Broadband & connectivity
Strategic account development for enterprise fiber, transport, networking, and low-latency connectivity across the Pacific and Inland Northwest.
Broadband · Colocation · Data Centers
Infrastructure for what comes next.
Brent Smith is a strategic accounts and business development leader working across the networks, facilities, and commercial relationships that support modern enterprise technology.
BroadbandFiber and enterprise connectivity
ColocationEdge and interconnected facilities
Data centersEnterprise and regional markets
Strategic accountsComplex, consultative relationships
01 / Focus
Where physical infrastructure meets digital demand.
Brent’s experience spans fiber networks, colocation, commercial real estate, interconnected data centers, and technology sales. The through-line is practical: understand the workload, align the right infrastructure, and build a commercial path that works.
Colocation & edge
Positioning secure, right-sized colocation environments with direct network adjacency, resilient infrastructure, and clear operational accountability.
Data center markets
Commercial experience across interconnected data centers, site strategy, channel relationships, and the ecosystems linking carriers, cloud platforms, and enterprise customers.
AI infrastructure readiness
Helping frame AI and cloud growth as an infrastructure question: where workloads live, how data moves, and which combinations of power, space, latency, and resilience make sense.
02 / Experience
Built across the technology infrastructure stack.
Selected roles from a career supporting fast-moving technology companies and large enterprises through business development, strategic sales, and infrastructure solutions.
2026 — Present
Strategic Account Executive
Ziply Fiber · Pacific and Inland Northwest
2022 — 2024
Director, Strategic Accounts
Netrality Data Centers · Interconnected data center solutions
2022 — 2024
Director
7×24 Exchange Oregon & SW Washington Chapter · Industry leadership
2021 — 2022
Business Development Manager
CBRE · Bellevue, Washington
2019 — 2021
Regional Sales Director
Cyxtera Technologies · Pacific Northwest
03 / Point of view
AI may be software. Its constraints are physical.
Every intelligent workload ultimately depends on infrastructure: facilities, power, cooling, connectivity, latency, redundancy, and the people who can translate technical requirements into a workable operating model.
That intersection—between technology, real estate, engineering, and commercial strategy—is where Brent’s experience is most useful.
- Start with the workload, not the product catalog.
- Design for resilience before scale makes failure expensive.
- Treat network, facility, and business decisions as one system.
TelecommunicationsDirect salesSolution sellingBusiness developmentStrategic planningCloud computingData centersNetworkingManaged servicesContract negotiation
04 / Insights
Notes from the field.
Selected observations on broadband, colocation, data centers, cloud architecture, and the physical infrastructure behind AI.
Who pays for the compute?
A sharp—and funny—look at the gap between what customers pay for advanced AI tools and what the underlying computing may actually cost.
Brent’s take.
The joke lands because it exposes a real question: AI consumption is scaling faster than its economics have settled. That gap will shape pricing, infrastructure investment, and product strategy.
Route diversity across the northern corridor.
A network view of the Northern Link Route connecting Pacific Northwest and Midwest markets.
Brent’s take.
What matters is not just distance. A northern route creates another path between major markets, giving enterprises more options for latency, capacity, and geographic diversity.
Not every workload belongs in one place.
The strongest operating model may combine on-premises systems, colocation, private cloud, and public cloud—connected intentionally.
Brent’s take.
Hybrid is not a compromise. The real work is placing each workload where performance, control, economics, and risk make the most sense—and connecting those environments without adding friction.
2,100 miles of high-capacity infrastructure.
Ziply Fiber’s 400-Gigabit Northern Link Route connects the Pacific Northwest to Chicago through a fully subterranean path.
Brent’s take.
A route like this is more than a bandwidth upgrade. Its value is the combination of capacity, latency, physical diversity, and reach across regional data-center markets.
05 / Connect
Let’s talk about the infrastructure behind the opportunity.
For conversations about enterprise connectivity, colocation, data center strategy, or the infrastructure demands created by AI and cloud growth.