Roundup: Peak10, NaviSite, Level 3

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

• Peak 10 selected for Private Cloud. Peak 10 Inc. announced the signing of Pure Fishing, Inc. to a multi-year contract to use managed services delivered via the company’s private enterprise cloud.  Critical systems from Pure Fishing will use Peak 10 services for Enterprise Resource Planning and back-office application infrastructure.  “Being able to integrate from a virtualization, storage, network and security standpoint without having to differentiate between our physical servers and the computer resources we have contracted from Peak 10, took a lot of the complexity out of the solution,” said Larry Pritchard, vice president of information technology for Pure Fishing.  Earlier this month Peak 10 expanded its credit facility from $60 million to $95 million.
• NaviSite Announces Hosted Lotus Services. NaviSite (NAVI) announced Hosted Lotus Services powered by NaviCloud at IBM Lotusphere 2010.  Solutions that will be hosted include Lotus Notes, Domino, Sametime, Quickr and Connections.  The hosted services give customers on demand access to the latest Lotus software for predictable monthly fees, skipping the up-front capital expenditures.  Services are hosted in NaviCloud which is powered by Cisco’s Unified Computing System, VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3.5 and vSphere 4.0, and IBM XiV SAN.  NaviSite CTO Denis Martin said “our latest platform is a culmination of that experience and includes the latest Lotus Email and Collaboration Applications, best of breed Compliance Archiving, Anti-Virus and Anti-Spam solutions, and support for virtually every smart Mobile device in the market, all of which are sold on a simple, easy-to-understand per user basis.”  Also announced at the Lotusphere 2010 conference, IBM detailed the technology and business expansion of its LotusLive cloud collaboration platform.  LotusLive cloud services provide integrated email, Web conferencing, social networking and collaboration with IBM’s focus on security, reliability and enterprise integration.
• Level 3 Delivers High-speed Internet to Pan-Asian network. Level 3 (LVLT) announced an agreement with the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) that allows PLDT use of Level 3’s landing station connectivity at the Asia America Gateway submarine cable system.  The cable landing station connectivity provides a critical component of the global network architecture for international carriers. “In an increasingly connected world, Level 3 provides reliable network infrastructure and services for global carriers to extend their networks around the world,” said Andrew Crouch, president of Wholesale Markets for Level 3.  “Level 3 is proud to support PLDT as they continue to transform their next generation network and set new standards for global communications.”

Roundup: VMware, Akamai, Peak10, Raritan

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

VMware to Acquire Zimbra. Virtualization leader VMware announced a definitive agreement to acquire Zimbra, a leading vendor of email and collaboration software, from Yahoo Inc.  With over 55 million mailboxes, Zimbra products offer a full enterprise feature set to small and large environments, with on-premise or hosted service options.  “Over the coming years, we expect more organizations, especially small and medium size businesses, to increasingly buy core IT solutions that deliver cloud-like simplicity in end-user and operational experience,” said Brian Byun, Vice President and General Manager, Cloud Services, VMware. Under terms of the agreement Yahoo! can continue to use Zimbra technology in services, but VMware will purchase the technology and intellectual property.  Yahoo acquired Zimbra for $350 million in 2007.  The acquisition is expected to close in the first calendar quarter of 2010.  Financial details were not disclosed.

Akamai Implementation for Autotrader.com. Akamai Technologies announced that AutoTrader.com has implemented a number of Akamai services to support the growth of its online business.  Akamai said its Dynamic Site Accelerator and Web Application Accelerator have shown a 2X improvement in performance, enabling the site to load twice as fast as before and data center traffic offload exceeding 80 percent.  Mark Tuttle, Senior Manager of Engineering at AutoTrader.com said “having Akamai in place enables us to provide valuable information to our consumer quickly and reliably, without worrying about whether our infrastructure could scale to cope with the increasing user demands.”

Peak 10 Expands Credit Line

In the latest financing announcement from the data center sector, Peak 10 said today that it has expanded its credit facility from $60 million to $95 million, and will invest the additional funds in additional infrastructure and a technology refresh support its growing cloud computing business, the company said today. The new agreement enhances a credit line that was initially announced in May 2008. RBC Capital Markets was the arranger and book runner for the bank syndicate providing the credit line.

“Our consistently improving financial results and strong cash flow coupled with the expanded credit facility further position us to execute our business plan centered on organic growth and new market expansion,” said Brian Noonan, the chief financial officer of Peak 10. “Being able to obtain flexible and competitive terms in the current market and attract new lenders speaks volumes about our disciplined business operating philosophy and financial metrics.”

