Driving Disruption: Jeff Uphues Of DC BLOX On The Innovative Approaches They Are Taking To Disrupt Their Industries

An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti

We recognized the responsibility to bring the network of high-capacity dark fiber and systems to link our data centers together, giving the hyperscale community a single source to partner with. This makes it easy for them to implement bandwidth solutions and systems in dark fiber, already tied to the hyperscale-ready facilities they need.

In an age where industries evolve at lightning speed, there exists a special breed of C-suite executives who are not just navigating the changes, but driving them. These are the pioneers who think outside the box, championing novel strategies that shatter the status quo and set new industry standards. Their approach fosters innovation, spurs growth, and leads to disruptive change that redefines their sectors. In this interview series, we are talking to disruptive C-suite executives to share their experiences, insights, and the secrets behind the innovative approaches they are taking to disrupt their industries. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jeff Uphues.

Jeff leads DC BLOX where he is responsible for setting and leading the company’s strategy, vision and execution in designing, building, and operating a fabric of interconnected, highly secure, Tier III rated data centers across the Southeast. DC BLOX currently owns and operates data centers in five Southeast markets of which all have become the defacto Connectivity Exchanges within their respective market for agile, efficient, resilient cloud connectivity and best-in-class infrastructure for digital services.

Jeff is a 30 year veteran in the information technology industry, is a tireless tech-savvy executive and business strategist having held C-suite leadership roles for Liquid Web, Cbeyond, Bandwidth, ACSI Network Technologies, MCI and WilTel.

Jeff serves as an active board member in several technology firms, he is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, Rice University’s Jones School of Business Executive Education program in Finance and Accounting and completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Jeff lives in Alpharetta, GA with his wife Aimee of 22 years with whom they have two daughters. When not working, he can be typically found road cycling, playing golf or on a lacrosse field with his youngest daughter.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion about disruption, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?

I have always been on the service side of technology, where many in the data center industry come from a real estate background. A service first, network first, facility first approach, has shaped my journey and approach to serving customers. My track record coming through network operating companies, service companies, and providing mission critical services has enabled us to bring to a real estate focused business more of what to do to own and operate a data center. DC BLOX is just as much a connectivity provider as a data center provider, which makes for a very good mix of how you service a customer in this industry. Whether you are providing a new build, services, or infrastructure support, customers want to deal with people they trust, with whom they share the tenacity to get things done, so service, teamwork, and partnership are at the core of what we do. Bringing the service mentality into a real estate oriented market and being able to drive success by listening to customers and performing to their requests has enabled us to pioneer innovative solutions and reshape the digital infrastructure landscape.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Always with our mission to Serve Locally, Connect Globally on behalf of customers at the forefront of our thoughts, we have built an enormous level of trust at the local levels, whether they are large cities or edge markets. Transparency with our customers, with our team allows us to partner in ways they haven’t experienced before.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1. Tenacity and grit require not allowing problems to stand in our way without creatively coming up with solutions to address those problems. As a leader, this is critical, because you have a team you are responsible for. From the case of DC BLOX, we started as one small data center and laid out a clear vision for investors seven years ago. We know we have the right strategy to execute our business, but the persistence to take it one step at a time every week, month, and year has now resulted in large scale plans to build twelve data centers across the southeast. Tenacity has driven us to appreciate that we could truly be the ones to lead the markets we enter across the Southeast, and this creates an extreme focus to our efforts. But we also knew it couldn’t happen overnight.
2. A servant mentality is fundamental to leadership. I don’t believe that people work for me, but that I work for my people. This also relies on tenacity, and if you are willing to put in the hard work for your team, together, you can achieve more than anyone would think possible.
3. You have to have the patience and diligence to prove yourself every day. This means working to earn the right to serve your customers and investors every single day, realizing that it is a genuine privilege and that opportunities and money don’t come for free. This means working every day to earn your salary and giving every day more than the one before. You have to outhustle, outwork, out-think, and outlisten compared to your competitors, and then, you have to leap out of bed the next day raring to do it all over again.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition so that all of us are on the same page. In the context of a business, what exactly is “Disruption”?

