Salesforce.com opens Tokyo data center. Salesforce.com (CRM) and NTT Communications announced today that salesforce.com’s Tokyo data center has gone live. Housed in a NTT  data center, the Tokyo data center will support adoption of salesforce.com’s social enterprise services among the company’s rapidly growing customer base across Japan and Asia Pacific. “Salesforce.com continues to expand its infrastructure to support the adoption of the social enterprise among our rapidly growing global customer base,” said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. “The opening of our Tokyo data center with our trusted partner NTT Communications represents a long-term commitment to our customers across Japan and Asia Pacific.”

Telx selected by Justin.tv.  Telx announced that Justin.tv has selected Telx as its mission-critical infrastructure colocation provider for the launch of TwitchTV, a new online gaming community. Already a customer in the Telx San Francisco C3 Cloud Connection Center, Justin.tv has expanded its vital gaming infrastructure in this key location, leveraging an industry-leading community of telecommunications carriers and ISPs. Justin.tv lets users stream video content live to the Internet from their webcams and mobile phones. “While Justin.tv is powered by several global data centers, Telx’s San Francisco facility is the ‘brains’ of our infrastructure operations,” said Jonathan Shipman, Director of Operations, Justin.tv.  ”Telx has been a vital partner for us as we execute our growth strategy to include the gaming customer base. We have leveraged the large community of network providers Telx offers in this location for three years. When it came time to launch our online gaming community, TwitchTV, we were able to expand our presence with Telx in an organized, cost-effective way.

Internap opens Dallas Fort Worth data center.  Internap Network Services (INAP) announced the official opening of its new data center in the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) market, located in Plano, Texas. The DFW facility offers 55,000 square feet of floor space and will provide access to Internap’s platform of IT Infrastructure services, including managed hosting and colocation, as well as its global, route-optimized Performance IP service. An exclusive open house and networking event at the facility will be held on December 15th for facility tours.  A virtual tour of the facility can be viewed here.  “The new Internap DFW facility has been designed from the ground up to serve the advanced IT Infrastructure demands of enterprises in the DFW area and beyond – from its flexible, high-performance platform that can scale on demand with customers’ business needs to cutting-edge power and cooling capabilities,” said Mike Higgins, senior vice president of data center services at Internap. “With this opening, Internap also continues to deliver on our strategy to build a geographically diverse footprint of premium, company-owned data centers in key markets.”

Peak 10 selected by iPractice Group.  Peak 10 announced today that it is delivering cloud and managed services to Nashville-based healthcare technology company iPractice Group. iPractice will utilize Peak 10′s cloud solutions and managed services to deliver its all-inclusive IT services for independent medical practices. “We chose Peak 10 because the company has a great reputation in the market, offers unparalleled expertise and was able to provide us with a comprehensive portfolio of services,” said Jason Morgan, iPractice Group’s chief operating officer. “Peak 10’s interconnected network of data centers and its numerous compliance certifications will be a valuable enhancement to our IT infrastructure.”

“We are very excited about the construction of our second state-of-the-art facility,” said Stefan Pittinger, the vice president and general manager of Peak 10 South Florida. “We have an ongoing commitment to fulfill the needs of South Florida’s technology community, and will take proactive steps to do so through collaboration with the local market.”

South Florida 2 will include multiple levels of security, uninterruptible power, HVAC systems, fire suppression and around-the-clock monitoring in order to meet enterprise-class standards.  It will be SSAE 16 and PCI compliant and interconnected to Peak 10’s private network, providing disaster recovery solutions to the site.

“This hurricane season, we have been proud to serve as a trusted IT advisor that not only has a hardened facility, but is able to deliver a vast portfolio of managed services and 24/7 support to fulfill customers’ disaster preparedness and recovery needs,” said Allen Skipper, senior vice president of market operations for Peak 10.

South Florida 2 is part of the company’s 2011 expansion strategy, which saw the completion of additional enterprise-class data centers in Richmond, VA and Louisville, KY.  Another center is currently under construction in Nashville, TN.

Iomart acquires EQSN.  Iomart announced that it has acquired the entire issued share capital of EQSN.  EQSN is a Glasgow based provider of managed services with two UK data centers in Glasgow and Edinburgh and one in Boston. “The addition of EQSN to the business is a strong strategic and cultural fit and will consolidate our position as a leading player in the managed hosting sector,” said Angus MacSween, Iomart CEO. “The Group will remain focused on providing practical, cost-effective solutions to customers’ IT needs. Customers increasingly demand reliable IT infrastructure-as-a-service as the need for a scalable and flexible way of working grows; with EQSN’s expertise, iomart is even better placed to deliver this.”

