UPS Failure Triggered Friendster Outage

A “catastrophic” UPS failure caused a power outage Thursday at a Santa Clara data center operated by Quality Technology Services, triggering days of performance problems for the social network Friendster. Quality Tech said the outage occurred  during planned maintenance when the facility was switched from utility power to backup diesel generators.

“Regrettably, the maintenance did not go as planned and we suffered a catastrophic UPS failure at 8:22 am Pacific Standard Time,” said Mark Waddington, President of Quality Technology Services, in an incident report for customers. “The UPS failed to stand in and smoothly transfer power from the utility to the temporary generators due to a voltage regulator problem with the temporary generators. The failure resulted in the triggering of the FM200 (fire suppression) system in the enclosed battery room and the subsequent EPO as part of our life safety system.”

FM200 is a popular fire suppression system that uses a chemical “clean agent” rather than water. The EPO (Emergency Power Off) button instantly cuts power in the data center when a situation presents a risk to worker safety or equipment.

The Santa Clara facility was back on generator power within two hours, but Friendster remained offline for more than 23 hours over three days. While it has been eclipsed in the U.S. by MySpace and Facebook, Friendster has seen strong growth in international markets (particularly the Philippines) and says it has 85 million users.

Quality Tech Expands with Miami Data Center

Managed hosting provider Quality Technology Services continues to expand, and has opened a new data center in Miami, Florida, the company said today. The 37,000 square foot facility has been engineered to withstand a category five hurricane, and adds to QualityTech’s existing footprint of more than 2 million square feet of data center space across the country.

“It has been our goal to provide a premier solution in the Florida market for our current customers and for new customers,” said Chad Williams, CEO of Quality Technology Services. “QualityTech is dedicated to Miami and we are committed to providing customers with a premium level of service and our outstanding mix of enterprise-driven products.”

The new Miami data center includes 10,000 square feet of customer-ready space with 1,350K watts of UPS capacity. The first phase of construction will open for customer installation in July. When it is completed, the Miami site will offer 20,000 square feet of raised data center floor, and 4,050K watts of UPS capacity.

QualityTech Buys Santa Clara Data Center

It’s been a busy week for Quality Technology Services, which announced today that it has purchased a 120,000 square foot data center in Santa Clara, Calif. QualityTech had been leasing the Santa Clara space since its purchase of Globix, the previous tenant, in October 2006.

“The decision to purchase this campus will continue to allow QualityTech to develop data center space while creating a significant presence in the West coast market,” said Chad Williams, CEO and Chairman of Quality Technology. “As with all QualityTech locations, the Santa Clara data center will provide an extensive list of managed services customized for our clients.”

QualityTech Buys Customers in Kansas City

Managed hosting provider Quality Technology Services has acquired the customers of First National Technology Solutions (FNTS) in the Kansas City market. FNTS had been managing QualityTech’s data centers in the Kansas City market, including facilities in Lenexa and Overland Park totaling about 75,000 square feet of space.

“These new customers will now benefit from QualityTech’s fully-managed services and technology solutions,” said Mark Waddington, President of QualityTech. “Our robust connectivity, power and cooling density are just a few of the many reasons we’re a leader in the industry. Our highly-experienced team has the ability to tailor collocation services for businesses in need of scalable space and bandwidth, to give our clients peace of mind.”

The acquisition increases QualityTech’s presence in the Midwest, and brings the company’s contracted annual revenue above the $100 million mark. QualityTech currently manages and operates more than 2 million square feet of data centers, which the company says has a market value in excess of $500 million.

Internap to Colo With Quality Technologies

Quality Technology Services and Internap Network Services (INAP) have announced a three-year partnership in which Internap will lease space in Quality’s data centers and provide content delivery network (CDN) and IP connectivity services for QualityTech’s customers. The deal represents revenues of $15 million for Internap over the three-year term, while QualityTech gains a relationship with a major user of colocation space.

“This is one of the largest agreements in Internap’s history and another significant win in the CDN/IP space,” said James P. DeBlasio, president and chief executive officer of Internap. “QualityTech’s data centers, combined with Internap’s high-performance CDN/IP creates the industry’s most robust offering, and elevates QualityTech’s ability to provide a world-class bundled solution delivering the ultimate online experience to its customers.”

Quality Technologies provides managed hosting and data center services, including streaming video. The company expanded its data center footprint last year when it acquired a 960,000 square foot facility in Atlanta (where it already owned a 376,000 square foot data center), along with the U.S. hosting business of Globix.

Quality Tech Buys 960,000 SF Atlanta Property

Quality Technology Services said today that it has acquired the partially-finished 960,000 square foot data center facility at 1033 Jefferson Street in Atlanta, which it purchased from MetroNexus, Morgan Stanley’s data center real estate investment subsidiary. Quality has also purchased the U.S. hosting business of Globix, which is exiting hosting to focus on its NEON broadband network. Quality said it paid $20 million for the Globix assets, which included customers in Santa Clara, Calif. and New York. The price for the MetroNexus site was not disclosed.

The purchase continues a rapid expansion into the data center business for Quality, which already owns a 376,000 square foot facility in the Atlanta suburb of Suwannee that it purchased from e^deltacom last September. The company previously purchased multiple data centers in Kansas and Indianapolis, and said Tuesday that it is close to announcing the acquisition of a data center in New York.

1033 Jefferson, previously known as the Metro Technology Center Atlanta (MTCA), was built by Sears in 1954 as the company’s southeast distribution center. The huge building was initially a joint project of MetroNexus and CoreLocation, which bought the site in 2000 and invested $80 million to convert part of it for telecom and data center use.