In leadership, most are focused on solving problems quickly. But I have found that it is better to be patient and to listen, to understand from multiple points of view before acting. By listening to employees and customers, and remaining calm in the face of adversity, you can learn invaluable insights and gain the resilience needed to navigate any challenge successfully. Yet, you do need to act quickly. A favorite quote from coach John Wooden is, “Be patient, but be quick.” You have to be patient with your team, patient and waiting for results. But you have to be quick with decision making in what you do. When you listen and understand different points of view, you are put in an environment where you can take emotion out and allow strategy and logic to reign. Anything else leaves too many emotionally charged decisions and causes knee-jerk reactions where you send the wrong message. If you have to assess and respond to situations quickly, the best you can do is already know what to ask and where to ask it.

How do you perceive the role of ‘disruption’ within your industry, and how have you personally embraced it? Is it a necessity, a strategy, or something else entirely in your view?

When we embarked on this journey, our biggest concern was whether we would have the capacity and cooling capabilities to fuel the next generation of equipment. The prevailing belief for decades had been that the demand for cabinet capacity wouldn’t reach such heights. However, we refused to be held back by such conventional thinking. We envisioned a future where innovation would flourish through disruptive solutions.

With this unwavering vision, we embarked on a mission to craft modular, adaptable designs that surpassed the norm. We took the initiative to rethink how we could seamlessly blend and cool high-density deployments. Three years ago, we laid the groundwork for our revolutionary designs, and just eighteen months ago, we began translating our vision into reality.

Today, as we witness the disruptive force of AI, we’re proud to have anticipated its impact. Our pioneering work in driving high-density compute has unlocked unprecedented power capabilities for our clients on a per-cabinet basis. We seamlessly integrate high-power computing with traditional densities within a single data hall, creating an environment where AI and machine learning stand side by side with conventional workloads.

By proactively planning and implementing our innovative solutions, we’ve positioned ourselves at the forefront of the power and compute-intensive design landscape. Our journey has not only embraced disruption but has propelled us to a place where DC BLOX is a beacon of innovation, where the future of technology finds its home.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Five Innovative Approaches We Are Using To Disrupt Our Industry”?

1. DC BLOX is redefining what a Cable Landing Station can be and should be for the current type of cables that are being placed. The largest subsea cables that have ever been created now terminate in our facility, empowering the internet across continents and countries. This was all made possible by embracing the challenge to rethink how we architect, maintain, and support the next generation of cable landing stations.
2. We recognized the responsibility to bring the network of high-capacity dark fiber and systems to link our data centers together, giving the hyperscale community a single source to partner with. This makes it easy for them to implement bandwidth solutions and systems in dark fiber, already tied to the hyperscale-ready facilities they need.
3. As I mentioned with AI, one of the biggest concerns when we started was that we would not have enough density and cooling to power the next generation of equipment. For decades the persistent thought has been that no one uses that much capacity in a cabinet, but we were always worried we would wake up five years and tens of millions of dollars down the road to find that what we had built was obsolete. With this in mind, we set out to create modular, flexible designs that offered above the mean and also to creatively think through how to mix, match, and cool high-density deployments. Three years ago we thought through our design and eighteen months ago began to implement it. Now that we’re seeing the disruption of AI, we know that our advance work to drive high density compute to increase the amount of power a client can draw on a per cabinet basis. We mix and match that high power compute with traditional densities within a single data hall and are proud to have an active data center where AI/ML is featured alongside traditional workloads. By having a plan that was thought through ahead of the game to implement, we know exactly where DC BLOX fits in the landscape of power and compute intensive designs.
4. Continuous improvement is embedded in our organization and culture. It’s why we’re building the way we are, why we’re growing the way that we are. Because every day we can do more and be better than we were the day prior. This same attitude applies to how we’re handling sustainability in our design and operations. Exploring sustainable solutions is a responsibility we take seriously. The continuous improvement of our performance is not only essential for the environment, but also provides a competitive advantage that our customers and our communities appreciate.
5. Our mission is to Serve Locally, Connect Globally. It is the purpose for why we exist, endearing us to markets, customers, vendors, and employees. Anybody who partners with us is helping us to create and deliver on that mission. We believe that culture trumps strategy. This is the secret sauce to how we disrupt the industry, supported by three pillars: teamwork, trust, and tenacity. How we act when no one is looking matters; no trusting relationship can be built without this. Believing that collaboration enables us to win together is crucial to how we operate. Having the tenacity to engage through challenges every day means that we will always deliver over and above expectations. These pillars (teamwork, trust, and tenacity) support our ability to fulfill our purpose-driven mission to Serve Locally and Connect Globally.

