 This is JSA TV the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals and JSA radio your voice for tech and telecom on I heart radio. I'm Dean Perine vice president of account strategy and new media at JSA and today We're putting a spotlight on NJFX my guest today is mr. Felix Seta Felix is the general manager at NJFX and Felix welcome to JSA TV Thanks Dean appreciate you having me Absolutely Felix. Thank you. So why don't we jump right in here? Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about what it is that you do there at NJFX? What's your role? Sure, absolutely as you mentioned I am the general manager for NJFX I Started my career with NJFX with NJFX back in 2015 During that time we were just implementing the initial construction phase of the facility and I was serving as the liaison between our vendors our customers and Pretty much anyone anyone that we were dealing with at that time to ensure a smooth process in the construction of the facility Once the building was up and running I moved into more of a Operational and site access role. I was responsible for overseeing site access and developing a relationship with local and federal authorities to implement the proper procedures and protocols in place to ensure a secure site access at NJFX on top of that I was responsible for implementing a CRM tool Customer Relationship Management tool to help streamline operational processes for all of our customers and vendors Now beyond that I am now moving it more into a business development role on the sales side and ensuring that we achieve growth from a partnership perspective with all of our different unique customers The maintaining our ecosystem at NJFX Excellent excellent Felix. So obviously it's working because you guys had a pretty amazing 2017 if my notes are correct You experienced a pretty significant amount of growth But in that I think largely plays into the fact that your offering is sort of unique You guys are a tier three data center located in a cable landing station there in Wall, New Jersey So why don't you tell our viewers a little bit more about 2017 about that growth and what makes what makes NJFX unique? Sure 2017 was a major year for us. We finished construction at the end of 2016 So 2017 was making sure that you know we were out there that the NJFX brand was out there and In the industry and making sure that everyone knew our value proposition You know We've attended a lot of shows. We know it's a lot of people and it was all about Creating something that was innovative in the in the industry and making sure that we did something unique That the subsea industry has not seen before Creating a unique marketplace a hub if you will For international and terrestrial players in the sub in the industry to interconnect in one unique marketplace And that's NJFX Wow, excellent Some sea cabling right now is is pretty good So it sounds like you guys are getting in right there on the the leading edge. So congratulations on a great 2017 but something that I Picked up on is that you guys You guys actually have a Department of Homeland Security component over there. Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about that? Yeah, absolutely there in my time overseeing the site access piece we developed a relationship with the Department of Homeland Security And it was a it was an integral piece to making sure that we did everything that we need to do To ensure that this is a secure site location for all of our customers Because we are at the cable landing station. There was already a lot of procedures and protocols in place And it was just working with local and federal federal authorities to determine how those protocols and procedures impacted NJFX going forward to this to this day I maintain that relationship and All of the proof, you know, we did a lot of different assessments to ensure that we were doing adequate We were adequately Implementing procedures and protocols in place to make this a secure site for for all of our customers very good and obviously The DHS says it's safe and secure. I think it's probably a good indication that it's pretty safe and secure. Thanks for that Felix So you had a great 2017 Yeah, you're kind of getting more into the mature Stages of your business. Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit about what they can expect from NJFX? Say in the next year or so Sure, sure Like you said 2017 was a major year and 2018 is no different 2017 was about educating the industry about who we are and what we are doing. That's that makes us so unique 2018 You know, we're our name is out there and it's about it's about ensuring that We have the proper partnerships in place to make this a unique strategic place for all of our customers and partners one of the major one of the major news releases that was recently announced was that there's going to be a new subsea cable being built in between our facility here in wall, New Jersey and The cable landing station in Long Island called 1025 connect It essentially creates a unique subsea bypass route to New York City And that's a major point in the industry because And it's generating a lot of buzz. I think a lot of people are starting to realize that New York City is a single point of failure And having that bypass route especially a subsea route Is really generating a lot of market buzz and creating news worthy The industry Absolutely, absolutely sounds like 2018 is gonna be as just as good if not better than 2017 So congratulations to you on that Felix, thank you very much for for being with us today. We will definitely be keeping an eye on NJFX throughout this year and for years to come. So again, we appreciate your time today Thank you. Appreciate it. You bet. Thank you and thank you viewers for watching JSA TV. We'll see you soon