Savvis details 2011 expansions and openings.  Savvis, a CenturyLink company (CTL), announced its schedule of North American data center expansions and grand openings for the second half of 2011. In response to growing demand Savvis will open data centers in Seattle and Piscataway, N.J., and complete expansions in existing Savvis data centers in Atlanta, Boston and Toronto. ”As enterprises move steadily toward a more flexible IT infrastructure strategy, they can benefit from Savvis’ total commitment to reliability, broad range of services and exceptional network expertise,” said Brian Klingbeil, general manager, hosting business at Savvis. Expansions will include an additional 25,400 square feet in Atlanta, 27,150 square feet in Seattle, 13,500 square feet in Boston, 26,000 square feet in Piscataway, New Jersey and 5,500 square feet in Toronto.

Selerity selects Equinix(EQIX).  Selerity, a provider of real-time event data solutions for the financial services industry, today announced that it has colocated in the Equinix Frankfurt (FR2) datacenter to provide low-latency local access to its event data. Selerity adds Frankfurt on top of existing footprints in Equinix Chicago (CH1) and Secaucus, NJ (NY2).  “With the move into the FR2 datacenter, we are able to offer clients low-latency access to our event data without having to back-haul from its origination points in the U.S. We are pleased to expand our successful relationship with Equinix to gain global access and distribution,” said Ryan Terpstra, founder and CEO of Selerity.

Mind Candy selects The Bunker.  In one of the better press release headlines yet, Monsters Invade Nuclear Bunker, The Bunker announced that Mind Candy, creators of the Moshi Monsters game have selected The Bunker as its hosting partner to support its continuing growth.  “At Mind Candy we were seeking to expand our colocation infrastructure to improve our availability & scalability as the company grows,” said Ian Trayler, Network Operations Manager. “We had dozens of requirements and after talking to many data centre providers, The Bunker was the only one that ticked all the boxes. In a year, we could easily have 100 Million users and with some new exciting projects in the pipeline, the demand on our infrastructure is growing day by day. Working with The Bunker, we know we have the capacity to grow rapidly in a secure and reliable environment.”

Colt and BT sign access agreement. Colt announced they it has reached an agreement with BT Wholesale to allow customers to access content from Europe’s largest media market exchange at the BT Tower in London. Colt will provide UK broadcasters with access to key live dedicated and occasional use content from BT’s network of around 350 sports and news locations in the UK.  ”The broadcasting sector is currently going through a number of significant transformations with the onset of digitization, transition to high-definition services, convergence of IT networks and content delivery platforms, and the proliferation of devices consumers use, ” said Mark Webb, Business Development Manager, Media at Colt. “This agreement on top of Colt’s existing impressive broadcast specific service capability ideally position us to help our customers offer reliable, high quality content from sporting and news events to a wider geographic reach.” The agreement also allows Colt’s customers to transmit content to locations on the BT network outside of Europe, such as Hong Kong, Delhi, Sydney and numerous locations in the U.S.

Data center developer Prairie Bunkers announced that it will soon begin offering “powered shell” DataBunkers for the cloud computing, managed services and disaster recovery markets.  Previously the company was planning to develop and sell rack-ready Tier III data centers.

Prairie Bunkers also announced new power rates through an agreement with utility South Central Public Power District, which will provide power pricing of between 5 cents and 6 cents per kilowatt , depending upon the load factor.  South Central’s power mix includes 30 percent carbon-free content from hydro, wind and nuclear sources.

Former Ammunition Storage Bunkers
The 750 acre Prairie Bunkers data center campus is located near Hastings, Nebraska and features 184 World War II naval amunition storage bunkers.  The Denver-to-Des Moines corridor has seen a lot of data center activity over the past decade from companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft,  and IBM.  The Prairie Bunkers Data Center Park is outside the zones for earthquake, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, airport flight paths and major traffic routes.

“From inception, we have offered high location security, high site security and a low carbon footprint,”said Prairie Bunkers Chairman Gary Hultquist. “With today’s announcements, we also offer large users the “powered shell” alternative and low initial capex by sharing our savings in construction costs from the reuse of the existing bunkers and the presence of the power substation and fiber optic lines which are adjacent to the bunkers and already in place.”

