Roundup: Level 3, Akamai, Liebert

Here’s a roundup of news announcements from the data center and hosting industry:

• Akamai Reports Third Quarter 2009 Results. Wednesday Akamai released financial results for the period ending September 30, 2009.  Revenue was up 5% year over year at $206.5 million and cash flow from operations up 13% year over year at $105.2 million. “Our results demonstrated our ability to leverage the Company's unique cost structure and scale while improving performance and reliability for our enterprise-class customers,” said CEO Paul Sagan. During the third quarter the company repurchased approximately 2 million shares of common stock for $36.2 million at an average price of $18.41 per share.  Customers with recurring contracts at the end of the third quarter increased to a record 3,031; an 8% increase year over year.  It was also reported that Akamai is conducting an internal probe on insider trading after an unnamed executive was implicated in a massive insider trading scandal.  No Akamai official has yet been named or charged in the case.
• New Next Generation Data Wales facility. European data center specialist Next Generation Data announced the opening of a $326 million data center in Wales, U.K. Known as NGD Europe, it is the largest of its kind in the U.K. and one of the largest in Europe. The 700,000 square foot space was formerly a semiconductor plant and can be divided into multiple areas for individual clients. Several blue-chip companies have signed long-term contracts and Next Generation Data is offering a range of wholesale space-only contracts to large companies. NGD Europe has numerous security features, such as prison grade perimeter fencing, biometric recognition and ex-special forces security guards, bomb-proof glass and triple-skinned walls.

• Emerson Network Power releases Liebert Nform. Emerson released the latest version of Liebert infrastructure monitoring software Nform Wednesday, a comprehensive monitoring solution.  The software adds centralized management, data analysis and trend reporting to its real-time monitoring capabilities.  The new version also introduces a new management dashboard, enhanced trending capabilities and improved reporting. "A small problem in a data center can quickly escalate into a disaster. Knowing what is happening with power and cooling equipment can keep critical infrastructure systems at peak operating efficiency, which is vital to system reliability,” said Anand Ekbote, vice president of Liebert monitoring at Emerson.  Liebert Nform can increase the runtime of UPS systems by sending shutdown commands to non-critical equipment.
• Level 3 reports third quarter 2009 results. Level 3 released third quarter 2009 financial highlights Wednesday. Consolidated revenue was $916 million, consolidated EBITDA was $213 million, and they and they had a positive free cash flow of $9 million. "While we remain cautious, we saw positive signs in the business this quarter, as evidenced by the improvement this quarter in the rate of decline in Core Network Services revenue," said CEO James Crowe. Analysts on the earnings call Wednesday focused many of their questions on Level 3's sales force growth and the recent backhaul announcement for fiber to wireless towers.