New York has become one of the country's biggest tech hubs. Some of these companies were founded here; others have built huge offices here. For each one, here's what they do, where they are, and one IT lesson a small business can take from them.
1. Google
Google has several large Manhattan offices, including St. John's Terminal at 550 Washington Street in Hudson Square, a former freight rail terminal it opened as an office in 2024.
The takeaway: old buildings make great offices and difficult networks. Thick walls, odd layouts and limited cable paths mean cabling and Wi-Fi need to be planned before move-in, not after. Our office move IT checklist covers the timeline.
2. Meta
Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has offices in the Farley Building, the former main post office across from Penn Station.
The takeaway: landmark and older buildings often come with landlord rules about where cable can run and when work can happen. Ask for those rules early, and make sure your cabling contractor works nights and weekends.
3. Amazon
Amazon leased about 335,000 square feet at 410 Tenth Avenue near Hudson Yards in 2019. Its Amazon Web Services cloud runs a large share of the software businesses use every day.
The takeaway: moving to the cloud makes your internet connection more important, not less. If one internet line goes down and everything you use is in the cloud, work stops. A second line with SD-WAN keeps the office online.
4. Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P., known for the Bloomberg Terminal used across finance, has its global headquarters at 731 Lexington Avenue, with a lease extended through 2040.
The takeaway: finance-grade reliability comes from boring habits: monitoring, tested backups and replacing equipment before it fails. Those habits scale down to a ten-person office through managed IT.
5. Datadog
Datadog, founded in 2010, makes a cloud platform that monitors applications and infrastructure for problems and security issues. It's headquartered in the New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue.
The takeaway: you can't fix what nobody is watching. Your firewall, switches and backups should send alerts to someone who reads them.
6. MongoDB
MongoDB makes one of the most widely used databases for modern applications and is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan.
The takeaway: your business data lives in more places than you think: laptops, Microsoft 365, accounting software, a file server. Know where it all is and make sure each place is backed up.
7. Spotify
The music-streaming company moved its U.S. headquarters to 4 World Trade Center.
The takeaway: streaming and video calls are now normal office traffic. If calls freeze in the conference room, the problem is usually inside the office, not the internet plan. Our guide to slow office Wi-Fi explains why.
8. Etsy
Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, was founded in Brooklyn in 2005 and is headquartered in DUMBO.
The takeaway: growing teams outgrow consumer routers fast. A business-grade firewall such as FortiGate or Cisco Meraki is cheaper to put in early than to retrofit later.
9. Squarespace
Squarespace, the website builder, is headquartered in Manhattan. Private equity firm Permira agreed to take it private in a $6.6 billion deal in 2024.
The takeaway: your website and domain are part of your IT. Know who controls the domain registrar and DNS logins, because losing them can take down your email as well as your website.
What this means for a small office
You don't need a Hudson Yards budget to run IT like these companies. Plan the network before you move, keep a second internet line, monitor what matters, back up everything, and know who holds the keys. If you'd like a second opinion on your setup, talk to an engineer.
Sources
- Google: Welcome to St. John's Terminal, our new home in New York City
- Commercial Observer: Meta's Manhattan campus
- Commercial Observer: Amazon signs for 335K SF at 410 Tenth
- Alexander's: Bloomberg L.P. global headquarters lease extended
- Datadog (Wikipedia)
- Built In NYC: MongoDB offices
- NY1: Spotify to move U.S. headquarters to 4 WTC
- NYREJ: Etsy headquarters in DUMBO
- TechCrunch: Permira is taking Squarespace private
Company details come from the sources above. Offices and headcounts change; check with each company for current information.