A powered shell provides undeveloped space with the power and fiber connectivity already in place. This allows for easy expansion for companies with the capital to build the data center infrastructure themselves.

Individual DataBunkers are configured in 1 megawatt, 5,000 square foot modules. Pricing for the DataBunkers will be such that other developers can configure a secure campus of their own with multiple bunkers that is competitive with larger footprint sites. If a larger footprint is desired, adjacent bunkers can be connected with new construction.

Included with each powered shell is 1.5 acres of land, an above-ground bunker with 5,000 square feet of internal floor space, loading dock, 14 foot ceilings, and 12 inch reinforced concrete walls able to withstand F5 tornadoes. Multiple fiber providers are available and space for an optional in-ground geothermal cooling system, solar or wind installation.

Completed Design

As an additional-priced option Prairie Bunkers is offering a completed design for conversion of a powered shell bunker into a rack-ready, Tier II or Tier III, high-density, hot-aisle containment, LEED-certifiable data center.

Montgomery Westland, previously known as the Westlin Bunker, is located in Montgomery, Texas, about 40 miles from downtown Houston. Montgomery Westland said the acquisition fits into its strategy to expand the company’s managed services offerings for key industry verticals, including oil and gas, healthcare, higher education and financial services.

“Our acquisition of Packet Beach complements Westland’s overall managed services. Managed services will provide internal management of our customers’ communications system and network infrastructure.” said Jymme Gomez, CEO of the Montgomery Westland Bunker. “This investment represents an important strategic opportunity to offer flexible choices and predictable cost options for our customers. The acquisition also adds to our capacity and presence in application development, monitoring, and hosting solutions for customers.”

The entrance to the "Swiss Fort Knox" data bunker beneath the Swiss Alps.

Subterranean “data bunkers” in unusual locations continue to stir the imagination of the technology world. The latest data hideout to enter the spotlight is the “Swiss Fort Knox” facility deep below the Swiss Alps, which offers ultra-secure data storage in a nuke-proof data center. The facility was featured in the November issue of Wired magazine.

Like many of the data bunkers profiled here at Data Center Knowledge, the Swiss Fort Knox facility takes advantage of existing infrastructure. in this case an old Cold War bunker built by the Swiss military and designed to survive a nuclear blast. The facility is really two separate data centers about 10 kilometers apart, which were developed over the past 15 years by SIAG (Secure Infostor AG), a Swiss provider of IT security solutions. Two related companies, Mount 10 Swiss Data Backup and SISPACE AG, provide services within Swiss Fort Knox bunker, with Mount 10 providing secure data backup while SISPACE focuses on records storage and management.

The data center also takes advantage of the cooling potential presented by its location deep under the mountains. The facility uses Mother Nature as its chiller, pulling glacial water from an underground lake to use in its cooling systems. It also features survivalist-level security measures, including face-recognition surveillance software, bulletproof plastics and vault doors courtesy of the Swiss banking industry.

More details of the facility’s operation are available at the web sites for Mount 10 and Swiss Fort Knox.

A look at the data rooms inside the Swiss Fort Knox data bunker.

For more on data bunkers, check out these stories:

• The Data Bunker Boomlet
• Data Centers in Strange Places
• Iron Mountain’s Energy-Efficient Bunker
• Inside the ‘James Bond Villain’ Data Center

Intel invests billions in next-generation manufacturing. Intel (INTC) announced that the company will invest between $6 billion and $8 billion on future generations of manufacturing technology in its American facilities.  The investment will focus on manufacturing to support future technology advancements in Arizona and Oregon and bring 6,000 to 8,000 construction jobs and 800-1,000 permanent high-tech jobs.  “Intel makes approximately 10 billion transistors per second. Our factories produce the most advanced computer technology in the world and these investments will create capacity for innovation we haven’t yet imagined,” said Brian Krzanich, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Manufacturing and Supply Chain. “Intel and the world of technology lie at the heart of this future. Contrary to conventional wisdom, we can retain a vibrant manufacturing economy here in the United States by focusing on the industries of the future.”  The funding will drive the deployment of Intel’s next-generation 22-nanometer manufacturing process across several existing U.S. factories, along with construction of a new developmental fabrication plant in Oregon.

