Hivelocity Taps Jim Parks as CEO to Drive AI Infrastructure Growth

TAMPA, Fla. – May 08, 2026 – Hivelocity, a provider of high-performance bare metal infrastructure, has appointed veteran technology executive Jim Parks as its new chief executive officer. The move signals an aggressive push by the company to capture a larger share of the booming market for AI-ready infrastructure, as businesses increasingly seek specialized, powerful computing solutions.

Parks takes the helm at a pivotal moment for both Hivelocity and the broader tech industry. With the demand for artificial intelligence and data-intensive workloads surging, the underlying infrastructure that powers these applications is becoming a critical strategic asset for enterprises. Hivelocity, backed by private equity firm Valterra Partners, is betting that Parks is the leader to navigate this high-stakes environment.

The Growth Architect's Blueprint

Jim Parks brings over two decades of leadership experience, marked by a consistent track record of scaling infrastructure and software companies. He joins Hivelocity from Ntirety, where as CEO he orchestrated a period of significant growth that culminated in its acquisition by 11:11 Systems. His career is a blueprint for driving expansion in private equity-backed enterprises, with previous executive roles at mobility software firm Passport and IT solutions provider Flexential.

During his time at Flexential, Parks played a key role in the operational integration following the $1.3 billion merger of Peak 10 and ViaWest, a complex undertaking that forged one of the industry's major players. His experience is rooted in what investors value most: increasing recurring revenue, aligning product strategy with market needs, and building effective global teams. This background aligns perfectly with the mandate from Hivelocity's backers.

"Jim has a clear track record of building infrastructure businesses that grow profitably and put the customer first," said Drew Reid of Valterra Partners in a statement. "He brings the operating rigor and commercial instinct Hivelocity needs to capture the moment ahead, and we are proud to back him as the company enters its next chapter of growth."

For his part, Parks intends to build on the company's established strengths. "Hivelocity has earned its reputation on performance and on people who care about the customer," Parks stated. "My focus is to build on that foundation and grow with our customers as they take on the next wave of compute. They want capacity, but as importantly, a partner who stays responsive as requirements change, can grow with them, and always shows up when it counts. That is the company we are building."

The Resurgence of Bare Metal

Hivelocity's strategic pivot under Parks is amplified by a significant industry trend: the enterprise-level return to bare metal servers. For years, the public cloud's virtualized environments were the default choice for scalability. However, the unique demands of AI have exposed the limitations of that model.

Enterprises are now acutely aware of the "Hypervisor Tax"—the performance penalty imposed by the virtualization layer that sits between the hardware and the end-user in a typical cloud setup. Research indicates this tax can reduce data transfer performance by 10-15%, a critical bottleneck for AI model training and inference that rely on maximum throughput. AI workloads, characterized by hyper-dense, continuous mathematical operations, demand direct, unfettered access to the underlying CPU and, most critically, the GPUs.

Bare metal infrastructure eliminates the hypervisor, providing a single-tenant, dedicated environment that guarantees maximum performance and predictability. This resurgence is driving a rapidly growing market, with projections showing the bare metal cloud sector expanding from $14.73 billion in 2026 to over $36.7 billion by 2030. Hivelocity, with its 20-year history in delivering high-performance dedicated servers, is well-positioned to capitalize on this shift.

Navigating a Competitive, High-Growth Market

The opportunity is immense, but so is the competition. Hivelocity is entering a dynamic arena where specialized providers and established giants are all vying for dominance. Competitors like CoreWeave have built a strong brand by focusing exclusively on GPU infrastructure for AI, securing partnerships with major AI labs. European provider OVHcloud and U.S.-based phoenixNAP are also aggressively marketing their own bare metal and AI-ready server offerings.

However, Hivelocity is not starting from a standstill. The company's recent history includes its March 2024 acquisition by Colohouse, another Valterra Partners portfolio company. That move was part of a multi-year strategy to create a differentiated data center and hybrid cloud provider with significant scale. The combined entity now operates in over 40 global locations, serving more than 7,000 customers and giving Hivelocity the expanded footprint necessary to compete on a larger stage.

Under Parks, the company plans to further expand its bare metal and AI-ready infrastructure, with a specific focus on increasing its GPU capacity to address the compute surge. The strategy also includes deepening investments in customer experience and forging new partnerships across the AI ecosystem. By combining its legacy of reliable performance and customer-centric support with a renewed strategic focus and expanded scale, Hivelocity aims to become the go-to infrastructure partner for the next generation of enterprise computing.