Equinix launches online instant test tool.  Equinix (EQIX) launched an online instant test tool with Compuware (CPWR) to help e-commerce providers ensure their sites’ performance will deliver during the busiest shopping days of the year. The site uses Compuware’s Gomez application performance management solution. The instant test tool evaluates the performance of e-commerce and other digital media websites against up to four other URLs, which could include competitors, industry leaders or other pages on a specific website. Research shows that 40 percent of consumers will not wait more than three seconds for a page to load before leaving a website, and this expectation is only increasing. The free instant test is available at: http://www.gomez.com/my-benchmark/partner-equinix/

Multiple customer wins for Peak 10.  Data center operator and managed services provider Peak 10 recently announced several customers had selected the company for services.  Peak 10 announced it is delivering premier data center services to Savant Learning Systems, a Nashville-based company that specializes in developing and delivering powerful online education programs. The company will be served out of Peak 10′s Nashville data center. Peak 10 also announced it is delivering data center services to HedgeFacts LLP, a leading provider of accounting, portfolio management, and performance and risk analytics for the alternative investment community. HedgeFacts is utilizing Peak 10’s hosting services, in the Cincinnati facility. “We chose to work with Peak 10 for its best-in-class facility and quality services to customers,” said Shelby Baird, director of technology and support services at HedgeFacts. “Peak 10 adds value to our expanding business by providing us with reliable access to world-class data center facilities with robust security infrastructures and redundant network pathways, allowing us to confidently focus on other strategic initiatives critical to our growth and success.”  Finally, Peak 10 announced it is delivering data center services to eQHealth Solutions Inc., a healthcare management company that provides a wide range of effective solutions to its clients. eQHealth will use hosting and outbound Internet and Metro Ethernet services from Peak 10′s Tampa, Florida data center.

Possibility of a Microsoft Data Center in South Korea.  The South Korea Herald reports that a Microsoft senior executive met South Korea‘s telecommunications regulator on Thursday to discuss ways to expand ties with South Korea by collaborating on new businesses that may include building a data center. In recent weeks several business leaders have visited the country, including Google’s Eric Schmidt and Qualcomm Chairman Paul Jacobs.  Microsoft’s international business president Jean Philippe Courtois met with Choi See-joong, chairman of the Korea Communications Commission.  The two discussed investment opportunities and ways to collaborate with Korean companies. Microsoft said it is positively considering building and operating a data center in South Korea.

“We are very excited about breaking ground on this new, state-of-the-art facility,” said Drew Fassett, the vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Nashville. “Our team, who has tunnel vision on customer satisfaction, has done a phenomenal job assessing and meeting the IT needs of our new and existing clients. We are experiencing enormous customer growth and this expansion will help accommodate the IT infrastructure requirements of the greater Nashville business community.”

Also Adding DR Workspace

Peak 10 is also adding 26,000 square feet of customer workspace to its Nashville campus, which is part of its  disaster recovery service for customers and local businesses, who  have access to space, bandwidth and hardware as well as mobile workstations.

Peak 10 announcing an added 3,000 square feet of premium data center space contiguous to its Nashville 2 facility in Franklin, Tenn.

Since its founding in 2000, Peak 10 has pursued gradual growth through expansion in  greenfield markets of Jacksonville, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Tampa, Fla. and Raleigh, N.C., and through acquisitions of established data center companies in Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; Richmond, Va. and, most recently, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Peak 10 selected by Wastequip.  Peak 10 announced that it will be delivering virtualization, managed hosting and disaster recovery services for Wastequip Inc., a North American manufacturer of waste handling and recycling equipment.  Wastequip will utilize the Peak 10 Cloud Plus infrastructure to secure key enterprise and shared service systems.  “Our team of experts will relocate Wastequip’s IT infrastructure to our Cloud Plus environment to boost the security and availability of its mission-critical data,” said Pat O’Brien, vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Charlotte. “Wastequip can now focus on the priorities of its core business, allowing its internal IT staff to concentrate on the delivery of its business application systems.”

ZL Technologies leverages SunGard Availability Services. ZL Technologies announced they are leveraging Enterprise Cloud Services from SunGard Availability Services to deliver a new Software-as-a-Service offering. The ZL Unified Archive production applications will be supported on Sungard’s fully Managed Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering and provide multiple layers of protection and network services.  ”SunGard is helping us break a major price barrier by moving our production solutions to a cloud-based, multi-tenant platform – allowing us to reshape the economics of enterprise records management, archiving, and e-discovery solutions,” said Stephen Chan, co-founder and vice president of business development at ZL Technologies.  ZL can now offer a customer an application environment for testing without committing to a new supporting IT infrastructure as well as ramp up processing and storage quickly to handle a data surge.

