Huffman has been in the data center business for 17 years, first as a sales executive for data center service providers and most recently serving as the national director of Colliers' Technology Solutions Group. Huffman also provides strategic consulting services on data center consolidation and cloud service migrations.

“As the most fiber connected city in the region, Atlanta has become a premiere data center hub with about 4 million operational square feet of data center space,” Huffman says. “Along with home town Fortune 500 corporate data centers, a wide variety of global companies leverage Atlanta as a primary data center site to store and protect their information assets. Thankfully, the immense data traffic passing through Atlanta is moving much better than cars and trucks these days.”

Huffman is an established thought leader in the market, frequently speaking at data center conventions and industry events through groups such as NAIOP. He serves on the board of directors for the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors and on the Board of Advisors at Gwinnett Technical College. Huffman is also a Grammy Award-nominated singer and songwriter whose close network of friends includes The Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, Kansas and Hall & Oats. The love of performing is still with him, but he sought a career that would not require constant tours and found himself in the tech and data center world.

ATLANTA—Tim Huffman has switched commercial real estate allegiances. CBRE'S Data Center Solutions practice hired him as senior vice president. Joining more than 100 professionals in the firm's international data center team, Huffman will be based out of Atlanta.

Atlanta is one of the leading US data center markets, with 12.2 megawatts of total net absorption in 2016 according to CBRE. As the wholesale market in Atlanta continues to expand and evolve, the availability of custom facility and redundancy configurations, a favorable business climate, abundant and reliable power and low utility costs will likely make the metro a key market for data center requirements.

As Huffman sees it, the ongoing Atlanta traffic snarl created by the recent Interstate 85 interstate collapse has highlighted the importance of Atlanta as a commerce thorough fare. As millions of commuters traverse the road system of Atlanta each day, he says, millions more travel an unseen network of fiber that runs thru Atlanta interconnecting the entire southeastern US.

“The currency of the digital world is data and fiber is the super highway that carries data to and from Atlanta and out to the region and the rest of the world,” Huffman says. “Just prior to the Civil War, Atlanta was called Terminus. This was a reference to the railroad system that connected the region and its primary hub and end point being what is now called Atlanta. Today, Atlanta fiber networks travel along the railroad and highway system rights of way connecting millions of people and businesses enabling communications and data driven financial transactions.”

Huffman has been in the data center business for 17 years, first as a sales executive for data center service providers and most recently serving as the national director of Colliers' Technology Solutions Group. Huffman also provides strategic consulting services on data center consolidation and cloud service migrations.

“As the most fiber connected city in the region, Atlanta has become a premiere data center hub with about 4 million operational square feet of data center space,” Huffman says. “Along with home town Fortune 500 corporate data centers, a wide variety of global companies leverage Atlanta as a primary data center site to store and protect their information assets. Thankfully, the immense data traffic passing through Atlanta is moving much better than cars and trucks these days.”

Huffman is an established thought leader in the market, frequently speaking at data center conventions and industry events through groups such as NAIOP. He serves on the board of directors for the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors and on the Board of Advisors at Gwinnett Technical College. Huffman is also a Grammy Award-nominated singer and songwriter whose close network of friends includes The Rolling Stones, Allman Brothers, Kansas and Hall & Oats. The love of performing is still with him, but he sought a career that would not require constant tours and found himself in the tech and data center world.