CWHK: Tell us about your professional background--what did you do before joining Equinix in 2008?

Brian Lillie: My first job was an US Air Force officer after I finished an undergraduate degree in math. In the Air Force, officers are trained to be generalists and moved around every three to four years for different assignments. At one point, I was commander at the communications squatter, so I did a part-time masters degree in telecoms management to understand what I was managing.

In the mid-90s where the Internet started to take off, I left the Air Force and joined Silicon Graphics --the darling of Silicon Valley at that time--as a senior manager of networks. Then I moved to Verisign where I was in different technical roles including VP of IT. I left the firm for a year to attend Stanford Business School. After that I returned to the firm and took up business roles. My last role at Verisign was head of global sales operation. Altogether I have been in IT for about 16 years.

CWHK: How is work different in a datacenter company?

BL: I don't think Equinix is necessarily a datacenter company. It's a company providing critical services to CIOs. I am fortunate to be in a firm that has a world-class datacenter and network choices that I never had before. At Equinix, 'we drink our own champagne' as we build app portfolio for our own and customers' use.