Online Tech achieves SSAE-16 Type II. Online Tech announced they have achieved SSAE 16 Type II certification for its Ann Arbor and Mid-Michigan data centers. With the final audit report delivered May 13th, the company was found to be fully compliant. SSAE 16 (Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements No.16) has replaced SAS 70 (Statements on Auditing Standards No. 70). SSAE 16 provides better alignment with international standards and requires a written assertion from management on the design and operating effectiveness of the data center controls. “We’re embracing these new data centers standards aggressively” said Mike Klein, President of Online Tech. “We believe these new audit standards will further differentiate data center operators by the quality of the service they deliver. The new standards are perfectly aligned with our business model with a focus on process, quality and repeatability, which we believe is key in delivering top tier colocation and managed private cloud hosting.”

Equinix selected by Fidessa.  Equinix (EQIX) announced that Fidessa Canada corporation, part of Fidessa group plc and provider of high-performance trading solutions, will host its Canadian trading platform in Equinix’s Toronto TR1 facility.  Fidessa currently maintains a presence in Equinix data centers in London and Singapore and will leverage the Equinix platform to expand its footprint into Canada. “As part of our global strategy, we sought a data center provider close to the financial hub in Canada and one with access to a dense network of service providers. Platform Equinix fit the bill with its vast ecosystem of exchanges, market data providers and financial institutions,” said Martin Hakker, managing director at Fidessa Canada.

The Bunker selected by SFW Ltd.  The Bunker Secure Hosting announced that SFW Ltd has chosen them as their data center partner of choice for its dedicated, dual-site hosting requirements.  SFW is responsible for the application management and on-going development of a number of key, business-critical applications within the European Union greenhouse gas Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Speaking about the partnership with The Bunker, Peter Hornsby, Director at SFW, said, “Over 80% of SFW’s clients are UK and EU public sector organizations with extremely stringent security requirements, so being able to offer secure infrastructure and hosting is vital to SFW’s business.

Interxion selected by Danish Internet Exchange. Interxion (INXN) announced that they have signed an agreement with the Danish Internet Exchange (DIX) to establish DIX’s second national Internet Exchange at Interxion’s data centre in Copenhagen. The agreement between companies means that both existing and future members of the DIX now have an alternative point of presence at Interxion’s data centre in Ballerup. “Cooperation between our customers has always been central in our proposition as such we have agreements with more than 25 carriers and ISPs who provide services to other customers and to each other at our Copenhagen site. Our agreement with DIX means that we now create a unique environment for these customers, who will now have more rapid, direct and economical Internet connections for their solutions. We therefore expect further growth from customers in the hosting, cloud and streaming media sectors where connectivity and peering is key to delivering a improved on line experience,” commented Peder Bank, Managing Director Interxion Nordic.

Peak 10 selected by North Carolina company.  Peak 10 announced that they are providing managed data center services to the North Carolina Foundation for Advanced Health Programs Inc., a nonprofit organization that works to supply North Carolinians with access to affordable healthcare services. Peak 10 will provide virtualization services as well as network security, backup and storage management, and complex hosting for the company’s extensive Medication Access and Review Program (MARP) software. “Both our partners and our management team were greatly impressed with Peak 10’s high-quality customer service and also the multiple levels of security for their facilities,” said Susan Yaggy, the president and CEO of the Foundation. “As we move our proprietary software from a server-based platform to a web-based platform, Peak 10’s IT solutions will be critical to the daily functioning of this software in clinics and sites using MARP to access free medications for uninsured NC patients.”

Equinix selected by London Metal Exchange (LME).  Equinix (EQIX) announced that the London Metal Exchange, a non-ferrous metals market, has opened its first access node offering proximity services, located in Equinix’s LD4/LD5 London International Business Exchange data center campus in Slough. The access node provides LME members within Equinix the opportunitiy to connect directly to their electronic trading platform and thus reduce costs. “We are delighted to be working with the LME to optimize the trading capabilities of its members,” said Russell Poole, General Manager, Equinix UK. “This mutually beneficial relationship with the LME supports our continued investment in the financial services industry. While Equinix will offer LME members a highly reliable and secure location from which to trade, the LME’s presence will further enhance the broad spectrum of services available to participants in the financial trading communities that exist within our data centers.”

Colt selected by Source.  European company Colt announced that it has been selected to build and manage a hosted application infrastructure for Source, a specialist provider of exchange traded products (ETPs). Colt’s managed infrastructure provides a resilient environment for Source to scale rapidly. It runs across two European data centres and features industry leading security and infrastructure capabilities. “Ted Hood, Chief Executive Officer of Source, said, “we selected Colt because they demonstrated the agility and responsiveness to meet our evolving technical, operational and business needs.”