Looking back at your career, in what ways has being disruptive defined or redefined your path? What surprises have you encountered along the way?

I have never been afraid to take on a new or different role, so having diversity within one career has helped me to see the full field of play. From operating in front-line sales, business development, corporate development, product management, operations, finance, and more, I have benefitted from the understanding of what motivates different groups and organizations of people and the unique challenges they face. Being well-rounded and aware of diverse groups and functions gives you a different mentality of how to operate and how to overcome problems. At the end of the day, it all comes back to the fact that people enjoy doing business with partners who they know they can trust, who will listen to them and have a good understanding of their needs. It doesn’t matter the size of a company or the role you are in. It’s pretty simple: treat people with respect and attention to their unique needs, realize that their problems are important, and focus on solving over-selling to address those needs.

Beyond professional accomplishments, how has embracing disruption affected you on a personal level?

The more complex our world and its problems become, the more simple we have to be with our solutions. Technology, while it solves many problems, generally, can also overcomplicate many others. At the end of the day problems can be very complicated and emotionally charged, so we need to explain the solutions in a way that everyone understands. Implicit in that is that you need to have a deep understanding of the problem you are trying to solve before you can address it or speak to it in a simplified, solution-oriented way.

In your role as a C-suite leader, driving innovation and embracing disruption, what thoughts or concerns keep you awake at night? How do these reflections guide your decisions and leadership?

I am continually watching our market operations, from the interest rate environment that exists to supply chain constraints to inflationary pressures. This is an infrastructure heavy and capital intensive business. Not only does it create internal challenges, but it puts pressure on our customer pricing and available offering. We are coming out ahead of these challenges, but navigating them is my chief responsibility.

After that I focus on maintaining our culture, purpose, and vision as we grow. I make it a personal responsibility to ensure that every one of our team members and vendor partners understands that culture and ethics are paramount at DC BLOX. Our values drive everything we do.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

One thing I’ve learned over time is that looking people in the eye when talking can make a huge difference. As they say, the eyes are the window to the soul. And if you have the capacity to do that with humor or a smile, for people across all backgrounds, everywhere, you can truly bring happiness and joy to people. By spending time understanding others and slowing down a little bit to meet them where they are, you can make the world a better place, especially when sharing happiness, joy, and understanding. When people smile more, they do more. They enjoy life more.

We all have different problems, but by greeting others with a smile every day and having a consistent and authentic joy and understanding of them, you can welcome them to see a successful outlook and achieve what they didn’t think possible. I make it my rule to brighten people’s day because I know that’s how you change the world. Treat everyone with respect, know that there is good in everybody, find ways to motivate through the differences, and empower them to do more. They will do more and better things in the company and in life.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I encourage readers to follow DC BLOX’s LinkedIn channel for the latest news about our growing network of interconnected data centers and the fiber and connectivity that is driving digital infrastructure through the Southeast US.

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!

About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.