Search Engine Hakia Opens Data Center

Google isn’t the only search engine opening data centers. Hakia recently announced that it has completed work on two data centers, one at 165 Halsey Street in Newark, N.J. and a second data center in Atlanta, Georgia. The announcemnts don’t provide details on the size of either facility.

New York-based Hakia was founded in 2004, and is one of a number of companies developing semantic approaches to search. Hakia says it has developed a “meaning-based search engine,” utilizing a new infrastructure designed to deliver the most relevant search results.

So is Hakia relevant? Certainly not if you’re searching for information on data centers, where a Hakia search gives the number two ranking to a five-year story from the Washington Post about data center market trends in Northern Virginia. Sorry, but if you’re looking for current trends in data centers, you may want more relevant info than analyses from 2002.

Hosted Solutions Upgrades Boston Sites

Hosted Solutions says it has invested $1 million in infrastructure upgrades for a Charlestown, Mass. facility it bought with its acquisition of Boston Datacenters last October. Upgrades include a redesign of the interior layout to promote better cooling, an improved data backup system, and additional UPS power support.

“The Charlestown facility has been a staple of the Boston Internet community for nearly seven years, and we are eager to keep our facility on the leading edge of technology and innovation,” said Gary McAuliffe, Vice President and General Manager of the Boston facility.

Hosted Solutions said it intends to spend another $1.5 million on the facility in upgrades over the next 12 months. Additional projects include a new power infrastructure suite, a redesigned network operations center, an upgraded security system, and the addition of a Storage Area Network (SAN).

Microsoft’s Manos: “More To Come”

Microsoft’s Channel 10 has a video interview with Michael Manos, the senior director of Data Center Services at Microsoft, who discusses the growth of the company’s data center infrastructure. “These are massive facilities, on a scale the industry hasn’t seen,” Manos says in the 5-minute video, adding that Microsoft has data centers around the globe but “we don’t typically go into how many and where.” Manos talks about energy efficiency and the projects in Quincy, Wash. and San Antonio.

Manos also talks briefly about Microsoft’s data center site selection process, which uses 31 different variables (including land prices, power capacity and cost, etc.) and combines them to create a “heat map” of favorable data center locations around the world. He doesn’t mention specific sites or comment on reports of plans for a Microsoft data center in Dublin, Ireland. “But I can tell you there’s more to come,” Manos concludes. See the full interview on Channel 10.

Huge Spec Data Center Planned in Chicago

Property management company Koman Group and IT facilities specialist Ascent Corp. are teaming on a joint venture to build a 441,000 square foot data center in North Lake, Illinois (Chicago market). The $175 million project at 601 Northwest Ave. is being built on a speculative basis for one to eight tenants, according to Globe Street, a real estate trade publication.

Construction is expected to commence this summer and be completed in early 2008. The facility is being planned for 40 megawatts of power, with the capability to expand to 60 megawatts, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, which is the leasing agent for the project. The developers say they will have a dedicated substation on the 12-acre property, with power available at 5 cents per kilowatt hour. The facility will be two stories, with 21-foot ceilings.

In announcing the enormous project, the developers cite “a lack of quality data centers in the market today.” While that reflects the consensus view in the industry, comments in the Globe Street article will probably raise an eyebrow or two.

Data Center Jobs: New URL

We have a new address and back-end for the Data Center Job Board. The new URL is http://jobs.datacenterknowledge.com, and we’re now working with Simply Hired to provide supplemental listings. Current job listings include openings for data center architects at IBM, a data center manager for Oppenheimer Funds, and a data center technician at Citigroup. If you’re looking for a position in the industry, you’ll want to bookmark the URL. If your company is hiring data center staff, please let your HR department know about the Data Center Job Board, which provides a targeted audience at a lower price than the mega-job boards. Positions posted through our site will also be listed on other sites using the Simply Hired network.

365 Main Commits to LEED Data Centers

Data center developer 365 Main Inc. has made a commitment to full compliance with the LEED “green building” certification system from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a non-profit organization of leaders from every sector of the building industry.

365 Main said its new data center in Newark, Calif. will be LEED-certified. Design and construction has already begun on the 136,410-square-foot facility, which will open in the fourth quarter of this year 2007.

Only a handful of data centers have been certified under the LEED standard, including the Highmark Data Center in Pennsylvania and the FNMA Technology Center in Urbana, Md. The Los Angeles County Data Center is expected to achieve LEED certification when it is completed later this year, according to local officials.

Welsh Carson Reduces Savvis Stake

The largest shareholder in Savvis Communications (SVVS) has reduced its stake in the company, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe VIII L.P. has a 36.1 percent stake in Savvis as of May 23, down from a 46.6 percent position back on Feb 21, according to an earlier filing.

Why is this notable? There have been rumors floating around that Savvis might be a buyout candidate, perhaps for a large telco looking for traction in utility hosting. But if Savvis was really for sale, would a private equity firm be lowering its stake? It seems more likely that there’s no deal cooking, and with Savvis shares near their high, it’s a good opportunity to take some profits.

Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS) has organized 14 funds, invested in 135 companies and financed more than 650 follow-on acquisitions. Some of its previous investments include in the sector include Amdocs Limited and and SunGard Data Systems, Inc.

MarquisNet Opens New Data Center

Las Vegas-based colocation provider MarquisNet has opened a 23,000 square foot data center in Riverside, Calif. The company says the new facility is a Tier 4 data center on the Uptime Institute scale, the most robust type of data center.

“We are very excited about the opening of our new Riverside facility, which offers an easily accessible solution for businesses in southern California that need a localized disaster-recovery plan and the highest level of disaster recovery/backup services to ensure economic stability,” said Glenn McKay, the President and Chief Operating Officer of MarquisNet.

MarquisNet Riverside is located in the Riverside Technology Business Park, which is part of the Hunter Business Park. The facility offers immediate, direct access to major freeways and is only 17 miles from Ontario International Airport and about 55 miles from Los Angeles.

Adelson Speaks About Equinix, Digg

Computerworld has an interview with Jay Adelson, the CEO of Digg.com, one of the Web’s most popular social media sites. Adelson was also a founder of Equinix, which operates data centers for network peering, and was asked about the parallels between the two companies. Adelson says the common thread is the disintermediation of incumbent technologies and companies:

(Digg) is similar to how Equinix (eliminated intermediaries) for telecom companies. When the Internet became a commercial medium in 1994, all of the Internet had been funded and operated by the government and universities. When it switched over to one operated by telecommunication companies, a very strong hierarchy developed. Tier 1 ISPs, the top five players in the world, would collect a dime on every packet that flowed throughout the Internet. Part of the reason was all the Internet networks had to interconnect with each other using these antiquated network access points operated by carriers. Equinix replaced these single, network-owned facilities with Internet business exchanges where anyone could exchange packets with anyone in a neutral playing field. This allowed the dot-coms like Yahoo and Google and others to really exert their might. Digg does a very similar thing to the media.

For more, including Adelson’s thoughts about the recent “user rebellion” at Digg, read the entire interview.

VeriSign CEO Departs

VeriSign Inc. (VRSN) said early Tuesday that CEO Stratton Sclavos stepped down from his positions. The company named William A. Roper Jr. as president and chief executive. Roper had been the board’s lead independent director and he has been a board member since November 2003. He most recently served as executive vice president of Science Applications International Corp., a diversified technology services company.

No explanation was provided for the executive changes. VeriSign also has postponed its 2007 analyst meeting, previously set for June 6.

In other changes, Edward A. Mueller was named VeriSign’s chairman. He is the former head of specialty retailer Williams-Sonoma and has been a director of VeriSign since March 2005.