Carbonite Expands Boston Data Center

Online backup service Carbonite Inc. has signed a lease to triple the floor space of its Boston data center at One Summer Street, the carrier hotel operated by the Markley Group. The expanded space will allow Carbonite to continue its current customer growth rate through the end of 2008, when it expects to have additional data centers in operation.

“Even though disks and other equipment are getting smaller and data densities are increasing rapidly, we still need a lot more space to handle our rapidly growing customer base,” said Carbonite CEO David Friend. “So we are expanding the size of our Boston data center by a factor of three. We’ve been very happy with our relationship with the Markley Group. Later this year we’ll be opening data centers in other cities, but meanwhile we now have enough space in our Boston data center to carry us through 2008.”

Massachusetts Plans for $78M Data Center

Massachusetts wants to build a new data center, but can’t decide on a location. More than $78 million in funding for a new state data center has been included in Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s proposal for $2.5 billion in bonds for capital projects. The funding request has sparked jockeying among local legislators, who have differing ideas about the best site for the new data center.

While the decision about a Massachusetts state data center is in its early going - state legislators must still approve the funding - a similar proposal in New York State became a contentious poitical football.

Patrick didn’t specify a community to host the proposed data center, saying only that it should be in Western Massachusetts. State Rep. Thomas Petrolati wants to amend the bill to specify that the data center be located at at Springfield Technical Community College. U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal is leading a group of municipal, business and civic leaders who favor the old Technical High School on Elliot Street in Springfield.

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).

Expedient Acquires Boston’s Safecore

Expedient Communications Inc. has acquired Safecore Datacenter Services LLC, including a 25,000-square-foot data center in Boston, according to Mass High Tech. The data center space will be integrated with Expedient’s existing fiber-optic network in Boston. Expedient also provides managed hosting and data center services in Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Miami and New York.

Financial details of the acquisition were not provided. Safecore will remain in the data center as an Expedient customer and continue to provide data center services including digital archiving services for regulatory compliance, litigation support and life cycle management.

Stained Glass in the Data Center

Most data centers don’t have windows, much less decorative ones. But the new data center at Boston College has an array of stained glass windows, including one depicting St. Isidore of Seville, whom the Vatican has dubbed the Patron Saint of the Internet. The BC data center has been relocated from the O’Neill Library to St. Clement’s Hall in Brighton, which the college acquired as part of a land purchase from the Archdiocese of Boston in 2004, according to Boston.com.

St. Clement’s Hall was once a dormitory for St. John’s Seminary, and it boasts 16 stained-glass windows that BC has preserved. It may be one of the most visually interesting data centers you’re likely to come across, but perhaps not ideal for weathering a hurricane (or, given the location, a major Nor’easter). Let’s hope that uptime comes under the protective care of the patron saint of the Internet.

Digital Realty Takes Stake in Westin Building

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) has acquired a “partial interest” in the Westin Building in Seattle, the leading Internet gateway in the Pacific Northwest. The investment was one of four deals announced today by Digital Realty, which also acquired data center facilities in the Boston and Miami markets and a warehouse in Tempe, Arizona for conversion to telecom use.

The release from Digital Realty doesn’t indicate the exact dollar value of its investment in the Westin Building, or the size of its partial ownership stake. The total price paid for the four transactions was $79.1 million, according to Digital Realty. Given the size and value of the Westin Building, and the inclusion of three other properties, that price suggests a minority ownership position.

The Westin Building (2001 Sixth Avenue) is a 34-story, 389,000 square foot tower that is 90% leased. Approximately 185,000 square feet is built out as technical space and supports a variety of telecom functions including colocation space and meet-me rooms.

“The addition to our portfolio of the Seattle Internet gateway facility, locally known as the Westin Building, represents a very strategic initial acquisition for us in this tier one market,” said Michael F. Foust, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Realty Trust. “It not only expands our national footprint into the Pacific Northwest, it also adds to our existing portfolio of mission critical Internet gateway facilities in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte.”

Hosted Solutions Acquires Boston Datacenters

Regional data center services provider Hosted Solutions will expand into New England by acquiring Boston Datacenters, the company said this week. The acquisition will be the first foray outside North Carolina for Hosted Solutions, which was previously known as Springboard Managed Hosting and has focused its business in Research Triangle.

The move gives Hosted Solutions four data centers, including North Carolina facilities in Cary, Raleigh and Charlotte. The deal was announced at a networking event in Charlotte. Gary McAuliffe, general manager of the Charlotte office, will soon move to Boston to run the former Boston Datacenters operation as vice president and general manager. Hosted Solutions, which is privately held, did not disclose financial details of the deal.

“The technology community in Boston is really expanding,” McAuliffe told LocalTechWire. “They are really coming back (from the “dot com” crash). We’re excited to be entering that market.”