Roundup: Amazon, Hurricane Electric, Level 3

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

• Amazon Web Services Asia Expansion.  Amazon Web Service announced Thursday that an expansion of their services into an Asia-Pacific region will take place in the first half of 2010, when developers and businesses will be able to access infrastructure services from multiple availability zones in Singapore, with other zones in Asia following in the second half of 2010.  AWS services included at launch will be Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage (S3), SimpleDB, Relational Database Service (RDS), Simple Queue Service (SQS), MapReduce and CloudFront.  Pricing for web services in Asia will be announced when launched in 2010.
• Hurricane Electric Expands Infrastructure at Equinix.  Internet backbone and IPv6 provider Hurricane Electric will extend its presence to additional Equinix data centers outside of the United States. Hurricane Electric will expand into Equinix Tokyo-2, Hong Kong-1 and Zurich-1 facilities.  Citing an increasing demand for IPv6 content in Asia and Europe as a reason for global expansion, the Hurricane Electric presence in global Equinix data centers will also allow other Equinix customers to easily exchange IP traffic with more than 500 associated IPv6 backbones.  Equinix chief marketing officer Jarrett Appleby said “operating also within our TY2, HK1 and ZH1 centers will put Hurricane Electric in the middle of an existing community of international and local networks and carriers for its next generation IP access service.”
• Level 3 expands in Atlanta. Level 3 announced Thursday an expansion of operations and enhancing local presence in the Atlanta area.  The initiative will provide mid-market enterprises with greater access to Level 3’s services via its extensive backbone network, metro fiber-optic footprint, and a locally focused sales and customer support team.  Level 3 will expand the network in the Atlanta area that already passes nearly 15,000 businesses today.  Following their “link globally and connect locally” mantra, the move will allow Level 3 to provide a competitive alternative for Atlanta area businesses.  Level 3 has announced similar focused expansions in Chicago, Miami and New York in recent months.

Roundup: Equinix, Switch & Data, The Planet

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

• Hibernia Atlantic expands to two Equinix data centers. Submarine transport cable provider Hibernia Atlantic announced Tuesday the expansion of its Global Financial Network(GFN) into the Equinix New York-2 and New York-4 data centers in Secaucus, New Jersey.  The expansion from Hibernia aims to provide low latency, redundancy and connectivity to global banks and exchanges in the New York metro area.  Hibernia’s GFN spans 24,000 Kilometers (14,913 miles) of fiber optic cables across key financial cities around the world.  “Our continued GFN expansion in New York metro and in other major financial centers reflects our core commitment to provide ‘security through diversity’—our company philosophy that offers world-class, redundant solutions to our financial customers,” said Bob McMann, VP of Provisioning and Procurement for Hibernia
• Switch & Data selected by Pragma Securities. Switch & Data announced that Pragma Securities, a trading solutions provider has selected their New York Financial EcoCenter to optimize the performance of its quantitative trading solution.  After an extensive diligence process Pragma selected the North Bergen, New Jersey data center to host its trading execution services, and will be one cross connect away from the other electronic trading customers in the site.
• Nimsoft introduces alliance program. Following the October launch of their Unified Monitoring Solutions, Nimsoft announced their charter members in the Unified Monitoring Alliance Tuesday.  The new monitoring solution provides a total, unified view of both internal and external IT resources.  The Unified Monitoring Alliance partners are made up of service providers, solution partners and technology development partners.  Partners like FusionStorm, Ingram Micro, Shavlik, Service-now.com, Rackspace and many others are among the first to join the alliance.  “The alliance not only expands opportunities for growth and collaborative innovation for our partners, but also effectively increases the breadth and depth of the systems monitoring and management solutions that Nimsoft offers to its customers,” said Nimsoft President Gary Read said
• The Planet signs Ayuda Networks. The Planet announced Tuesday that Ayuda Networks has signed on to join the company’s recently launched Partner Plus program.  Ayuda Networks consults with clients to evaluate connectivity requirements and implement the best solutions for their specific business.  Ayuda will add The Planet to its portfolio of top-tier solution providers and include them in recommendations to clients evaluating managed and dedicated hosting, as well as colocation services.

