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Rackable Selling Portable Data Center
Rackable Systems, Inc. (RACK) this week announced the first sale of its new Concentro portable data center product to "one of the world's leading Internet companies." Concentro is a data center housed in a 40-foot by 8-foot shipping container, and can support high-density installations of up to 9,600 processing cores. Rackable, which specializes in high-density rackmount servers, is positioning Concerto as a solution for enterprises who need to expand their data centers, add disaster recovery, or "completely replace new brick-and-mortar data center construction." The new product from Rackable will mean competition for Sun's Project Blackbox in the market for portable data centers.
"The need to reduce energy consumption and rethink space requirements is changing the look and feel of IT environments," said Giovanni Coglitore, founder and chief technology officer of Rackable Systems. "We applied Rackable Systems' proven experience in cabinet, server and power infrastructure to directly address the needs of space-constrained data centers. Concentro is the perfect building block for the energy efficient, eco-friendly data center of the future."
See additional coverage from Nicholas Carr and the Register's Ashlee Vance.
March 29, 2007
Digital Realty Buys No. Virginia Centers
Northern Virginia continues to be a red-hot market for Internet data centers, with Digital Realty Trust announcing a major deal Thursday, just days after Equinix unveiled expansion plans in the area. Digital Realty (DLR) said Thursday that it has acquired three properties in Ashburn, Va. for $62.5 million. The deal includes 43881, 43831 and 43791 Devin Shafron Drive, three single-story buildings spanning 432,000 square feet that were previously known as the Loudoun Exchange. About 40 percent of the space is leased, with tenants including Amazon.com and a major aeronautics company. The remaining 265,000 square feet will be held for redevelopment.
Last month Digital Realty bought 44470 Chillum Place, a 95,400 square feet fully-leased data center in Ashburn, Va. previously owned by DuPont Fabros, the Washington, D.C.-based investment firm that own multiple data centers. The Loudoun Exchange properties were developed by Genisus. The deals give Digital Realty 10 buildings totaling approximately 770,000 square feet in northern Virginia.
"(Northern Virginia) is one of the top markets for data center space in the country with strong demand coming from government, Internet enterprise, system integrators and other corporate customers," said Michael Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust, said in a press release.
Posted by Rich Miller 
March 29, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
Traffic Exchange Surges at One Wilshire
Internet traffic on the Any2 Exchange at the One Wilshire Building in downtown Los Angeles grew more than 300 percent during the past quarter, according to building owner CRG West. The rapidly growing Internet exchange at the LA carrier hotel now includes 80 networks, and recently began offering high-capacity 10 gigabit Ethernet connections between networks. Peering providers and Internet traffic exchanges like Any2 have seen demand for 10Gig connections increase along with the growth of Internet video and gaming traffic.
"Our Any2 Exchange community is demanding much higher capacity, more Internet peering options, and a roadmap for future growth," said John Savageau, Managing Director at CRG West. "We needed to provide 10 Gigabit Ethernet access ports, the ability to upgrade at some point to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, and ensure the Any2 Exchange community could continue growing to accommodate over 300 networks present at both One Wilshire and Market Post Tower in San Jose, California."
CRG West, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, operates facilities including One Wilshire, Market Post Tower, 1275 K Street NW in Washington D.C., 427 S. LaSalle in Chicago, and the Miami Exchange.
Posted by Rich Miller March 29, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
Equinix Expands (Again) in Washington
Data center service provider Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) will build a new 85,000 square foot data center on its Ashburn, Va. campus to meet continued customer demand in the Washington, D.C. area, the company said this week. The $70 million facility will add approximately 1,650 high-power density cabinets, and is expected to open to customers in the first quarter of 2008.
The expansion by Equinix is a sign of the strength of the northern Virginia market, where the company already has four data centers totaling 386,000 square feet of data center space, including a brand new facility that just opened in January.
"The continued demand we have experienced in the Washington, D.C. area necessitates that we begin construction on our next IBX to ensure smooth customer growth," said Peter Van Camp, CEO of Equinix. "Today’s announcement is a continuation of our ongoing expansion program, which includes the opening of four new centers in 2007, and will enable us to grow our market leadership position."
