According to DCD, managed IT infrastructure provider Summit has acquired HorizonIQ, a global private cloud, bare-metal, and GPU provider. The deal was announced at the start of December 2024, and its financial terms were not disclosed. Summit gains a presence in nine data centers through the acquisition and expands its private cloud offering with HorizonIQ’s Proxmox platform. The companies stated that HorizonIQ’s operations will not be interrupted, and over the coming months, its technology and teams will be folded into the Summit brand. The acquisition was financially backed by private equity firm Silver Oak Services Partners, LLC.
The strategy behind the buy
So, what’s Summit really getting here? On the surface, it’s nine data center footprints and some tech. But look deeper, and it’s a classic consolidation play to bulk up capabilities fast. Summit’s existing global data center list is long, but HorizonIQ plugs specific gaps and adds a dedicated automation layer for bare-metal and private cloud that Summit presumably didn’t have at this scale. Andre Wu, Summit’s CEO, called it pairing “high-touch service” with “innovative automation expertise.” That’s corporate-speak for “we had the sales and support, but we needed more sophisticated self-service and orchestration tools.” HorizonIQ’s focus, as its president Ali Marashi said, was on taking complexity out of dedicated infrastructure. Basically, Summit bought a pre-built, modern automation engine and a team that knows how to run it.
HorizonIQ’s turbulent backstory
Here’s the thing that makes this more interesting: HorizonIQ isn’t a fresh startup. It’s a phoenix from the ashes of INAP, a data center firm that went through not one, but two bankruptcies. After the second one around 2023, what remained rebranded to HorizonIQ and pivoted hard from traditional colocation to bare-metal and hosted services. A lot of INAP’s actual facilities were sold off to another company, Evocative. HorizonIQ ended up leasing space back in many of those same sites, plus others. So Summit isn’t buying physical assets; it’s acquiring a software platform, a customer base, and those crucial leased footprints in places like Singapore, Texas, and Arizona. For HorizonIQ, being acquired by a stable, PE-backed player like Summit is probably the best possible exit after a rocky few years.
The private cloud angle
The specific tech mention—HorizonIQ’s Proxmox platform—is a key detail. Proxmox is open-source server virtualization management software, and it’s a popular, cost-effective alternative to giants like VMware. By integrating this, Summit can offer a more compelling and potentially cheaper private cloud solution. This is a smart hedge. While everyone talks about public cloud, there’s a massive, sustained demand for private, dedicated infrastructure, especially for performance-sensitive or compliance-heavy workloads. This acquisition lets Summit compete more directly in that “cloud adjacent” or hybrid cloud space. They can now offer a full stack: from colocation in their own or leased facilities, to bare-metal servers, to a fully managed private cloud layer on top, all with the automation HorizonIQ built. That’s a sticky bundle for enterprise customers.
Consolidation is the name of the game
This deal feels like a sign of the times in the mid-market infrastructure world. You can’t just be a colo provider anymore. You need to be a multi-cloud, hybrid-infrastructure, managed-everything partner. To build that in-house takes years. To buy it? That’s faster. With the backing of Silver Oak, Summit is clearly in “build or buy” mode, and this acquisition of HorizonIQ checks a lot of boxes quickly: geography, technology, and talent. The challenge now is the integration. Merging platforms, billing systems, and cultures is where these deals often stumble. If they can pull it off smoothly, Summit positions itself as a much stronger, one-stop shop for companies that want infrastructure that’s robust but doesn’t require building an army of engineers to manage it. It’s a solid move in a competitive market.
