BT, Logica New Tenants at Next Generation

An exterior view of the Next Generation Data Ltd. facility in Newport, Wales.

A huge new data center in Wales has unveiled its first two tenants. Next Generation Data Ltd said Friday that BT and Logica will occupy two large data halls at its NGD Europe facility, which at 75,000 square meters (750,000 square feet) is one of the world’s largest data centers. Build outs for both clients were completed in less than 16 weeks, despite challenging weather conditions during late December and early January.

“Making these halls ready in record time for BT and Logica was largely down to excellent planning and project management by our resident and highly experienced operations team, the calibre and professionalism of our chosen infrastructure partners and sheer hard work by all concerned,” said Simon Taylor, Chairman of Next Generation Data.

Interxion Raises $278 Million

The exterior of an Interxion data center in Copenhagen.

European data center specialist Interxion has raised €200 million (about $278 million U.S.) through a sale of notes, the company said Tuesday. The senior secured notes will be guaranteed by its wholly-owned subsidiaries, and the company plans to use the funds to “repay existing indebtedness and for general corporate purposes.”

Interxion didn’t indicate whether the funding would support additional data center space. But the company has been actively expanding its data center footprint over the past two years, adding space in Zurich, Paris, Frankfurt and Dublin in 2009.

Roundup: CloudKick, Tieto, IBM, Juniper

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

Cloud management Start-up Cloudkick launches. San Francisco start-up Cloudkick announced its cloud server management and monitoring services coming out of beta. Cloudkick is trying to leverage the trend towards monitoring as a service by creating a unified dashboard that helps end users monitor the workings of a variety of cloud services. The service currently works with EC2, Rackspace, Linode, GoGrid, Slicehost, Rimuhosting and VPS.net. Cloudkick recently posted charts showing periodic ping latency between EC2 nodes in an embattled debate over cloud capacity issues.

Tieto builds new data centre in Finland. Helsinki based IT services company Tieto announced they are building a new, energy efficient data centre in Espoo, Finland.  The 1,000 square meter (10,764 square feet) data centre consists of two 500 square meter modules and will double the area of Tieto’s data centers located in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The EUR $18 million project began this month and is expected to begin operations near the end of the year. ”Modern data centre technology will enable full-scale production of the growing cloud computing services and the energy-saving virtualization of servers. Through new data centres, Tieto can also respond to the future growth of the market and IT outsourcing in particular,” says Ari Karppinen, Tieto’s Country head of Finland.

Iceland Gets Major Data Center Project

Marketing of Iceland as a data center detination from Verne Global, which this week announced funding for a data center in the island nation.

After years of marketing itself as an ideal destination for green data centers, Iceland is about to see the completion of its first major new data center project. Verne Holdings announced Friday that the Wellcome Trust had taken an equity position in the company that will fully fund construction of the first phase of a new data center in a former NATO Command Centre in Keflavik, Iceland.

The Wellcome Trust, a medical research charitable foundation based in London with $21 billion of assets, will become the largest shareholder in Verne Holdings, joining existing investors General Catalyst and Novator.

“Large scale customers face a critical need to reduce substantially the power costs and carbon footprints of data centers,” said Dominic Ward from the Wellcome Trust’s Investments Division. “Verne Global is breaking new ground in using Iceland’s natural green resources to mitigate both increasing emissions and rising energy costs.”

Geothermal Power, Free Cooling
Verne Global’s 44 acre data center campus is currently under construction. The facility will be powered entirely by renewable geothermal and hydroelectic energy, and will be able to use fresh air cooling for virtually the entire year, Verne says.

“What makes us unique is that we are able to offer our customers a cost effective, yet truly green solution to their data center needs by providing the benefits of Iceland’s 100 percent free cooling, renewable energy resources and predictable forecasting of energy pricing,” said Jeff Monroe, CEO of Verne Global. “Together, Verne Global and the Wellcome Trust are creating a powerful solution that enables data center users the opportunity to go green without paying a price premium.”

Pitching Iceland’s Advantages
In early 2007 the government of Iceland began been touting the country as an affordable destination for data center development, citing its abundant supply of geothermal power. At the time, we noted that companies considering Iceland “not forget the source of all that geothermal energy: Iceland sits atop an active volcanic rift.”

In 2008 Iceland was hit by an earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale and became one of the leading casualties of the global financial crisis.
In Feb. 2009 Verne Holdings said construction would be delayed by about 12 months, pushing the launch back to at least mid-2010. This week’s funding announcement puts Verne in position to meet that adjusted timetable.

