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Liebert Raises Prices on UPS Batteries

Citing higher costs of lead, Liebert last week announced a price increase for UPS batteries and battery cabinets. The increase, which averages 7 percent and takes effect Jan. 8, affects Emerson’s Liebert brand of three-phase and Nfinity single-phase UPS models.

"Lead costs are rising at a rapid rate," said Scott Dysert, president of Liebert North America. "We are proactively collaborating with our suppliers to implement various productivity and cost improvements in an effort minimize the impact of the rising costs on our customers. We will continue to identify and evaluate other areas for cost containment."

Posted by Rich Miller December 28, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

December 26, 2006

5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

Isabel Wang has tagged me, and so it's my turn to belatedly add to the "5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me" meme that's making its way through the blogosphere. So here are 5 things most of you probably don't know about me:

1. I've written about many topics besides data centers. I started out in the newspaper business on the sports desk, and have had full-time jobs writing about business, features, religion and technology, with extended stints specializing in commodities fraud, women's tennis, Y2K, race relations, and the regulation of alternative medicine. Since my writing career moved online in 2000 I've written extensively about web hosting, Internet security (especially phishing), SSL security, domain names and video games in addition to data centers.

2. When I was younger and thinner I ran 26.2 miles (twice), played volleyball for 25 straight hours, completed a three-day dance marathon, and once dove off a 45-foot cliff. Truth be told, it was more like "falling and yelling" than actual diving.

3. My wife Colleen is also a web professional. She manages web site content for The Pew Charitable Trusts, a major foundation based in Philadelphia. She was the original computer enthusiast in our family, but now has to call "geek time outs" when her husband and two sons detour into tech talk on family outings.

4. I'm a lay speaker in the United Methodist Church, and assist with the youth ministry at our local congregation.

5. Current non-work goal: To defeat my older son in Wii Baseball. I like the Wii because I can compete on the same level with my sons, both of whom are major gamers. I tried playing Halo with them a few times, but can't match their speed using the traditional game controller. My gamer tag may as well have been TargetPractice.

So who's left to tag? I'll tag data center bloggers John Rath and Pete Sacco as well as Ed Felten, Bret Fausett and Steven Davis.

Posted by Rich Miller December 26, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

Savvis Will Build 4 New Data Centers

Savvis (SVVS) today announced plans to develop four new data centers to help meet customer demand for its managed hosting and colocation services. The new facilities will be located in Atlanta, New York, Washington, DC and Santa Clara, Calif., and should be open to customers in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The announcement comes on the same day that Savvis announced the sale of its content distribution network to Level 3 for $135 million, which provides Savvis with a financial warchest to invest in new data centers. Savvis said it anticipates spending approximately $200 million in 2007 to fully develop the four centers, and said it has executed lease agreements for each of the sites, one of which is contingent upon certain conditions expected to be met in January 2007.

"SAVVIS is focused on delivering IT infrastructure as a service and we’re committed to being a leader in this space," said Phil Koen, SAVVIS' Chief Executive Officer. "Our new data center facilities, opening in the fourth quarter 2007, will provide customers with state-of-the-art managed hosting and colocation services, including our industry-leading virtualized utility services.”

Posted by Rich Miller December 26, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

Level 3 Acquires Savvis CDN Network

Level 3 Communications, Inc. (LVLT) will acquire the content delivery network (CDN) services business of Savvis, Inc. (SVVS) for $135 million, the two companies announced today. The deal includes network assets, customer contracts, and intellectual property used in Savvis' CDN business.

The move makes Level 3 a more serious player in the content distribution business. Level 3's ambitions in this space have been widely discussed in the past week after the Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street column (subscription) examined how the growth of Internet video has lifted Level 3' shares and bonds. Longtime Level 3 watcher Om Malik was still skeptical about whether online video can transform Level 3 and other Bubble 1.0 survivors into Web 2.0 winners. Andrew Schmitt at Nyquist Capital noted that a CDN provider like Akamai and a bandwidth carrier like Level 3 couldn't both benefit equally from Internet video. With today's announcement of the Savvis deal, Level 3 now owns an established content distribution network and can offer an intergrated solution including both bandwidth and distributed content caching.

The Savvis CDN services business was initially developed by Sandpiper Networks, and subsequently owned by Digital Island and Cable & Wireless before Savvis acquired it. The business is based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. with 50 employees and over 100 customers, and has infrastructure in more than 20 countries.

"The acquisition of Savvis's CDN services business will enable Level 3 to better address the increasing opportunity presented by rich media applications such as video, Web 2.0 applications, multiplayer online gaming and software as a service over the Internet," said Kevin O'Hara, president and chief operating officer of Level 3. "We are looking forward to welcoming the pioneers of CDN to our team."