The Bunker extends ISO27001.  The Bunker Secure Hosting announced that its ISO/IEC 27001:2005 accreditation has been extended to cover its Newbury based data center. “The Bunker has always maintained a reputation for security,” said Simon Neal, COO at The Bunker. “When we achieved the ISO27001 accreditation at our Kent site, we also applied all the processes to our Newbury site right away. Extending the accreditation was the next logical step. We wanted to offer clients who require an ISO accredited data centre the choice of location and the possibility of dual site solutions.”

SGI selected by University of Queensland.  SGI announced that The University of Queensland has commissioned a high performance computing (HPC) solution consisting of SGI Rackable half-depth servers to support a broad range of research applications.  With 3,144 Intel Xeon 5500 and 7500 processor cores and 11.52TB of memory it is one of the largest HPC systems in Australia.  The system will be used for research applications such as bioinformatics, computational chemistry, finite element analysis, computational fluid dynamics and earth sciences.  “These computers will strengthen an important part of the University’s research capacity. Tasks such as processing enormous amounts of biological data generated through techniques such as genome-sequencing, micro-arrays and imaging cannot be done on standard desktop computers,” said Professor Max Lu, deputy vice-chancellor (Research) at The University of Queensland.

Yahoo reports third quarter results.  Yahoo (YHOO) reported results for the third quarter, period ending September 30, 2010.  Revenue was up 2 percent to $1.6 million with net earnings per diluted share up 126 percent to $0.29 compared to the third quarter of 2009.  “We delivered a solid quarter with good display advertising revenue growth, big gains in operating income, and margins that were double what they were last year,” said Carol Bartz, president and CEO of Yahoo!. “Because we recognize the tremendous value of our assets, we also dramatically stepped up our stock repurchases. We’ve now bought back more than 7% of the company’s stock this year alone.” During the third quarter Yahoo began the migration to the Microsoft adCenter platform and opened their energy-efficient data center in New York.

The interior of the SubTropolis business park near Kansas City.

The world’s largest underground business park is about to get a data center. Hunt Midwest Real Estate Development will develop the first 40,000 square feet of SubTech, a secure underground data center within the company’s SubTropolis business complex. When complete, the first phase of SubTech will contain 100,000 square feet of raised-floor data center space.

SubTropolis is an underground facility built in a former limestone mine near Kansas City, offering more than 5 million square feet of space. The facility’s tenant mix is fcoused in the warehouse and distribution sector and record storage. But Hunt Midwest believes the natural cooling provied by SubTropolis will be attractive to data center operators as well.

Data Bunkers Generate Interest 
SubTech will be the newest player in a growing niche for “data bunkers” – underground data storage facilities housed in former military facilities, mines or limestone caves. These subterranean fortresses have strong appeal for tenants seeking ultra-secure hosting that will survive any eventuality – including a nuclear blast.

“We have put great effort into designing SubTech as a state-of-the-art facility,” said Ora Reynolds, president of Hunt Midwest. “Kansas City ranks second in the United States for enterprise data center operating affordability. Power and fiber capacity are abundant. SubTech tenants will be able to take advantage of these benefits.”

Plan for 20,000 Square Foot Modules
SubTech is a naturally “hardened” facility that is safe from natural disasters, and has virtually unlimited space available for IT and raised floor operations. The facility will initially offer data center space ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 square feet, with the first 100,000 square feet of raised floor space built out in 20,000 square-foot modules. Following this first phase of raised floor data center space, SubTech can be expanded in standard modular increments.

“Hunt Midwest has successfully operated SubTropolis for more than 50 years and we are excited the company decided to expand operations to include a data center,” said Jill McCarthy, vice president business development with the Kansas City Area Development Council. “As home to Sprint’s world operational headquarters as well as AT&T regional facilities, this area is a focal point for both long-haul and transcontinental fiber networks.”

