OVH.com to build data center in Quebec.  European hosting company OVH.com announced it is beginning work on its first data center in North America.  The new data centre in Québec represents the first major stage for the independent French company into the North American market. OVH.com is one of the largest web hosting companies in the world, managing over 100,000 servers. The company is also known for their innovative data center design, such as the cube-shaped building in Roubaix, France where the building is treated like an air handler. OVH.com will continue the focus on ecological data centers with the Quebec facility, located in the city of Beauharnois. One hundred jobs will be created on the Beauharnois site and in the company’s Montréal offices. The company expects to house 360,000 servers in the new data center.

Equinix renews Reality Check Network.  Equinix (EQIX) announced that managed hosting provider Reality Check Network will continue to leverage its presence within the Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX) data centers to deliver high-end managed hosting services including virtualization, storage, load balancing, VPN and CDN. As part of Equinix’s ecosystem of more than 800 cloud and IT service providers, Reality Check Network offers managed hosting solutions and powerful dedicated servers that are backed by network, server, and application support. “At Reality Check Network, our number one goal is to ensure 100 percent uptime for our customers.  In order to achieve that, it is crucial that our data center service provider offer the stability, security and compliance necessary for us to follow through on that promise,” said Ben Uretsky, CEO of Reality Check Network.  “We specifically chose to work with Equinix because of the company’s superior stability and scalability.  In the many years we have been with Equinix, we have never experienced any outages.  In addition, the company’s unparalleled network connectivity enables us to reach any network provider within the Equinix ecosystem.  Equinix also has the global reach we need as we expand our business both nationally and worldwide.”

QTS transitions SAS 70 to SSAE 16. Quality Technology Services (QTS) announced that all of the company’s data centers previously certified by the Statement on Auditing Standards number 70 (SAS 70) audit program have  successfully transitioned to Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16). Individual, independent SSAE 16 Type II audits were performed at facilities in Atlanta, Ga.; Miami, Fla.; New York, NY; Jersey City, NJ; Overland Park, Kan. and Suwanee, Ga., as well as both data centers on QTS’ Santa Clara, Calif. campus for calendar year 2011. ”Our transition from the SAS 70 program to SSAE 16 is an evolution that mirrors the expanding assurance needs of QTS management, our customers and their external auditors,” said Darryl Cox, director of audit at QTS. “The transition to SSAE 16 will benefit QTS’ customers by further detailing and clarifying the important role that our audit and control team plays in supporting our customers’ risk management activities.”

Verizon nets $186 million contract with US Postal Service.  Verizon (VZ) announced that the United States Postal Service has selected Verizon as a prime contractor in the Postal Service’s Telecommunications Integrated Postal Services (TIPN) contract. The $186 million contract extends a long-standing relationship between the two orgnaizations and has Verizon continuing to plan, design, install and manage a private, converged Internet protocol communications network based on multiprotocol label switching (MPLS). “The Postal Service’s operations are among the most far-reaching and complex in the world, and Verizon is helping them keep the mailing public connected every step of the way,” said Susan Zeleniak, group president for Verizon Federal. “Whether it’s tracking Express Mail, selling stamps on usps.com or linking more than 31,000 postal facilities, we’re delivering the communications backbone that helps keep the mail on time in a modern world.” Verizon will continue to manage the Post Office network 365 days a year, from Verizon’s dedicated network operations center in Cary, North Carolina.

Cisco Videoscape products launched at CES.  Cisco (CSCO) used the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas to launch new Videoscape products and to show how major service providers have selected Videoscape to deliver their next generation video services. Videoscape is Cisco’s TV platform for service providers that combines digital TV and online video content with social media and communication applications. New offerings in the product will enable “video in the cloud” services that will drive new revenue streams for providers. Built on the Unified Cloud Services platform, new Videoscape cloud components include Voyager Virtual, Cisco Conductor back-office technology, Cisco Media Processor and Transcode Manager and Videoscape Content Delivery Network (CDN) analytics. Videoscape is uniquely designed as an open software-based platform that provides a migration path to an all IP-based video infrastructure, with cloud, network and client components working together to allow video experiences to move, pause and resume across all of these devices.  ”Service providers are looking for ways to bridge the gaps to IP and cloud migration and offer consumers quality video experiences that follow them anywhere,” said Greg Ireland, research manager at IDC Consumer Video. “Cisco’s Videoscape brings an array of capabilities to the table, allowing service providers an opportunity to leverage some or all of its features to enable compelling experiences across multiple screens.” Videoscape was selected by such service providers as Rogers Communications of Canada, YES of Israel and Numericable of France.