Posted by Rich Miller December 26, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

December 21, 2006

Wall Street Journal Covers Power Crisis

The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the data center power challenge, focusing on chip-level energy issues and the recent industry meeting with federal officials hosted by AMD. The story, Unclogging The Data Center Power Drain (Subscription needed), doesn't beak new ground but provides a broad overview of the issues behind soaring energy usage in data centers and the growing efforts for major tech companies to focus on a collective response. Most of the color is derived from the "strange bedfellows" angle. An excerpt:

Archrivals Intel Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. don't agree on many things. But on one subject, officials from the two chip makers are in accord: the need to rein in the soaring power appetite of computer data centers that rely on their technology. That executives from the two companies were willing to gather in the same room to discuss the problem -- in the offices of AMD, much less -- was a tribute to an unlikely new player on the Silicon Valley scene: the federal government. ... Other rivals at the meeting included officials from software powerhouses Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp., and hardware titans Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. "Like going into a Klingon ship," is how William Swope, a veteran Intel manager, later described the experience of entering the AMD camp.

Since I can't resist the temptation to embrace and extend a geeky TV analogy, I'll note that while the Klingons were the villains in the original Star Trek, they were collaborative members of the Federation in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Posted by Rich Miller December 21, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

December 20, 2006

APC Offers $150,000 'Thermal Guarantee'

American Power Conversion (APCC) this week said it will provide up to $150,000 to repair or replace equipment in certified APC installations that are damaged by a "thermal event," an increasing risk given the growing numbers of high density data center environments.

"There are many confusing and conflicting claims about the right approach to data center power and cooling, and this latest certification continues our history of providing not only innovative technology, but also maximum clarity and peace of mind to our customers," said Aaron L. Davis, chief marketing officer at APC. "With APC’s new Thermal Guarantee, customers can rest assured that their hardware is protected by APC if damage results from a thermal event.”

Posted by Rich Miller December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

New Construction Seen for UK Market

There's a building boom coming in England, as half of UK data center operators aim to build new facilities during 2007, according to research conducted at DatacenterDynamics London 2006 on Nov. 28-29. The 128 owner/operators surveyed operate 420 facilities of over 100 racks capacity, an estimated one-quarter of all such facilities in the United Kingdom. These providers spent an estimated $5.9 billion in 2006 on improving and increasing their datacenter facilities. Just under one in four built new facilities in 2006, but half expect to do so in 2007. The number of respondents who refitted or expanded their capacity within existing facilities was 50 percent in 2006, and likely to remain at that level in 2007.

Similar growth is projected by a survey of 122 vendors, whose 2006 revenue from the data center sector is estimated at $3.14 billion and is projected to rise at least 25% into the 2007 calendar year to just over $4.13 billion.

Posted by Rich Miller December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

111 Eighth Avenue Expands Meet-Me-Room

NYC Connect the official meet-me-room at the 111 Eighth Avenue carrier hotel in New York, will expand its data center by 8,000 square feet. The expansion will provide additional space for telco carriers and enterprises to connect to other networks in the building, which is one of the leading telecom hubs in Manhattan. The additional space will allow NYCC to offer both standard colocation cabinets and custom cages to house customer equipment.

"We are committed to investing in the expansion of our facility to further benefit our customers," said Tesh Durvasula, chief operating office of NYCC, who said the expansion "marks a major achievement in the development of NYCC. We are thankful to our customers, who continue to be the fuel behind our growth and we are pleased to offer them even more opportunities to grow their businesses."

Posted by Rich Miller December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

Savvis Upgrades Network With Cisco Gear

Savvis Communications will invest $33 million on Cisco routers for a new IP network to connect its 25 data centers, replacing two older networks running Nortel and Juniper Savvis' routers. Company officials told Network World they picked Cisco because its network architecture will enable Savvis to expand further into virtualization and utility computing.

"Wherever we have a data center, we want a fully managed network .. . with the ability to deliver VPN service, IP transit services and the application-deployment footprint," Savvis CTO Bryan Doerr said.

Posted by Rich Miller December 20, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

December 19, 2006

Akamai to Power Playstation Network

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM), said today that its Akamai Japan subsidiary will be content delivery platform for the PlayStation Network, the online service for Sony's PlayStation 3 game console. The agreement extend's Akamai's presence in the gaming market, where its worldwide network of more than 20,000 servers has served up downloadable PC software for game makers.

The PlayStation Network is a free online service allowing PlayStation 3 users to play online games and compete against players across the Internet. Online gaming is an important battleground in the gaming indutry's "console wars," as Microsoft's Xbox Live and Nintendo's new Wii offer similar capabiltiies. The PlayStation Network's features will include video chat, messaging, matchmaking, ranking, and game data upload and download. PS3 owners will also be able to purchase content via a download service similar to the XBox Live marketplace.

"We are very excited about working with Sony Computer Entertainment on enabling PS3 users to obtain games, media, and other content via the Internet in their homes," said Paul Sagan, President and CEO of Akamai.

Posted by Rich Miller December 19, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

Top 10 Data Center Stories of 2006

December 28, 2006

Liebert Raises Prices on UPS Batteries

December 26, 2006

5 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me

Savvis Will Build 4 New Data Centers

Level 3 Acquires Savvis CDN Network

December 21, 2006

Wall Street Journal Covers Power Crisis

December 20, 2006

APC Offers $150,000 'Thermal Guarantee'

New Construction Seen for UK Market

111 Eighth Avenue Expands Meet-Me-Room

Savvis Upgrades Network With Cisco Gear

December 19, 2006

Akamai to Power Playstation Network

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