Peak 10 selected by CTC.  Peak 10 Inc. announced it is delivering data center services to Corporate Technology Consultants, a provider of cloud services and traditional on-site IT support to the small-to-medium business marketplace. CTC will receive infrastructure and engineering services at Peak 10′s South Florida facility. “The robust infrastructure of the Peak 10 facility is one important factor that allows our cloud services to outperform most of our competition in terms of performance, quality and cost,” said Craig D’Attilo, vice president of operations at Corporate Technology Consultants. “We have easy, unlimited physical access to our servers thanks to the facility’s convenient location, and we also benefit from the growth potential that comes with Peak 10’s expanding national footprint. This combination allows us to deliver the kind of high-end service and guarantees that only Fortune 500 companies could normally afford.”

Juniper announces MAG gateways. Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced availability of the MAG Series Junos Pulse Gateways, built specifically to provide a single point of convergence for managing the secure network connectivity and access challenges of a mobile, always-connected workforce. Regardless of device or location the new MAG series secure enterprise connectivity for users. New features include application density through SSL VPN network access control applications, massive scalability, personality switching, cross-platform support, and the ability to leverage existing security infrastructure. “Organizations face an ever increasing challenge to provide access for the mobile workforce in a way that is not only highly secure, but also cost efficient and manageable,” said Mrs. Dr. Cords, IT-Center, University of Frankfurt. “The MAG Series Junos Pulse Gateways address this need with a solution that combines both remote and local access security at scale. And, any reduction in cost is always an added bonus. This solution we are definitely going to test and to deploy in our environment.”

Equinix launches business continuity services. Equinix (EQIX) announced the availability of its Business Continuity Trading Room (BCTR) services in Equinix’s NY7 data center (formerly Switch & Data) in North Bergen, N.J.  BCTR services are secure facilities that meet or exceed industry standards and allow financial firms to meet regulatory requirements for business continuity, and ensure trading will continue.  Surge Trading Group announced that it has selected Equinix for BCTR services. “Our clients expect us to deliver best execution services and we strive to exceed expectations by ensuring that our service providers meet the highest standards. Additionally, working with Equinix will allow us to develop and scale new offerings for our clients as the market demands. Furthermore, our clients can expect a seamless migration with no impact to their day-to-day dealings with the firm,” said Joseph M. Marinaro, chief business development and strategy officer at Surge Trading. Equinix currently has business continuity capabilities in Germany and Hong Kong.

Interxion and IP-Only connect in Stockholm. Interxion (INXN) today announced an agreement with IP-Only, a Swedish Internet and telecom operator. Under the agreement Interxion customers in the Nordic Financial Hub in Stockholm high-performance, low-latency connectivity to liquidity venues in Stockholm and the rest of Europe. “New trading opportunities are emerging in the Nordic markets following the increasing fragmentation of the markets. This is fueling increasing demand for colocation and proximity hosting services in order to reduce latency. Banks’ statistical arbitrage desks and high-frequency traders are now locating their trading platforms in Stockholm as the Nordic markets are becoming more competitive”, commented Lilia Severina, Interxion’s Proximity Hosting Director.

Peak 10 selected by Infinite Blue. Peak 10 announced that they are delivering data center services to Infinite Blue LLC, a cloud solutions provider. “Because we are a security-focused cloud solutions provider, meeting compliance requirements is one of our primary concerns. Peak 10’s compliance certifications allowed us to meet these regulations easily and in a manner that is much more cost-effective than if we had chosen to host our data internally,” said Rodgers Moore, the CEO of Infinite Blue.  Peak 10 will serve Infinite Blue out of its Louisville data center.   Peak 10 also announced the grand opening of its second enterprise-class facility contiguous with current operations in Richmond. “We are excited to have our Richmond 2 facility complete. We began the expansion project due to high customer demand from enterprise companies stretching from the Tidewater Virginia area to Washington, D.C.,” said Mark Wensell, Ph.D., the vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Richmond. “The second facility will allow us to continue serving the needs of our current and future customers and is a key part of our continued growth strategy.”

Equinix selected by BIDS Trading. Equinix (EQIX) announced that BIDS Trading, operator of the BIDS Alternative Trading System (ATS), has selected Equinix to meet market demand for its industry-leading Alternative Trading System.  BIDS will deploy their critical infrastructure to Equinix’s New York (NY4) data center and allow customers already located in NY4 to directly connect to them.  “We are tasked with supporting everything from institutional buy-side traders to algorithmic traders. All of these groups share a need for a low-latency, secure trading environment with maximum uptime. Equinix was the only provider we were confident would deliver on all of these mission-critical requirements,” said Jim Lee, COO for BIDS Trading.

