Sami Slim is an expert on global carrier-grade telecommunications infrastructure, having worked with virtually every major carrier around the world while building contacts throughout the data centre and telecommunications industries in a significant number of countries worldwide.
He lists his specialities as data centre sales, evaluation and negotiation; data centre site selection — which includes large-scale cloud computing and facility design; Internet peering and transit strategy and negotiation; Internet backbone architecture, strategy, negotiation, and design; emerging markets’ Internet architecture and connectivity.
Sami sees himself as a strong advocate of collaboration and teamwork. Not just within his own company, Telehouse France, where he is CEO, but in the relationship he is helping the company build with other vendors, partners and clients.
He says, what he calls the ‘connectivity business’ is expanding exponentially and, in recent times, in directions that would not have been imagined a decade ago.
He believes the recent pandemic and the aftermath of COVID-19 had a huge effect on the speed of growth and the way it focused business minds on digital migration.
However, he is keen to stress that we should never forget that all but a very small segment of internet traffic – whilst we talk in terms of ‘the cloud’ — is very firmly based on the ground and under the sea.
“Corralling this huge, connective potential requires input from all players and parties involved,” he says.
For this reason, Sami is taking Telehouse France into unchartered territory in terms of building and expanding its global infrastructure.
His ‘Connectivity Strategy’ centres on collaboration with businesses possessing skills and resources local to the data hubs and data centres he is building. He also wants the infrastructure Telehouse France creates to be as open as possible.
“To do this – which frees us from being tied to any one large system – enables us to serve our customers far more effectively as well as respond to changes in the way we can grow our business with far fewer constraints,” says Sami.
Telehouse France’s latest venture, building a global data hub in Marseille, is a perfect example of his vision in action.
“To make this approach work at its best requires a real desire to build joined-up teams that include all the parties involved,” he says. “This also takes skilled negotiation and a shared goal.”
Sami is passionate about developing companies in the internet infrastructure space — from telecommunications and data centres to cloud computing. He has significant experience in infrastructure architecture, design, sales, negotiation, acquisition, and implementation on a global basis, which places him in a perfect position to instigate and execute such an approach. In fact, his background has been invaluable.
Sami has been with Telehouse France for the past twelve years, starting his career there as an account manager in sales.
He has a master’s degree in IT-based Economics from Michigan State University and a masters in telecommunications from a French university.
He speaks four languages including Spanish and Arabic.
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