Targeting LEED Gold
The data center, known as KEF001, is being built in four phases. Customers will have the option of data center pods sized at either 1.2 megawatts or 2.4 megawatts of electric power, and the facility’s location provides direct access to all three of the country’s submarine communications cables. Verne Global is targeting the facility for a Gold-level certification under the LEED ( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard for energy-efficient data centers.

The Wellcome Trust is an independent charitable trust, established under the will of Sir Henry Wellcome in 1936. The Trust is the second largest biomedical research funding foundation in the world, with a mission to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health. Registered in England and Wales, it is the largest foundation in the UK by assets, managing a diversified investment portfolio of $21 billion as of Sept. 30.

Roundup: Intellifiber, ColoHouse, Interxion

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

Intellifiber Interconnects DuPont Fabros. Intellifiber Networks announced it has interconnected its fiber network to DuPont Fabros Technology’s (DFT) Ashburn Corporate Campus.  The DFT Ashburn campus customers will be able to access Intellifiber’s suite of Layer 2 and Layer 3 services, routing diversely from other carriers, both in and out of the facility.  Intellifiber’s network extends into many major carrier hubs and across the network footprint customers can receive low flat-rate pricing, quote responses within 24 hours and service activation in 10 business days or less.  “Our customers require diverse, high-capacity fiber providers to be interconnected with our facilities,” said Lee Kestler, senior vice president of sales and leasing, DuPont Fabros Technology. “The addition of Intellifiber Networks to the DFT Ashburn campus provides superior connectivity options and access to the entire suite of Intellifiber services.”

ColoHouse adds Internap to Miami facility. ColoHouse announced availability of Internap Performance IP Service direct to customers out of its Miami Colocation facility.  The Internap Performance IP service leverages their patented Managed Internet Route Optimizer (MIRO) technology, which dynamically determines the best path for traffic across multiple Internet backbones based on network performance characteristics instead of the least number of Internet hops. ”The addition of Internap to our mix of directly available carriers follows through on our commitment to our customers in providing them all the necessary tools and options to allow their businesses to be successful,” said Richard Duman, Vice President of Sales.

London Roundup: Apollo, Telehouse, Infinity ONE

Here’s a roundup of data center headlines from London:

• Apollo Opens PoP in Equinix London. Transatlantic submarine cable system company Apollo announced Thursday that it has opened a new Point of Presence (PoP) in Equinix’s (EQIX) LD4 London Slough data centre.  This new PoP provides resilient, intercontinental access between the UK and major cities in the USA.  Apollo chose the Equinix LD4 facility to meet increasing customer demand for reliable, linear wavelengths between London and the USA.  “Directly connecting to LD4 will offer our customers diversity from other London networks and meet the growing requirements of our customer base,” said Richard Elliott, managing director of Apollo.  “By investing in this new PoP, we have enhanced our network in a way that cuts latency, increases diversity and ensures optimum resilience.”  Apollo is a UK based company jointly owned by Cable & Wireless and Alcatel-Lucent.
• Telehouse West preview. Key members of the press and analyst groups were given a tour of the Telehouse West facility in London.  In April 2009 Data Center Knowledge reported that the Greater London Authority had approved a plan in which waste heat from the $180 million facility would be used in a district heat network for the local Docklands community. The facility is expected to open in the first quarter of 2010 and the waste heat will keep 1,600 homes nice and warm.  Silicon.com has a few photographs of the facility and construction progress of the 9 story building.
• Infinity wins Datacentre Leaders award. London-based data centre company Infinity received the ‘Future Thinking and Design Concepts’ award at the Datacentre Leaders Award Tuesday.  A sustainable biomass plant at the Infinity ONE facility enables “dark green energy to be generated from bio-matter supplied by a local group of cooperating farms.”  Infinity is committed to reducing both the energy waste and the carbon footprint of the IT sector and has adopted recommendations within the EU Code of Conduct on Data Centre Energy Efficiency.