Interactive Data extends with Interxion. Interxion announced that Interactive Data 7ticks, has extended the footprint of its real-time services by locating a Point of Presence in Interxion’s Stockholm data center.  “Our decision to expand our presence to Interxion’s Stockholm data centre allows us to increase the breadth of services we provide to the Scandinavian community and international investors interested in the region. It also provides Interxion’s clients with the choice of a consolidated data feed or access to the Interactive Data 7ticks’ network,” said Rob Lane, Markets Manager, Electronic Trading at Interactive Data.  Using Interxion’s PlusFeedSM, a low-latency, consolidated market data feed Nordic markets can access a solution for their trading infrastructure by colocating at Interxion.

Peak 10 selected by MacroTransport Services.  Peak 10 announced they are delivering disaster recovery and business continuity solutions to MacroTransport Services LLC, an online transportation company headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida.  The Peak 10 Jacksonville location will be a complete failover site for MacroTransport through a partnership with Agility Recovery Solutions, which supplies the pre-configured IT equipment. “Having the experts at Peak 10 provision a complete redundant architecture assures our stakeholders that MacroTransport’s mission-critical platforms will remain resilient and available despite the ongoing potential threat of disaster,” said Alex Van Baelen, the information technology manager at MacroTransport Services LLC.

CoreLink CEO Hampson Resigns. CoreLink Data Centers announced that Geoff Hampson has resigned as the company’s chief executive officer to pursue other opportunities. Charles Picasso was appointed as the interim CEO and executive chairman of CoreLink’s board of directors. Picasso is the former CEO of IHS Inc., a global provider of critical technical information, related decision-support tools and strategic and operational services in more than 100 countries. “We are excited about the addition of Charles Picasso to our board of directors,” said Gillis Cashman, general partner at M/C Venture Partners.  “The colocation business continues to see strong growth, and as the economy recovers, the convergence of delayed enterprise build outs, long construction lead times and tight IT budgets will lead to even more demand for outsourced capacity. Charles’ breadth of experience and industry know-how makes him the ideal individual to help drive CoreLink’s future growth at this key juncture in the colocation industry.”

Equinix Selected by Harbour IT.  Equinix (EQIX) announced that Harbour IT, a leading information technology services company providing infrastructure, managed services, and cloud computing solutions, is expanding its presence within Equinix’s Sydney International Business Exchange (IBX) data center to satisfy increasing customer demand for its cloud offering.  “Harbour IT’s presence within our cloud ecosystem, including more than 50 networks and interconnection services in Sydney, optimizes performance and creates opportunity to sell their solutions to a diverse range of Equinix customers,” commented Darren Mann, managing director, Equinix Australia.

Peak 10 Will Host Brown-Forman.  Peak 10 announced that Brown-Forman, one of the largest American-owned spirits and wine companies, will relocate its global data center and entire network to an undisclosed Peak 10 location.  “We conducted an exhaustive analysis of our options including renovating space on our corporate campus and building a new data center in Louisville and have concluded that Peak10’s services are suited to service our global technology infrastructure needs,” said T.J. Graven, vice president and chief information officer at Brown-Forman. North Carolina-based Peak 10 has seen a lot of activity in their neighborhood recently with data center announcements from Apple, Facebook, Google and American Express.

New Telecity Amsterdam facility. Telecity Group announced a new 9 megawatt, 6,000 square meter data center in its core Amsterdam market.  The new data center will open in phases, beginning in the fourth quarter 2011 and be the fifth facility in Amsterdam.  Michael Tobin, CEO of TelecityGroup, commented: “I am very pleased that we have been able to secure this growth capacity in Amsterdam. TelecityGroup has had a strong year in 2010 and together with the builds in London, Frankfurt, Paris and Stockholm, this new data centre gives us the opportunity to continue to deliver growth in all of our core markets into the longer-term.  Telecity also announced that IPC Systems, a provider of trading communications solutions, has expanded its core financial networking infrastructure to Telecity Group’s Sovereign House facility in Docklands, London.  Bryan Clarke, Senior Manager, Carrier and Exchange Relationships EMEA, IPC, comments: “To provide optimum service and connectivity options for our customer base, we need our network to extend to the key strategic financial data centres across the globe. TelecityGroup’s Sovereign House facility is at the heart of the digital economy in London, and our presence there will significantly strengthen our ability to meet the specialised needs of our financial customers.”