CyrusOne, the Cincinnati Bell-owned colocation services company with data centers in US and Europe, has appointed Kevin Timmons, who until recently was in charge of Microsoft's data centers, to be its new CTO.

CyrusOne president Gary Wojtaszek, said Timmons will help inform the company's decisions in a period of growth.

"As we build out our facilities and launch new projects like our recent Phoenix acquisition, Kevin will provide the insight necessary to ensure CyrusOne incorporates the latest data center design technologies in the next phase of our development plans," Wojtaszek said.

CyrusOne's project in Phoenix involves construction of a campus that at full build out will provide 1m sq ft of data center floor, served by more than 110MW of power. The company announced the plan and acquisition of a 40-acre property in the Phoenix market in August.

Timmons has a wealth of experience in running some of the world's largest corporate data center infrastructures. Before his nearly-two-year stint as general manager of data center services at Microsoft, he served as VP of operations at Yahoo! and before that, as director of operations at GeoCities.

Microsoft announced Timmons'resignation in April.

Commenting on his appointment as CTO at CyrusOne, Timmons said his new company was a "hidden secret in the data center industry. After spending a considerable amount of time understanding the company's strategy and customer-centric focus, I believe that we have a tremendous opportunity for growth and disruption of the data center landscape."

CyrusOne has been growing quickly since Cincinnati Bell bought it in June 2010. In March of this year, the company opened a data center in London, becoming an international player for the first time after having operated exclusively in the US.

The company's next phase of international expansion includes an entry into Asia with a data center in Singapore.