 weeks.
