DataPoint, Inc is an American
data center
A data center (American English) or data centre (British English)See spelling differences. is a building, a dedicated space within a building, or a group of buildings used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunic ...
(
colocation) and managed data network services provider, located in
Baltimore, Maryland
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, United States. It is one of the largest
cloud computing,
network management, and Infrastructure as a Service (
IaaS) companies in
Maryland.
History
DataPoint, Inc is the name adopted by ToadNet after it was acquired by Continental VisiNet Broadband in 2004. The company was founded in
Severna Park, Maryland as Toad Computers in 1986 by two high school students, David Troy and Ray Mitchell. Toad Computers began as Maryland's only Atari computer dealership and largely worked through mail-order
until Atari started requiring their vendors to have storefront facilities in 1988.
The small computer sales company expanded into the internet service provider market in 1995, when the first commercial providers started to gain traction linking customers to the
World Wide Web. When the passage of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed newer companies to compete with the large telephone carriers by buying up phone lines, Troy bought out his partner Mitchell and shut down Toad Computers, opening the new ToadNet.
ToadNet managed to survive the end of the
dot-com bubble as one of the last independently owned dial-up service providers in the country.
Seeing opportunity to offer high-speed services and expand its data center, in 2004 ToadNet was sold to Continental VisiNet Broadband for a reported $2.6 million. Afterward, the name was changed to DataPoint and was relocated from Severna Park to Baltimore, into a new state-of-the-art data center.
As of 2011, DataPoint continues to operate out of Baltimore as a subsidiary of
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1705, it had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 census, making it the third-most populous city in Virginia after neighboring Virginia Be ...
-based “super-regional” cloud computing company, Continental VisiNet Broadband (which is itself owned by the large media company,
Landmark Media Enterprises
Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC (a spinoff of Landmark Communications, Inc.) is a privately held media company headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia specializing in newspaper publishing, Internet publishing and software.
History
Norfolk Newspape ...
).
Products and services
DataPoint specializes as an
Internet service provider and data center company, providing
broadband access
Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...
and
managed services largely to Baltimore, Maryland area businesses. Additionally, the company currently offers
customized network services, cloud computing,
virtual network
In computing, network virtualization is the process of combining hardware and software network resources and network functionality into a single, software-based administrative entity, a virtual network. Network virtualization involves platform vi ...
s, colocation, IaaS, and NuSec solutions (providing
internet security and
firewall
Firewall may refer to:
* Firewall (computing), a technological barrier designed to prevent unauthorized or unwanted communications between computer networks or hosts
* Firewall (construction), a barrier inside a building, designed to limit the spre ...
s).
References
{{Reflist
External links
DataPointContinental VisiNet Broadband
Companies based in Baltimore
Companies established in 1986
1986 establishments in Maryland