(This is part of a series of stories highlighting MSP 501 companies).

IFX has a few areas of focus that make it, in CEO Samuel Mezrahi’s words, “Not a conventional MSP.”

The most obvious factor that makes IFX – No. 15 on the 2026 MSP 501 list – unconventional among major MSPs is the territory where it does business. While the MSP 501 is an international list, most of the 501 companies outside the U.S. are in English-speaking countries – mainly Canada, the U.K. and Australia. IFX does most of its business in Latin America. Although its official headquarters is Hallandale, FL, Mezrahi operates out of Panama.

IFX last week said it would invest more than $400 million this year and next to expand data centers for AI applications, strengthen its regional fiber-optic network and expand cloud and cybersecurity operations across Latin America.

“One of the most important things for us in Latin America is bringing innovation,” Mezrahi said. “Latin America has a lack of technology, and we specialize in bringing in new things that are happening in the U.S. or Europe to Latin America. That's one of our priorities. When we do that, and we're among the first to bring in that innovation, we give companies a bigger chance to become more productive. Our responsibility is to bring in that technology and show what it can do. We focus a lot on that — not just being a normal MSP.”

Another unconventional aspect of IFX is its focus on data centers and fiber. The MSP owns 27 data centers in the 18 countries where it operates.

“Because we're not a conventional MSP, we also have a lot of infrastructure,” Mezrahi said. “We have fiber, we have data centers, we have our own private cloud. When you have infrastructure, technically you're not an MSP — but we are. We function as an MSP because, even though we have infrastructure, we focus on giving a one-stop-shop solution: not just services, but professional services, sizing out what the customer needs, and making sure that if they want to grow, they can grow quickly with us. So we function like an MSP on that side, and it also makes our infrastructure more profitable.”

Samuel Mezrahi

Mezrahi didn’t always consider IFX an MSP. He actually started the company as an ISP in 1999, a few years out of college. It wasn’t until he attended an MSP vendor’s conference in Boston 10 years ago that he realized that IFX fit the description.

“I didn't even know what an MSP was at the time,” he said. “One of our investment bankers told me I had to go listen to this. I traveled to Boston. I studied at Boston University, so I figured I'd go. As different MSPs spoke about their experiences, I kept thinking, ‘Hey, we do that.’”

Now IFX operates more than 93,000 miles of dedicated fiber-optic network, with its own network management and cybersecurity centers operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. IFX claims more than 6,000 corporate and government customers with a workforce of 3,000 employees. Its purpose is to provide the digital infrastructure for Latin America's leading industries.

“I think we're probably one of the only companies with geographic coverage across so many countries, combined with the full technology stack: cloud, network, security, data centers,” Mezrahi said. “I don't think you'll find another company in Latin America that does B2B across everything we do. We specialize so deeply with each client that our goal is for them to have everything with us, the whole package, so they don't have telecom or IT headaches. Every time we go into a company and explain what we do, they say, ‘We want that.’”

One of IFX’s new offerings is Private AI, a secure space for customers to store data. It provides clients with a managed enterprise solution to run AI models within a secure, isolated corporate infrastructure, including GPUs.

“Companies in Latin America lack both knowledge and security around AI,” Mezrahi said. “We sell them the GPUs they need and let them develop their AI solutions without risking their data or their know-how. We're rolling this out fully this year. We piloted it with a group of companies, and everyone's been very happy with it. We're not going deep into building and deploying AI itself. But we understand the technology well enough to set up a secure AI environment for private companies.”