A group of data center developers has been pushing the state of Missouri to develop tax incentives to try and leverage the state’s plentiful supply of limestone mines. The Missouri Coalition for Data Centers includes The Mountain Complex, Springfield Underground and City Utilities, which operates the SpringNet Underground. The incentive package uppears unlikely to advance this year.

A rendering of plans for the entrance to the SubTech data center, with space for an electircal substation, water storage tower and a cooling plant. The data center space will be located inside the cave (entrance at right).

The expansion space is located 18 feet underground in a secure, blast-resistant bunker. Construction of the new facility involves the demolition and rebuilding of a section of the former office building where DataChambers is headquartered. When completed, the new data center will more than double capacity to house data for its 110 clients.

“We’ve been pleased with the progress of the project, which positions us for significant growth,” said Nicholas Kottyan, CEO of DataChambers. “We expect to be up and running by early summer.”

“DataChambers is a great success story in our region, and we could not be more pleased that they have chosen NewBridge Bank as their financial partner,” said Terry Freeman, Senior Vice President and Commercial Relationship Manager for NewBridge Bank. “This locally owned and operated business is the ideal client for NewBridge Bank to help move forward.”

The entrance to an ultra-secure data center operated by The Bunker in Kent, UK.

The Bunker in Kent, UK continues to be on the vanguard of the market for ultra-secure “military grade” data centers housed in nuke-proof subterranean fortresses. The company announced this week that it has completed its fourth round of financing, raising £1million ($1.6 million US) of new funds from existing shareholders. The funds will be used to continue upgrading the company’s facilities at its Ash and Newbury Data Centres.

The Bunker, which has hosted clients in underground facilities since 1994, last year announced plans to expand with a 12,000 square meter (130,000 square foot) data center on its existing campus in Sandwich, Kent. As with the company’s two existing data centers, The Bunker 2 offers space for companies that need to be in the London market but are wary of the risk of disaster or terrorism.

“I am delighted with the outcome of this latest round of financing,” said Peregrine Newton, CEO of the Bunker. “The management team see this as another positive endorsement of the progress of the company. The Bunker is now a very profitable business and these funds will allow us to accelerate our upgrade plans and continue expansion. It is tremendous to have such a supportive shareholder base behind us and to be able to draw on such a deep pool of expertise in finance, technology and business growth and development.”

The expansion by The Bunker reflects the growing niche for underground “nuke-proof” data storage facilities housed in former military facilities, mines or limestone caves. These subterranean fortresses have strong appeal for tenants seeking ultra-secure hosting that will survive any eventuality – including a nuclear blast.

This trend has given new life to aging military bunkers in the US, UK and Canada. Although security is usually the primary motivation for customers, underground facilities offer advantages to the data center operator. Chief among them is cooling, as these subterranean facilities typically have a natural temperature of 60 degrees or lower.

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.

Tata Communications London outage
Several reports came in late last week regarding an outage experienced at Tata Communications’ London data center.  Apparently a power cut followed by generator and UPS failures caused the two hour outage Thursday evening in the Stratford facility.  Grid power was restored around 7:30pm that day as servers came back online.  Colocation provider C4L posted a detailed timeline of the Stratford Tata outage. The Register also reported on the outage. They mention that a Tata spokeswoman was still looking into what caused the outage and the subsequent failure of backup power.

Node4 plans fourth data center
Data centre and communications specialists Node4 announced plans for their next data centre site, to be located in Northampton. Plans are being finalized for the facility and customers are expected to move in by the end of 2010.  The DC4 data centre will house up to 600 racks and will feature N+1 or N+N UPS, generators and climate controls. The DC3 facility in Wakefield opened in July 2009.

Investment Forum for Data Centres
Broad Group will host the 3rd annual International Finance and Investment forum for data centres December 3rd in King’s Place, London. In this forum financiers, investors, private equity firms and others will come together to discuss data centre geographic location choices, data storage infrastructure investment and other critical issues, as well as generate new ideas and opportunities for future development.