QTS selected by cloud provider eApps.  QTS (Quality Technology Services) announced that private cloud provider eApps is expanding its presence into the QTS Richmond Data Center. Previously hosted in QTS’ Suwanee Data Center, eApps desired to add multi-data center connectivity and this led the company to select an additional QTS facility to host its growing private cloud services. ”Expanding into Richmond is a natural next step as we continue to grow our infrastructure and serve our customers,” said Richard Lingsch, president – eApps.  ”The redundancy, security, service and collaborative nature of our partnership with QTS has been an asset to our business.  We look forward to growing and deepening that relationship in this new state-of-the-art facility.” The expansion is eApps’ fourth with QTS in past 10 months.

The exterior of the QTS Metro Atlanta data center.

QTS (Quality Technology Services), a data center facilities and managed services company, announced a series of energy efficiency investments, including achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification for its Atlanta Metro facility.

“We understand the difficulty in achieving LEED in a multi-tenant data center where individual tenant agreements require specific temperature and humidity guidelines,” said Rick Fedrizzi, president, chief operating officer, and founding chair of the U.S. Green Building Council. Since purchasing and upgrading the 990,000-square-foot Atlanta Metro Data Center in 2007, QTS has devoted 4.5 acres of roof space for rain water capture to be used for cooling and, since January 2010, QTS has improved the power usage effectiveness (PUE) at Atlanta Metro by 11.4 percent.

This past summer, the company engaged the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Climate Corps Program, a summer fellowship program that places specially-trained MBA and MPA students in organizations to help drive energy efficiency, to further reduce QTS’ carbon footprint.

“As we implement our EDF fellow’s recommendations through a $10 million multi-year investment, we strive to be not only good stewards of resources, but pass cost savings through to our customers who have an interest in going green,” said Brian Johnston, chief technology officer, QTS. “Our entire company continues to focus on a team approach to obtain greater efficiencies, and we expect these improvements to continue.”

This QTS video gives an overview of the company’s green initiatives.

For additional videos, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

VCE Vblock foundation of NASA initiative.  Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) announced  that NASA has implemented Vblock Infrastructure Platforms from VCE as the foundation of its new backup and recovery solution for its NASA Enterprise Application Competency Center (NEACC) of which SAP is the flagship application in this environment. NASA’s legacy “tape and truck” method will be transformed into a VCE converged infrastructure technology and is designed to save NASA significant time and money while ensuring business critical information remains available whenever it is needed. Using EMC Recover Point and VMware Site Recovery Manager software NASA data is replicated and mirrored online.  A push-button failover allows them to switch from primary to the disaster recovery location with the entire environment never more than a few minutes out of sync. Also, because the virtualized solution can be managed remotely, NASA can reduce its recovery time of crucial data from days to hours.

Joyent, MiTAC and Arista announce Taiwan Cloud.  Joyent and MiTAC Information Technology Corp. (MiTAC), a worldwide systems integrator, today launched MiCloud, Taiwan’s first true public cloud service and a cloud solution bundle for enterprises and service providers.  The single rack solution bundles Joyent’s SmartDataCenter software, MiTAC’s system integration and TYAN servers, and the network operating system from Arista Networks EOS. The Arista Cloud Networking switches connect the TYAN servers and Joyent SmartDataCenter together enabling dynamic network provisioning, 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, ultra-low latency for the most demanding applications. “Since announcing our strategic alliance with Joyent this past April, we’ve seen a strong interest among Taiwanese service providers and end users in offering and using public cloud services,” said Simon Chiang, President of MiTAC. “This initiative meets the needs of enterprises, small- and medium-sized businesses and service providers who want to save on infrastructure cost while enjoying high performance and power savings using the services MiCloud will provide.”

QTS achieves PCI certifications.   QTS (Quality Technology Services) announced that its cloud-based QVI environment has been approved and registered as PCI (Payment Card Industry) Data Security Standard 1.2 Level 1 certified compliant. The PCI compliance applies to all five QTS data centers where the QVI environment is hosted. The QVI (Quality Virtualized Infrastructure) environment is hosted in Atlanta; Suwanee, Ga.; Jersey City; Miami and Santa Clara 1 data centers.  ”Our customers in the payment card and financial services sectors not only benefit from QTS’ safe and secure payment processing environment, but can leverage our PCI compliance to save on assessment costs. Certainly, this certification augments QTS’ unique portfolio of core data center services,” said Kurt Stoever, vice president of service support at QTS.

