Al Avery

Al Avery possessed a highly rigorous, intensely operational background in managing massive, highly complex physical server facilities. Honed during his extensive career as a facilities manager at the Digital Equipment Corporation, his incredibly deep background in power redundancy, network cooling, and physical security provided the exact operational blueprint required to architect Equinix's massive, fail-proof global data centers.

Al Avery was a highly influential American technology pioneer and the co-founder of Equinix, one of the world's most critical digital infrastructure companies. Operating as a seasoned facilities manager at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1990s, Avery closely partnered with Jay Adelson to analyze the massive inefficiencies of early internet traffic routing. Realizing that the internet desperately needed neutral interconnection hubs, the pair left DEC in 1998 to found Equinix (originally incorporated as Quark Communications). Avery played an absolutely critical role in physically designing and securing the company's massive early data centers, establishing the strict neutrality protocols that allowed rival telecoms to seamlessly exchange data. Avery sadly passed away in 2009, leaving behind a massive corporate legacy.