Derivatives Exchange Boosts CRG West in Chicago

The International Derivatives Clearing Group (IDCG) said today that it has deployed its over-the-counter interest rate swap exchange at a Chicago data center operated by CRG West. IDCG’s exchange requires low latency connectivity to clear and settle interest rate swap contracts and other fixed income derivatives contracts. It will operate from CRG West’s Chicago data center at 427 LaSalle (pictured at left), which offers access to Chicago’s primary fiber routes.

The IDCG hopes to address a major issue in the recent credit crisis: the inability to price and trade derivatives, which are financial instruments based on the price of other assets. The IDCG says one its goals is to reducde “counterparty credit risk associated with the current market dynamics.” Its investors include the NASDAQ OMX Group, which operates the NASDAQ stock exchange. “Our goal here is to bring transparency to an opaque market,” NASDAQ OMX Group CEO Bob Greifeld told analysts last week in describing its investment. The IDCG has applied to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to be designated as a derivatives clearing organization. 

“The demand for low-latent connectivity necessitates a flexible robust offering to the trading community,” stated Gerry Lawlor, IDCG Chief Technology Officer in New York, NY. “CRG West’s offering is second-to none and we look forward to expanding that high-quality service to our own client base.”

CRG West Adds Tenant at Reston Exchange

CRG West said today that InfoSpace, Inc. (INSP) has moved into 1,000 square feet of space in its Reston Exchange data center in northern Virginia. InfoSpace, a developer of meta-search products, is best known for Dogpile.com, which combines the top results from the leading search engines. InfoSpace has signed a multi-year data center agreement to expand beyond its existing data center operations in Seattle. CRG West will provide support the electrical and HVAC infrastructure for InfoSpace and provide cabinet space and remote hands support.

The Reston Exchange offers cold row and hot air containment through a combination of a raised floor and a drop ceiling with a return air plenum, according to CRG West Senior Vice President David Dunn. It is among the CRG West data centers offering metered power pricing that allows customers to pay for the power they use, rather than a flat monthly per circuit fee. CRG West operates more than 2 million square feet of carrier hotel and data center space in nine facilities in Los Angeles, San Jose, Chicago, Boston, Miami, northern Virginia and New York.

Savageau Named CTO at CRG West

John Savageau has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CRG West, the data center developer said yesterday. In his new role, Savageau will focus on expanding CRG West’s peering offerings and infrastructure. He most recently held the position of Managing Director and played an integral role in CRG West’s expansion from two data centers on the West Coast to its current footprint of 11 data centers in seven metropolitan areas across the U.S.

Savageau created CRG West’s Any2 Exchange platform and led the development of the company’s industry-leading branch-circuit monitoring system and online customer resource center. As CTO, Savageau will continue to lead the company’s ongoing evaluation of technologies that shape communications, data center design and management.

Data Center Tour: CRG West at 32Americas

CRG West held an event yesterday to mark the opening of its new data center facility at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York City. The 50,000 square foot facility, branded as 32Americas, was once a cafeteria but has now been transformed into data center space. CRG West executives David Dunn and Joseph Kiaer were on hand to provide us with a walk-through of the facility. This video runs about 4 minutes, 15 seconds.

For more news about CRG West and its facilities, visit our CRG West Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

CRG West Plans New Santa Clara Data Center

CRG West will build a data center campus in Santa Clara, Calif., continuing the company’s expansion of its data center footprint. The new project adds to the data center boom in Santa Clara, which is currently the focus of major new facilities from most of the industry’s largest players.

CRG West has closed on land for 350,000 square feet of data center and office space. Construction will start in August on the first building, with scheduled completion in the second quarter of 2009. The phased 50 megawatt development will be powered by Silicon Valley Power, the utility whose low power rates have made the city of Santa Clara a magnet for data center projects.

The first phase of the project will provide data center and peering services for CRG West customers, ranging from single-cabinet colocation space up to blocks of wholesale of up to 20 megawatts of power. The company is offering one of the planned buildings as a custom opportunity for a single user as part of CRG West’s recently-announced build-to-suit program for companies looking to expand their data center space while conserving capital.

CRG West Offers Build-to-Suit Services

CRG West is expanding its data center operations to include built-to suit services and sale/leaseback arrangements that can help companies reduce the capital requirements of their data center operations. The new services leverage the financial strength of CRG and its parent firm, the huge private equity firm The Carlyle Group, which has under $80 billion under management.