Roundup: Equinix, Telehouse, Polaris

Here’s a roundup of data center headlines from around the world – Singapore, South Africa and Australia:

• ACTIV expands to Equinix Singapore.  Equinix (EQIX) announced last week that ACTIV Financial, a provider of market data content and technologies, will expand operations to Equinix’s Singapore International Business Exchange (IBX) data center as a part of its global expansion.  Being in close proximity to the major trading venues and exchanges in Asia allows ACTIV to provide customers with low latency access to its high-volume market data services.  ACTIV currently leverages Equinix facilities in Chicago, New York, Frankfurt and London.  “ACTIV delivers more than one million updates per second including hard to process content such as equity options depth feeds, order book data, and the latest feeds from exchanges around the world,” said Timothy Neo, Managing Director, Asia Pacific, ACTIV Financial.
• Photo tour of the Polaris Data Centre. Australian iTnews has a photo gallery of the Polaris Data Centre, built in the newly-developed town of Springsfield, Queensland.  The five story, $241 million data centre is among five data centres shortlisted by the Australian Federal Government.  The facility opened in January 2009 and houses equipment from companies such as NEC, HP, Suncorp and others.  Polaris was designed for 20 megawatts at full capacity, holds 1.5 million litres of water in onsite water tans, and is served by a dual ring of diverse dark fibre.  The iTnews article contains photos inside the Queensland data centre.
• PIPE International selects Equinix Sydney.  Equinix (EQIX) announced that PIPE International has selected it as a key interconnect provider for its new PIPE Pacific Cable (PPC-1) undersea cable.  PIPE is also currently located in Equinx data centers in Tokyo and San Jose.  The newly laid PPC-1 undersea cable runs 6,900 km from Guam to the Equinix Sydney campus and has a capacity of 2.56 terabits per second.  “The new PPC-1 cable system will also enable our customers to increase the resilience of their international network and provide additional redundancy,” said Samuel Lee, President, Equinix Asia Pacific.
• TeleHouse launches data center in South Africa. TELEHOUSE Europe, a subsidiary of KDDI announced that they will open the data center TELEHOUSE CAPE TOWN in Cape Town, Republic of South Africa.  KDDI is a large Japanese telecommunications provider that has been growing its business in developing countries; including a recent partnership with Bangladeshi bracNet.  TELEHOUSE Europe is a part of KDDI Group’s European local subsidiary and will be the first data center opened by a Japanese telecommunications carrier in Africa.  The new data center is based on a partnership between TELEHOUSE Europe and Teraco Data Environments, the first carrier-neutral data center in South Africa.

European Data Center Revenue May Double

Several stories from recent weeks highlight the vibrant data center industry in Europe. Here’s a roundup:

European data centre revenue set to double
A report published by Tariff Consultancy Ltd notes that European data centre revenue is “set to more than double over the five year period from 2010 to 2015, with net raised floor space to increase by 70%, driven primarily by price increases.” The report gives pricing and forecasts for 19 of the EU25 countries and analyzes pricing of a standard 19″ rack, a small cage space and a 50 KVA suite of space for each of the countries.  It also dives into trends impacting data centres such as raised floor capacity in markets, revenue per square meter forecasts, electricity pricing, pricing per rack and cage, and the most expensive data centre countries.

Savvis received EuroFIT award
Financial technology publication Waters published their innagural EuroFIT awards earlier in the month, to recognize Europe’s hottest financial IT products and services.  In the category of Best Datacenter Hosting Provider, Savvis (SVVS) took the award as a company capitalizing on the rising demand for data center services.  Equinix was listed as an honorable mention in the category. A little over a year ago Savvis marked the completion of a global data center expansion by opening a 37,500 square foot facility on the outskirts of London in Slough. The award also noted that Savvis services seven of the top ten Fortune 500 financial services and banking firms. Amazon (AMZN) won the Best Cloud Provider award as an “overwhelming leader in the field.”

The Bunker selected by Cimar
The Bunker announced that it was selected by Cimar (UK) Limited to provide managed ultra secure hosting of its radiology image sharing web service. The Bunker delivered a scalable platform to Cimar built on Microsoft technology.  Howard Jenkinson, managing director of Cimar said “absolute information security is a pre-requisite for any digital service carrying sensitive patient information.”  Click here for a video of ‘The Bunker’ and details of a July 2009 130,000 square foot expansion.

Video Tour: Telecity Powergate Data Center

UK data center services provider Telecity Group operates eight data centres in the London market offering more than 24,000 square meters of customer space. The newest of these is Telecity’s Powergate data center, which offers 5,000 square metres of customer space and 10 megawatts (MW) of power capacity. The data centre, which opened in 2008, has been designed to provide 4 kilowatts (kW) of customer power per rack as standard, with high density zones offering up to 20 kW per rack. The facility is supported by 12 diesel backup generators. Here’s a 5 minute video tour:

For more coverage of ithe European data center market, check out our Data Centres Europe Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.