Deutsche Telekom pushes for German Cloud.  Bloomberg reports that Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE)’s T-Systems unit is pushing regulators to introduce a certificate for German or European cloud operators to help companies guard data from the U.S. government. DTE asserts that they and other telecommunications companies are promoting safe cloud computing offerings and lure customers by shielding clients from government access such as that allowed by the Patriot Act.  In the European Union, Commissioner Neelie Kroes, responsible for the region’s Digital Agenda, has asked providers and users of cloud computing to participate in talks about data protection and privacy as well as technical and commercial standards. “The Americans say that no matter what happens I’ll release the data to the government if I’m forced to do so, from anywhere in the world,’” said DTE division CEO Reinhard Clemens. “Certain German companies don’t want others to access their systems. That’s why we’re well-positioned if we can say we’re a European provider in a European legal sphere and no American can get to them.”

The Lenexa data center will now offer all three of the company’s products – colocation, custom data centers and cloud services, in addition to managed services. QTS will also connect the facility with the carrier-neutral QTS Overland Park Data Center through diverse network connections, creating redundant synchronous replication capabilities between the two data centers.

Demand Outside ‘Top-Tier’ Markets
“We’ve enjoyed exceptional growth by building state-of-the-art, fully redundant data centers and we’re committed to developing the premier data center in the Kansas City market,” said Chad Williams, chief executive officer of QTS. “We’re seeing increasing market demand outside of traditional top tier data center markets. This expansion offers desirable opportunities for those seeking high-density data center solutions in the Midwest and also enhances options for current customers looking to expand their presence with us through our managed services and cloud offerings.”

QTS is also expanding its data centers in Jersey City and Richmond, and recently completed expansions of its Santa Clara and Atlanta Metro Data Centers. The Lenexa facility is expected to be ready for new customers in 2012.

QTS owns and manages 3.1 million square feet of data center infrastructure and supports more than 600 customers.

ViaWest opens Richardson Texas data center.  ViaWest has announced the grand opening of its new data center facility, Synergy Park, located in Richardson, Texas. This new addition will bring the total number of data centers that ViaWest owns and operates to 22, with a total of 500,000 square feet of raised floor space. ViaWest services will be offered in the new facility, which boasts disaster recovery office space, 24×7 on-site support and access to top network providers. “We are thrilled to debut our new flagship facility in the Dallas area,” said Roy Dimoff, Chairman and CEO of ViaWest. “We have a long history and a strong presence in the marketplace and our recent investment in Synergy Park reflects our belief in the growing opportunity in the Dallas area.”

Fortress adds $29.1 million in 2nd quarter.  Fortress International Group (FIGI) announced that the company was awarded new contracts totaling $29.1 million during the second quarter of 2011. New facilities management projects were awarded, including a $450,000 annual staffing contract to develop an operating and maintenance plan, a $2.8 million battery service project, a $1.1 million data center maintenance contract, $1.3 million in annual recurring contracts and a $400,000 UPS upgrade. “We achieved strong bookings across all three areas of our business during the second quarter, which has the company well positioned as we head into the second half of the year,” said Thomas P. Rosato, CEO of Fortress. “We are particularly pleased with the continued growth of our Facilities Management business, as these recurring revenue customers provide us with stable, predictable revenue and help drive gross margin expansion. We continue to grow our F/M (facilities management) business through a combination of new project awards along with extensions and expansions of current work with existing customers. Technology industry leaders continue to recognize the diverse capabilities and added value Fortress brings to theFacilities Management arena. We have made great progress in the development of our F/M business and this remains a key area of focus for the Company as we move forward.”

QTS selected by Barefoot Technologies. QTS (Quality Technology Services) announced that it has been chosen by Barefoot Technologies Corporation, a leading online vacation reservations company, to replace the company’s current colocation environment and provide a new cloud-based solution using QTS Virtualized Infrastructure (QVI). QVI is a cloud solution that delivers a fully-managed virtualized IT infrastructure solution with scale, security, visibility and control. “QTS didn’t try to sell us a product, but instead helped our company craft a solution that best enabled us to meet the demands of our customers,” said Ed Ulmer, vice president of U.S. operations – Barefoot. “QVI offers the benefits of virtualization with the security and control we required, while helping us avoid the need for capital intensive technology refreshes. QTS’ custom solution meets our current needs and promises to easily scale to meet our future growth.”