Equinix Plugs Into Even Lower Latency

Lexent Metro Connect has completed an “ultra low latency” dark fiber connection between two Equinix data centers in Secaucus, New Jersey and major carrier hotels in Manhattan, providing even faster connections for Equinix’ growing high-speed trading ecosystem. The new dark fiber route follows the shortest distance across the Hudson River to key Manhattan connectivity hubs at 60 Hudson Street, 32 Avenue of the America, 75 Broad Street and 111 Eighth Avenue.

Equinix (EQIX) said the new link will offer route latency of less than 100 microseconds between its NY2 and NY4 facilities in Secaucus and Manhattan, enabling global banks, financial exchanges and other enterprises on Lexent’s fiber optic backbone to link with the traders, market data providers and technology utilities operating in the NY4 and NY2 centers.

“By utilizing Lexent Metro Connect, the financial community operating within our NY4 and NY2 centers in Secaucus can tap into fast, high-quality dark fiber routes to securely access New York’s carrier hotels,” said John Knuff, director of business development for Equinix. “This provides them with optimized, low-latency links to New York City’s financial exchanges and other key investment buildings.”

Roundup: The Planet, Dell, Juniper, Cisco

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

• The Planet Reports Third Quarter Results. Hosting company The Planet discussed results for the third quarter of 2009 Tuesday. “Our performance this quarter provides cautious optimism about an emerging economic turn-around, with indicators moving in the right direction,” said Chairman and CEO Douglas J. Erwin said. “Our business experienced an upturn with new, more complex transactions and a healthier, more robust pipeline of opportunities than we’ve seen during the past three years.” Highlights of the quarter included a new partner plus channel program, hiring CAPSTAR commercial real estate to lease Dallas space, and joining the Microsoft BizSpark program.
• Juniper and Dell Collaborate.  Juniper Networks (JNPR) has had a flury of news lately, with an announcement Tuesday that it will collaborate with Dell to offer networking solutions under Dell’s PowerConnect brand.  Additionally the two companies plan to work on open, standards-based solutions for virtualized data centers and deliver technology solutions using Converged Enhanced Ethernet.  Dell plans to market, service and support Juniper’s high-performance networking solutions to its large enterprise, small and medium business customers and public organizations.  Juniper also announced that Australian Government superannuation administrator ComSuper has selected Juniper Networks to implement a completely new network infrastructure based on Juniper’s EX Series ethernet switches and Unified Access Control solution.  A third announcement Tuesday reported that Juniper’s executive and management team will ring the NYSE opening bell on Thursday, October 29th.

Equinix Expansion: Building, But Also Buying

Why is Equinix spending $698 million to acquire competitor Switch & Data? It was a “buy vs. build” decision writ large, with data center economics driving the math. Here’s what Equinix was able to buy for that $698 million (plus another $142 million to assume Switch & Data’s outstanding debt):

• 1.1 million square feet of data center space
• 979 paying customers and $171.5 million in annual revenue
• Additional data center capacity in Expansion space in three kley markets – Northern New Jersey, Silicon Valley and Dallas – where Equinix is running out of data center space.
• Overnight entry into 15 new markets, including five cities – Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle, and Toronto – that were identified as key expansion markers by Equinix customers.

How much would it have cost Equinix to build new data centers in those five cities? Or to build more space in New Jersey, Silicon Valley and Dallas? Equinix clearly determined that it would be cheaper to buy Switch & Data, which shares its carrier-neutral colocation model and focus on interconnections.

“While new data center builds can take more than two years in planning and construction, the acquisition of Switch and Data provides an immediate entry into several key U.S. markets where Equinix does not currently have a presence,” Equinix said in a customer FAQ. “In addition, existing Switch and Data assets in markets where Equinix currently operates provide opportunities for expansion and creating additional capacity.”

Equinix Buys Switch & Data for $689 Million

In a blockbuster deal for the U.S. colocation sector, Equinix (EQIX) has agreed to acquire Switch & Data Facilities (SDXC) for $689 million in cash and stock, the companies said today. The deal is priced at $19.06 a share, representing a 32 percent premium to Switch and Data’s closing price of $14.40.