Posted by Rich Miller March 29, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
Startup FastScale Raises $6.5M
FastScale, a Sunnyvale, Calif. startup promising "breakthrough innovations for scalable web farms and data centers," has raised $6.5 million in first-round venture capital funding from ATA, Leapfrog and Hunt Ventures, according to VentureBeat. FastScale is currently in stealth mode, but says it will launch its first data center management product, called FastScale Composer, on April 16. Here's the company's description of itself:
FastScale is all about providing benefits of general purpose computing with the efficiencies of purpose built environments. Our patent-pending innovations will enable today’s software environments to be deployed and managed with a level of simplicity, scalability, flexibility and security that have the potential to change the software industry as we know it.FastScale is advertising jobs for software engineers, database application engineers, QA engineers and a marketing communications manager.
Posted by Rich Miller March 29, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
March 28, 2007
Belady: Metrics Key to 'Crisis' Response
Christian Belady is an optimist, even about tough computing challenges like the huge increases in power and cooling in high-density "hot spots" in data centers.
"It’s not a crisis, it’s an opportunity," said Belady, a Distinguished Technologist at HP and the keynote speaker Tuesday at AFCOM’s Data Center World conference in Las Vegas. "Are we ready to jump on this problem and tackle it with the right resources? People talk about this as a crossroads for the data center, and that’s what it is."
To properly tackle the power and heat challenges, data center managers must first equip themselves with the right tools. Belady believes new metrics and standards will be the key weapons in the effort to gain control of data center management, and that the operating environment will continue to be challenging.
"The real driver behind this is the fact that the cost of computation is going down," said Belady. "The problem is going to get worse. As the price goes down, demand goes up. I think what you’re going to see is the commoditization of the data center. Standardization will create a plug-n-play environment."
Posted by Rich Miller March 28, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
This week’s theme is Data Center Knowledge on the road. Monday afternoon I took part in a panel at the O’Reilly Radar Executive Briefing as part of the ETech conference in San Diego. The theme was "Investing in Data Center Construction," prompted by a blog post by Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed and our response here at DCK. Tim O’Reilly served as moderator, putting questions to Paul and I on the growth of the data center sector and areas where innovation is providing some opportunities for investors (see photos of the session on Flickr). A lot of the discussion focused on data center power, an issue that came up in several other panels as well. It was a really interesting day, with an extraordinary amount of intellectual bandwidth in the room.
Our focus now shifts to AFCOM’s Data Center World conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The next couple days will be jammed with presentations on ongoing challenges and new technologies to address them. Stay tuned for updates.
Posted by Rich Miller March 28, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
March 24, 2007
Terremark Stock Sale May Raise $82M
Data center services firm Terremark Worldwide (TWW) will sell an additional 11 million shares of its common stock at $8 a share, the Miami-based company said Friday. Terremark said it expects net proceeds from this offering to be about $82.6 million after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions. The offering is expected to close Wednesday, March 28, with Credit Suisse Securities (USA) managing the offering. Terremark shares closed down 55 cents Friday to $7.80, down from a 52-week high of $9.15 on Feb. 21.
Last month Terremark filed a shelf registration with the SEC saying it may periodically sell up to $100 million in debt securities, common and preferred stock and warrants. Under a shelf registration, a company may sell securities in one or more separate offerings with the size, price and terms to be determined at the time of sale. Terremark said the proceeds would be used for general corporate purposes, which may include debt repayment, working capital, capital spending, acquisitions, joint ventures and stock repurchase programs.
Terremark is in the midst of a significant expansion in which it will build multi-facility data center campuses in Culpeper County, Virginia and an unnannounced site in Silicon Valley.
Posted by Rich Miller March 24, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
Smaller Towns Seeking Data Centers
Fitchburg, Wisconsin and Lowell, Wyoming may not strike you as typical candidates for data center projects. But officials in both towns this week advanced plans for technology parks include data center facilities designed to attract technology jobs. The projects suggest that interest in the economic value of data center development is extending well beyond traditional technology corridors.
Plans for a 51,000 square foor data center in Fitchburg, Wisconsin are poised to move ahead after gaining support of the Fitchburg Plan Commission this week. The data center will be developed by Team Technologies of Cedar Falls, Iowa, and is one component of a planned technology campus. Berbee Information Networks would serve as the anchor tenant in the data center and an adjacent 43,250 square foot office property.
