Chiquita goes bananas for cloud technology
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chiquita Brands will look to national IT infrastructure and cloud solutions provider Peak 10 Inc. for global operations support.
After relocating its corporate headquarters from Cincinnati to Charlotte, N.C., Chiquita has chosen to house its business-critical information, including shipping, accounts payable and receivable, production and distribution data for its global operations, within Peak 10’s new 14,000-sq.-ft.-facility in North Charlotte.
“Chiquita is thrilled to partner with Peak 10,” said Kevin Ledford, VP, information technology and CIO for Chiquita Brands. “We fully expect that their new state of the art facility and supporting services will meet our business needs well into the future.”
Peak 10 will offer Chiquita round-the-clock data center management and the security and support it needs to maintain the integrity of its data. Peak 10 also delivers a redundant network and high availability, allowing Chiquita to focus on delivering quality, service and innovation in its core businesses of bananas and salads.
“We are excited to have Chiquita as one of our newest customers,” said Pat O’Brien, VP and GM of Peak 10 Charlotte. “The nature of Chiquita’s business required their mission critical infrastructure to have a reliable, full-service IT partner that has the breadth and depth to support its global operations. Our new, best-in-class data center facility, geographic diversity and 24/7 support from our IT experts supply Chiquita with the multiple levels of redundancy it needs to serve customers worldwide.”
The recent opening of Peak 10’s newest Charlotte data center completes the first phase of its plans for a 64,000-sq.-ft. technology campus. It is located in the University Research Park area near UNC-Charlotte and within the David Taylor Corporate Center. It brings Peak 10’s entire Charlotte footprint to more than 129,000 sq. ft. In addition to its enterprise and private cloud services, Peak 10 offers a HIPAA-compliant cloud service, a PCI-compliant cloud service and a recovery cloud service.