Community > H5DC All Stars > Eli Crevelone

H5 Data Centers All Stars

Get to Know Anthony Steller

What's your role at H5 Data Centers?

Since joining H5, I have discovered my ability to contribute in various roles. Primarily, I manage our company-owned and operated Internet Exchanges in San Antonio, TX (SAT-IX) and Cleveland, OH (CL-IX). My focus is on driving the growth of these exchanges by educating customers about peering, which helps them reduce network latency and adds significant value to their networks.

In addition, because we operate carrier-neutral and IX-neutral facilities, I manage our relationships with our carrier and IX partners. My goal is to make it easy for our customers to find the right solution for their network, and I work closely with the carriers and exchanges in our locations to facilitate the right connections.

Beyond my work with the Internet Exchanges and carriers, I bridge the gap between the Sales and Network Engineering teams. By offering technical expertise to the Sales team, I help them find the best solutions for our customers. Conversely, I provide the Network Engineering team with strategic insights to design customer-facing networks that meet and exceed our clients' needs and expectations.

What do you enjoy most about working with H5?

The people! I am lucky to work with such a diverse range of people with different skills and interests. Being a smaller company, I get to work closely with our Sales team, our Network Engineering team, our Operations team, and our Data Center teams to name a few, along with our wide range of customers across the US. Talking to people all over the company to learn about them and their perspectives helps me do my best since we all need to support each other and work together. On top of the people though, I also really enjoy learning a new aspect of the internet. I may know network, but data center is something I’ve only scratched the surface on previously so it’s exciting to be surrounded by experts that I can talk to and learn from.

Do you have any unique experiences before working in the data center field?

I spent 13 years at one of the largest MSOs/ISPs in the US before joining H5. During this time, I had the opportunity to see how a very large ISP network was built and operated, from the customer edge to the internet edge. I was fortunate to gain a comprehensive view, starting from telephone repair in the call center, where I worked with customers to fix their phone service, to spending years in the NOC (Network Operations Center) troubleshooting network problems. My journey culminated in transport and capacity planning, where I handled long-haul connectivity and then edge interconnection (Peering!).

This extensive experience across the entire network provided me with valuable insights into different aspects of the network from various perspectives. It highlighted the importance of not only understanding one’s own role within an organization but also breaking down barriers between teams to truly understand the roles and concerns of others. With this understanding, you can make impactful changes that benefit the organization as a whole.

What is one of your favorite hobbies you could talk about for hours?

I like to camp and go floating down the river with family, or if stuck inside then I like video games and am a big fan of the “Fallout” series. The recent Amazon series based on the game is well done, I can’t wait for the next season!

What is one thing you can't live without?

Family. Through good times and bad, my family will always be there for me and I for them. Sorry if that’s kind of a ‘cop-out’ answer haha, but anything else is really just superficial. I could say technology, since my whole life pretty much revolves around technology both inside and outside of work, but in the end I would manage if I lost everything else and just had my family left.