Roundup: DataPipe, Peak 10, Equinix, APC

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

• DataPipe rolls out 3PAR services. Utility storage provider 3PAR announced Monday that Cloud-Agile partner DataPipe now offers differentiated virtual private array (VPA) and disaster recovery (DR) services as a part of their Stratosphere cloud services, which are powered by 3PAR Utility Storage.  DataPipe’s cloud platform leverages VMware and 3PAR to offer a managed, secure virtualized service. “We now have the opportunity to expand our cloud service offerings in the areas of security and compliance to increase the value we offer our customers,” said Michael Parks, Chief Technology Officer for DataPipe.  The 3PAR ASSURED product allows DataPipe to use remote copy, data replication, DR and automatic data backup to end users.  The 3PAR SECURED product offers isolated, secure virtual private array servies.
• Peak 10 deploys VMware vSphere 4.  Data center operator Peak 10 announced the delivery of Private Cloud Infrastructure Solutions, via VMware’s vSphere 4 platform.  The platform offers customers pools of virtualized resources that federate between on and off-premise environments on-demand and with ease.  By using vSphere 4 Peak 10 customers can maintain the integrity of their data and applications, while migrating to the cloud platform.  Peak 10’s leadership team are in San Francisco this week attending the VMworld 2009 conference.  Enhancements allowed from Peak 10’s vSphere 4 platform include twice as many virtual processors per virtual machine, four times the memory, three-times increase in network throughput, and additional SAN tiers available for high-end databases.

McCarthy Capital Buys Stake in Peak 10

McCarthy Capital Corporation has recently purchased Frontier Capital’s interest in Peak 10, Inc., a leading regional provider of data center infrastructure and managed services. Seaport Capital remains the majority shareholder in Peak 10. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are pleased to partner with the management of Peak 10 and Seaport Capital in this growing and well-positioned business,” said Patrick Duffy, a partner at McCarthy Capital. “We believe Peak 10’s people and breadth of service offerings provide substantial opportunities for growth.”

Peak 10 Expands in Tampa

Peak 10 is opening its second data center in Tampa, Fla., continuing the company’s steady expansion in the southeastern United States. The new facility is a 15,400 square foot data center, bringing Peak 10’s footprint in Tampa to more than 30,000 square feet.

“Our facility expansion is a direct result of our steady growth and success in the Tampa Bay area,” said Debra Curtiss, vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Tampa. “It will help us meet the current and future demand for our customized services.”

Peak 10 Expands in Louisville

Peak 10 is expanding its Louisville operations by adding a third data center to support strong demand for the company’s services in the region. The new facility will include more than 10,000 square feet of data center space, giving Peak 10 Louisville a total footprint of 24,000 square feet of data center space.

The new facility will provide expansion space for Peak 10’s customers, and will be contiguous to the two original facilities, convenient for customers with a presence in both sites. The expansion will be completed later this year and will boost Peak 10’s footprint to 13 data centers within its nine key markets.

The announcement of the new data center comes just a week after Peak 10 said that it has arranged $60 million in funding to support its continued expansion. The company said it would use the funding to “pursue in-market and new market expansions, including acquisitions.”

Peak 10 Gets $60 Million in Funding

In the latest sign of growth for regional data center companies, Peak 10 has arranged $60 million in funding to support its continued expansion. RBC Capital Markets arranged the credit facility through a bank syndicate including GE Capital Corporation and CIT. Peak 10 says it will use the funding to build new data centers or possibly acquire other providers.

“Our expanded credit facility coupled with Peak 10’s strong internally generated cash flow fully funds our business plan,” said Brian Noonan, chief financial officer of Peak 10. “Our history of consistent quarterly growth and strong balance sheet management has enabled us to obtain debt on attractive terms with an expanded group of lenders. We are well positioned to pursue in-market and new market expansions, including acquisitions.”

Peak 10 was founded in 2001 and has focused on local markets in the southeastern U.S. IN addition to its own building program, Peak 10 acquired established data center companies in Louisville, Nashville and Richmond. Last fall the company opened a greenfield data center in Atlanta, and expanded into Cincinnati in December 2007. Peak 10 currently has construction underway on facilities in Nashville, Louisville, Raleigh, Tampa and Charlotte, and plans additional construction later this year and in 2009.

“This expanded credit facility sends a powerful message to our customers, namely that we have positioned Peak 10 to expand to meet their growth needs and technical service needs for the future,” said David Jones, president and chief executive officer of Peak 10. “At the same time, we remain aggressive with options to expand into more markets and to execute our strategic growth initiatives.”

Peak 10 Expands Into Cincinnati

Managed hosting provider Peak 10 Inc. will open a new 22,000 square foot data center facility in West Chester, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati, the company said Thursday. The new market reflects a continued broadening of the geographic focus of Peak 10, which has focused on second-tier markets in the Southeastern US.

“Peak 10’s expansion into Cincinnati aligns with our business strategy of scaling our business through select new market development and consistent organic growth,” said David Jones, president and chief executive officer of Peak 10. “Peak 10 will deliver world-class managed services and skilled, around-the-clock data center support services to high-growth, small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs) in the Greater Cincinnati and Dayton region.”

The company has added three new markets in 2007 – Atlanta, Richmond and now Cincinnati. Peak 10 has also added additional capacity and infrastructure in Raleigh and Charlotte in its home base of North Carolina; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Nashville, Tenn.