Logicalis acquires Netarx. Logicalis Group announced that they have acquired Netarx, a Michigan company that provides IT professional services. UK-based Logicalis has been building a global company and strengthens their U.S. presence with a $34 million acquisition of Netarx, who serves customers throughout Michigan and Arizona. The acquisition will also provide Netarx clients with access to Logicalis’ outsourced services, cloud computing and data center management solutions across the United States.

The exterior of the QTS (Quality Technology Services) data center campus in Santa Clara, Calif.

Data center and managed hosting provider QTS (Quality Technology Services) has completed the first phase of a new 70,000-square-foot data center on its Santa Clara campus. The new building will effectively double the square footage available from QTS in the Silicon Valley market.

The original QTS Santa Clara building featured 39,510 square feet of raised floor space. The completion of the first phase of the new data center has increased the raised floor capacity by 12,000 square feet  and includes 1.8 MW of additional power capacity, for a current total of 5 MW on the QTS campus. Additional build-outs will occur as new clients fill the space and utilize power.

“By doubling our West Coast footprint, QTS is able to accommodate both domestic and international customers,” said Chad Williams, chief executive officer – QTS. “These measured increases in power capacity and space allow us to efficiently provide customized IT infrastructure in a burgeoning geographic market and position QTS for additional growth in the region and globally.”

QTS is one of a handful of data center providers bringing new space online in Santa Clara this year. Others include Digital Realty Trust, DuPont Fabros, CoreSite, Vantage Data Centers and Server Farm Realty.

QTS has built a network of 12 data center facilities in seven states spanning more than 3.1 million square feet of space, growing through acquisitions of facilities and customers from eDeltaCom, IBM, NTT America and Globix. The company offers both wholesale data center space and managed services.

QTS has expanded ts revolving credit line, which is secured by the company's downtown Atlanta data center, pictured here.

Data center service provider QTS (Quality Technology Services) has increased the borrowing capacity on its revolving credit line by $45 million, with backing from ING Capital and Caterpillar Financial Services, the company said today. The agreement provides the company with additional capital to complete a series of data center expansions at facilities in four key markets.

The credit line, which was opened in September 2010 and is secured by the QTS Atlanta Metro Data Center, now provides up to $170 million in borrowing power and can be further expanded to $250 million through an “accordion” feature.

“QTS appreciates the confidence these financial institutions have in the future of QTS and their willingness to participate in this revolving credit facility,” said Bill Schafer, the Chief Financial Officer of QTS. “The increased capacity significantly enhances QTS’ financial flexibility as the company continues to expand its data center facilities in Santa Clara, Richmond, Jersey City and Atlanta.”

ING Capital and Caterpillar Financial Services join lead arranger KeyBanc Capital Markets and five additional financial institutions as revolving credit facility participants, including Citibank, N.A., Credit Suisse AG, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and Royal Bank of Canada.

QTS operates more than 3.1 million square feet of data center infrastructure in its 12 locations in seven states, and has more than 600 customers.

The QTS Jersey City facility overlooks the Hudson River and is six miles from Manhattan. To support the additional space, QTS is investing in additional generators, power distribution, UPS, and cooling capacity. The facility is also undergoing upgrade and expansion of fiber assets connecting the data center to 111 8^th Avenue and other key carrier hotels in the region.

“QTS is well-positioned to provide the data center and cloud computing solutions desired by the financial services, healthcare, media and entertainment sectors located in the NYC area,” said Tesh Durvasula, chief marketing and business officer of QTS. “This significant investment indicates the commitment we have to continuing our growth in the region and catering to our customers’ business needs through greater flexibility and scalability. By enhancing our facility’s space, power and connectivity, QTS will be able to meet the needs of current and future customers, regardless of size, industry or projected growth.”

QTS has built a network of 12 data center facilities spanning more than 3 million square feet of space, growing through acquisitions of facilities and customers from eDeltaCom, IBM, NTT America and Globix. The company offers both wholesale data center space and managed services.

Many data center professionals are concerned that the cloud doesn’t necessarily give them the security and control they want. In addition, they know that with application growth, demand for data center space has to grow as well. Yet they don’t see the matching supply of suitable space and power that provides the scalability and flexibility they know they are going to need in the future. Their concerns focus on where is all the necessary IT infrastructure is going to go?

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