The deal combines two of the largest players in the market for colocation and interconnection services, and gives Equinix a presence in 16 new markets across North America, including Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Seattle and Toronto.

“As we have moved to a global service delivery platform with the integration of our European and Asia-Pacific operations, we have seen increasing customer demand in existing and new markets to provide solutions to support lower latency application requirements into new markets and additional key Internet markets,” Equinix said in an FAQ about the deal.

Deal Adds 1 Million SF of Space
Equinix will integrate Switch and Data’s data center business and operations, including the company’s 34 data centers in 22 markets in the U.S. and Canada. The acquisition will add more than 1 million gross square feet of data center capacity, bringing Equinix’s total global footprint to more than 6 million square feet across  79 data centers in 34 markets in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

“The strategic acquisition of Switch and Data by Equinix further strengthens Equinix’s position as the most comprehensive global data center services provider across North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. “Our complementary business models, coupled with Switch and Data’s broad North American market coverage, provide a platform for strong growth as well as an opportunity to accommodate our customers’ demands for additional services.”

Equinix Building New Data Center in Geneva

Colocation specialist Equinix (EQIX) will build a new data center in Geneva, Switzerland, the company said today. The 4,500 square meter (48,400 square foot) facility will be the second Equinix data center in Geneva, and continues the company’s expansion of its footprint to meet growing global demand for data center space. Equinix recently announced major expansions in northern Virginia and Silicon Valley, and is building additional data center space in 15 of the 18 markets the company serves.

The new GV2 data center in Geneva will be built out in phases, with a total capacity for 760 cabinets at full build-out. The first phase, with capacity for 390 cabinets, is scheduled to open in December 2009. Further phases will open during 2010 and will be timed to reflect market demand.

Roundup: Equinix Thailand, Clearview, IBM

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

• Equinix sees potential in Thailand. The Bangkok Post has an article on the potential of Thailand becoming the next new market for an Equinix data center. Equinix CTO Lane Patterson is said to see Thailand “following the evolution of Japan and Korea with a local internet for local language content while another track sees faster and better international links for companies to do business and drive the economy.”  With only a 2% broadband penetration in Thailand, a carrier-neutral data center has the potential to kick-start the Internet ecosystem in the area and drive down prices for everyone.  The article continues to describe the Internet ecosystem of companies and players that make up Equinix customers and enable their facilities to be such a success.  Equinix recently hosted its annual Asia Peering Forum in Bangkok.
• Clearview completes Waco, Texas data center. Clearview Managed Services announced Wednesday the completion of a unique, multi-purpose data center in Waco, Texas. The new Information Technology Gateway (ITG) will be a 43,000 square foot facility focusing on disaster recovery and business continuity services. The facility features diverse fiber paths to a carrier hotel in Dallas with access to more than 200 carriers. Real estate development company Paul Kite Co. partnered with Clearview as developers of the facility and said that this development was part of a nation-wide data center development initiative for them. The data center is a repurposed nuclear fall-out shelter, providing a great deal of physcial security. Check out the July Data Center Knowledge post on the data bunker boomlet for this growing niche.

Equinix to Build in Virginia, San Jose

The cages housing customer equipment inside an Equinix data center.

Equinix, Inc. (EQIX) will build new data centers in northern Virginia and San Jose, Calif., boosting the company’s footprint of colocation space in two of the nation’s hottest markets. The company will invest $100 million in each of the facilities as part of its ongoing $1.4 billion program to expand in 15 global markets. Both the data centers will be “greenfield” builds from the ground up, allowing the centers to be designed with the latest advances in efficiency.

The new data centers will add crucial inventory in two markets that have strong demand but limited supply due to the credit crunch, which has curtailed or postponed many projects. The decision validates the strength of demand in both markets, as Equinix has been careful in its decisions about where and when to build new facilities.

Space Tight in Both Markets
“As we expect to reach capacity within our existing Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley area centers sometime in 2010, these newly announced projects will enable us to accommodate increasing customer growth,” said Steve Smith, president and CEO of Equinix. “The investments we made years ago in purchasing land adjacent to our existing centers in these markets has given us significant flexibility in our expansion strategy.”