Mike Manos, one of the data center industry’s most familiar names, has joined AOL as the internet company’s new senior VP of technology operations. Manos recently left Nokia, where he served as VP of service operations since January of last year.

In a blog post, Manos wrote that although many of the people who know him may be surprised by the move – in light of his experience building some of the world’s largest cloud infrastructures – AOL was aggressively trying to redefine itself in the industry.

"There is no arguing that the first true scale challenges in dealing with the internet at large were experienced by those first ‘AOLers’ as they had to deal with numbers of users never before seen in our industry," he wrote.

"They pushed the boundaries of technology;they pushed the boundary of operations;they created whole new paradigms. To reinvent itself in a market with such competition, such diversity is a huge challenge."

Manos said there was a technology start-up feel to AOL’s offices. One of the people he ran into while walking around the company called it a "start-around."

"A combination of a start-up and a turn-around. Perhaps that’s the best description I have to describe that vibe," he wrote. "It’s all the self-sacrifice and personal investment you find in a start-up, but with a team of seasoned veterans."

At AOL, Manos will be based in the company’s Dulles, Virginia, office and work on advancing the company’s operations and data center technologies. He will report to AOL CTO Alex Gounares.

Prior to joining Nokia, Manos was senior VP of technical services at one of the world’s largest data center developers and wholesale colocation providers Digital Realty Trust. Before Digital, he made his mark at Microsoft, where as senior director of data center services he oversaw development of the company’s all-container data center in Chicago.