Richard Zheng, the president of telecom and technology solutions company Servpac Inc., often jokes that if technology worked perfectly all the time, he’d be out of a job.
He says it in jest, but the idea that technology won’t always work perfectly is something Zheng takes very seriously. That’s evidenced by the equipment at Servpac’s MTP Data Center, which provides colocation and cloud computing services for business clients across a range of industries, including government agencies. Located in the Mililani Technology Park, the 30,000-square-foot facility contains independent backups of all its equipment — every colocation cabinet is connected to two separate electrical feeds connecting to two different generators that go to two electrical rooms. (It’s a principle that extends not just to the essential equipment, but to everything: The employee lounge has two refrigerators, two microwaves, two coffee makers.)
“Data needs to be available 24/7 — that’s become so critical these days,” Zheng said. “So, everything here is redundant. If one thing is down, you always have another piece of equipment, which will give continued service to the customers, and you will never have downtime.”
Zheng launched Servpac in 2004, when, after working as an engineer for other telecom businesses, recognized an opportunity in voice over internet protocol, an emerging technology at the time that enables users to make voice calls via the internet. As technology evolved over the years, Servpac evolved with it, launching its own fiber internet network in 2010, followed by cloud services in 2014. It opened the MTP Data Center in 2020, in response to what Zheng said was a growing demand for businesses to house their data.
“Basically, we are a one-stop shop for your technology and telecom needs,” Zheng said. “For all of these different technologies, we have our own infrastructure … and our own monitoring and maintenance.”
In addition to hosting businesses’ servers and other computing hardware, the MTP Data Center also offers disaster-recovery office space to help customers continue operations in the event of a natural disaster, theft, or other unforeseen circumstance. Earlier this year, the facility earned a Tier IV Certification of Constructed Facility from advisory organization Uptime Institute, which establishes global standards for data center performance. Tier IV is the highest level of certification, recognizing that “individual equipment failure or distribution path interruption will not impact operations,” according to Uptime’s website.
What has been your strategy in growing the company over the years? The strategy is very simple: We just build the best. Technology-wise, we always try to build the best [products]. … The second thing is to have the best service. We like to hire people who enjoy doing this because if they enjoy it, they will do a better job. … If you build the best product, people will find you, and if they like your service, they will stay with you and tell their friends.
What is a typical day like for you? I spend most of my time talking to people — talking to customers, talking to vendors and I spend a lot of time talking to our team members.
One of our company values is innovation. We want to provide the best service and new [products] that we can bring to market — those ideas are based on discussions with the customers about what they need. We are very happy when we can help the customer and give them the service they need. I always tell the customer, I can never tell you our system will be 100%, but I can tell you, if something is not right, we have 100% commitment to getting things fixed.
What is your management style? I always tell the management team that as management, our job is to make sure that people have the tools and resources to get the job done. … I try to do one-on-one [meetings] with everyone in the company at least once a month; for management, it is once a week. My favorite question in every meeting is, "what can I do to make things better for you?" Anything that the management team or myself can do to help people grow, that is the best [part of my job].
People these days are changing jobs more than ever before. … We have had people who have been here for more than 10 years, but we have also had people who are here for a short period of time. I always tell people that as long as at the end of your time here, you look back and you say "I learned a lot, I improved myself," I’ll be happy.
What are your future goals for Servpac, and where do you see opportunities for growth moving forward? We are excited for the journey ahead as we endeavor to meet and exceed our customers’ growing needs. We're currently progressing with plans for our second phase of expansion, a strategic initiative set to greatly increase our data storage capacity. … At MTP Data Center, we see vast potential for growth in two distinct sectors. Firstly, [as] local businesses … strive to mitigate risks and overcome limitations of their current [data storage] environments, we're ready to support them with our cutting-edge infrastructure, bolstering their operations with enhanced security and performance. Secondly, we are poised to serve Mainland providers who understand the competitive edge of housing data closer to their end customers. By choosing to colocate their infrastructure with us, these providers can offer faster, more reliable services, bolstering customer satisfaction and cementing their competitive standing.
Richard Zheng, president
Servpac Inc.
Phone: (808) 237-5000
Website: servpac.com