In adding custom data center development services, CRG West is following a model that has worked well for Digital Realty Trust (DLR), which has used its experience and financial strength to develop build-to-suit or turn-key data centers for many large customers, most recently Yahoo and Facebook. It also illustrates the incumbent advantage: the opportunity for experienced, well-capitalized data center specialists to extend their market leadership.

With 10 existing facilities, CRG West currently offers wholesale data center space in Boston and Los Angeles. Build-to-suit projects in each building can accommodate over 15 megawatts of power. CRG West said it is “currently evaluating additional wholesale transactions throughout the United States and abroad to meet the growing needs of its customers.”

“One of CRG West’s key differentiators is our ability to be flexible,” said David Dunn, Senior Vice President at CRG West. “Few companies can license you a cabinet, buy your existing corporate data center, and build you a new one. We are excited to offer this full range of services to meet the needs of our customers, no matter how large or complex.”

CRG West Adopts Usage-Based Power Pricing

CRG West is implementing usage-based power pricing at its new data centers in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Northern Virginia and the San Francisco Bay Area. The power pricing model, based on actual utilization, will benefit colocation customers by offering savings to those who reduce their IT electrical loads.

With the installation of Branch Circuit Monitoring (BCM) technology at seven of its 10 data centers, CRG West can provide usage-based pricing for AC power to even single-cabinet colocation customers. In addition, the BCM technology improves upon CRG West’s ability to manage and monitor power consumption at the data center, enabling customers to pay only for the power they consume and providing the visibility into load management that helps customers increase their uptime.

CRG West previously charged a flat monthly fee per circuit for breakered power capacity, which meant that customers would often pay for capacity they aren’t using. Under the new model, customers can reduce their bills by turning off hardware that isn’t in use during off-hours or by purchasing hardware that is more efficient. Coming soon, CRG West will also offer customers the ability to monitor their power draws by circuit.

CRG West Expands in Boston, Miami

CRG West has announced a major expansion of both power and space at its Boston data center, and has added connectivity in its Miami facility. The company has added an additional 17 Megawatts of power at 70 Innerbelt, its carrier-neutral data center in Boston, and will make another 130,000 square feet available later this year and in 2009.

Tenants have the option of leasing wholesale space supported by cooling or generator plants and finishing the technical space themselves, or having CRG West build them a completed colocation data center. CRG West will build and manage two Tier III central cooling and generator plants, which could be combined to provide Tier IV redundancy.

“The expansion blends the traditional wholesale data center and retail colocation models,” said CRG West Senior Vice President David Dunn. “Our enterprise data center offering allows a company to design and finance the improvements within the dedicated suite themselves or have CRG West build, operate and manage the environmentals as in a traditional colocation relationship. At 70 Innerbelt, the prospective tenant can determine the optimal balance between internal resources, IT timing and the balance sheet. We could even support data center container deployments; our facility will be that flexible.” Dunn said CRG West can deliver space within 90 to 120 days.

CRG West Buys Virginia Data Center

CRG West has acquired a 285,000 square foot data center and office property in Reston, Virginia, continuing its expansion in major Internet markets. After an extensive search for new properties in the Washington, D.C. area, CRG has bought 12100 Sunrise Valley Drive, a facility previously used by America Online. CRG will invest $20 million in improvements to the facility, including connections to its existing data center at 1275 K Street in Washington, which has more than 40 networks in its meet-me room. 1275 K Street has been near full capacity for some time.

The building, which was “significantly remodeled in 2000,” includes 60,000 square feet of raised-floor space and 180,000 square-feet of office space. The data center has power from separate substations, and CRG West said it will deliver customers up to N+1 or 2N power redundancies, with a critical load of up to 175 watts per square foot. Existing connectivity providers include Verizon, Level 3, Qwest and Sprint.

CRG West Expands Miami Exchange

CRG West will expand its data center space at the Miami Exchange, adding 16,000 square feet of space to accommodate new customers, the company said today. The Miami Exchange is a 48,000-square-foot carrier-neutral data center located at 2115 NW 22nd Street, which was oringially developed by WilTel and bought by CRG in 2002.

“CRG West’s expansion in Miami reflects the growing domestic and international demand for highly secure, conditioned data center space in major metropolitan markets,” said David Dunn, Senior Vice President of CRG West. “Our ability to offer quality colocation space now and in the future provides our customers with the comfort that they can expand their footprints within the same facility as their business grows.”