Berbee, a Madison-based technology services company, will lease about 50 percent of the office building, according to local media reports. Last year, Berbee was acquired by the Vernon Hills, Illinois-based CDW Corp., a Fortune 500 company that would like to help Berbee grow into a $1 billion company. Berbee already has two data centers - one in Madison and one in Minneapolis. The company reports more than $300 million in annual revenue and employs more than 700 people in 11 Midwestern cities.
Posted by Rich Miller March 24, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
March 23, 2007
Telx Buys 111 Eighth Meet-Me-Room
Telx has acquired the meet-me-room business of NYC Connect at 111 Eighth Avenue, one of New York's premier carrier hotel facilities, the companies said yesterday. The deal expands the national network of meet-me-rooms for Telx, which already operates an interconnection facility at 60 Hudson Street, Manhattan's other leading carrier hotel property. Last November Telx was acquired by GI Partners, and then signed agreements to lease and exclusively manage the Meet-Me-Rooms of 10 Digital Realty Trust facilities in the U.S. in addition to facilities Telx owns at 60 Hudson and the 56 Marietta carrier hotel in Atlanta.
"Defining the standard for Meet-Me-Room operations has been a longstanding mission of Telx, so owning the Meet Me Room in a premier facility like 111 Eighth Avenue in a market with one of the strongest demands for interconnection services in the world is very positive for us," said Telx CEO Eric Shepcaro, an industry veteran with experience at AT&T, Digital Island and Sprint who on Feb. 27 was appointed to lead Telx.
Posted by Rich Miller March 23, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
March 22, 2007
Digital Realty Buys Lease at 111 Eighth
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) continues to expand its footprint in Manhattan's premier carrier hotels, announcing tonight that it has acquired data center space at 111 Eighth Avenue. Digital Realty said it paid $24.5 million to buy a 33,700 square feet lease from NYC Connect, including two suites located on the third and seventh floors of the building that are 94 percent leased.
"The acquisition of the NYC Connect data centers represents an opportunity for us to expand our presence to over 120,000 square feet of mission critical datacenter space in 111 8th Avenue, a premier hub for Internet connectivity for the northeastern U.S. and one of the premier Internet gateway and corporate datacenter facilities in the world," commented Michael Foust, CEO of Digital Realty Trust. In October Digital Realty bought AboveNet's data center at 111 Eighth as part of a larger facilities deal with AboveNet.
Note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect references to the 111 Eighth Meet-Me-Room business, which was separately acquired by Telx.
Posted by Rich Miller March 22, 2007 | Permalink | Newsletter
MORE STORIES FROM THIS MONTH:
- Rackable Selling Portable Data Center
- Digital Realty Buys No. Virginia Centers
- Traffic Exchange Surges at One Wilshire
- Equinix Expands (Again) in Washington
- Startup FastScale Raises $6.5M
- Belady: Metrics Key to 'Crisis' Response
- At ETech, Data Center World
- Terremark Stock Sale May Raise $82M
- Smaller Towns Seeking Data Centers
- Telx Buys 111 Eighth Meet-Me-Room
- Digital Realty Buys Lease at 111 Eighth
- NBC-Fox: More Video In The Pipes
- ViaWest Reports Stronger Colo Demand
- HP to Save $8 Million With Smart Cooling
- Google DCs: 'Impossible to Duplicate?'
- Liquid Cooling Adoption Picks Up
- HP Veteran Smith is New Equinix CEO
- Union Datacom Launches Colo Center
- Low Oxygen Fire Systems Debated
- Huge Antennas at Terremark Va. Site
- New Data Center Blogs
- Cook: Internet2-NLR Merger Critical
- Server Consolidation Gone Wrong
- Generator Test Saves Power, Money
- The Economic Impact of A Data Center
- Did Terrorists Target UK Data Center?
- Google Servers circa 1999
- Alpheus Acquires Aspen Data Centers
- March Madness Boosts Akamai
- Criticon Plans Virginia Data Center
- Uptime Institute Targets Energy Savings
- Microsoft Readies Quincy Data Center
- APC Daylight Savings Time Issues?