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.”

An aerial view of the Vantage Data Centers campus in Santa Clara, Calif. Telx will be the anchor tenant in the newest Vantage building.

Telx today announced a major expansion in Silicon Valley, where the company has leased 32,000 square feet of in a new data center being built by Vantage Data Centers in Santa Clara, Calif. The new Cloud Connection Center (C3) facility  offers colocation customers direct access to Telx’s global marketplace of customers in existing  C3 facilities at 1100 Space Park in Santa Clara and the 200 Paul Avenue in San Francisco.

The new Telx facility also continues the leasing momentum for Vantage, which has already filled all of the space in the first two data centers it has brought online on its Danta Clara campus, leasing 15 megawatts of critical power. Telx will be the anchor tenant in the third Vantage building, known as V1.

The lease in Santa Clara continues an active growth phase for Telx, which recently announced plans for its first “greenfield” data center project in Clifton, New Jersey.

Telx CEO Eric Shepcaro says the new space gives Telx more flexibility than it has in 1100 Space Park. “We found we were missing larger opportunities with customers that wanted to be in Silicon Valley rather than at 200 Paul,” said Shepcaro. “200 Paul is a great facility, but some companies just want to be in Silicon Valley.”

Dense Power Footprint

The Telx Santa Clara facility at Vantage supports power densities up to 400 watts per square foot or 16KW per cabinet in a 2N redundant infrastructure design. That’s the highest power density currently offered in any Telx facilities, said Shepcaro, who said Telx has an option on expansion space with Vantage. The newly commissioned facility is the latest addition to the campus built by Vantage, which anticipates all three buildings will earn LEED Platinum certifications and feature Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) ratings below 1.3 to maximize energy efficiency.

“We spent a good year vetting facilities,” said Shepcaro. “We worked with Vantage to come up with space that met our requirements.”

“As the anchor tenant in our Santa Clara data center, Telx now has ample room to expand and provide distinctive, high-performance data center services,” said Greg Ness, VP Marketing, Vantage Data Centers. “As our campus InterConnection Center operator, Telx will bring its considerable expertise and experience in connecting the world’s most in-demand networks, helping our other tenants at this location add value to their colocated infrastructure by building communities of interest.”

Providing Connectivity to Campus

As the retail InterConnection Center operator, Telx can offer customers at the Vantage campus direct connections to hundreds of the world’s leading carriers, ISPs, cloud service and content providers. Enterprise colocation customers in Telx’s Santa Clara C3 data center can also connect with its 200 Paul facility in San Francisco—one of the most carrier-dense InterConnection Centers in the nation.

Wholesale data center operators like Vantage typically seek to have at least one colocation provider as a tenant, as this creates opportunities for customers who would like to house equipment at the campus, but may not require the 500 kilowatts to 1 megawatt of power that typically are the entry points for wholesale leases.

Data centers are attracted to Santa Clara by the price of electricity from municipal utility Silicon Valley Power, which is slightly less than pricing for PG&E in surrounding towns in Silicon Valley. Telx is one of many data center providers bringing new space online, joining Digital Realty Trust, DuPont Fabros, CoreSite, Vantage Data Centers, QTS,Terremark and Server Farm Realty.

Telx is a privately held company that operates 17 data center facilities – five in the New York Metro area, two in Chicago, two in Dallas, four in California, (Los Angeles, San Francisco, and two in Santa Clara) and facilities in Atlanta, Miami, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C.

The project will expand the company’s footprint of colocation space in northern New Jersey, where Telx says it is seeing active for highly-connected data center space. Customers in the new Clifton Cloud Connection Center facility will be able to connect to dozens of carriers through network connections to Telx facilities in Clifton and major Manhattan carrier hotels at 111 8th Avenue and 60 Hudson Street.

“The construction of this flagship facility demonstrates Telx’s long-term strategy to expand data center and interconnection services and gives our customers more choice and flexibility in available power density,” said Eric Shepcaro, CEO of Telx.

Custom-Built Data Center

The standalone data center will be constructed with Mountain Development Corp., Telx’s current development partner at 100 Delawanna Avenue. Telx plans to break ground in late 2011, and the entire building, including phase one of its data center colocation space, will be ready in late Q4 2012.

The company’s 15 existing data center sites were all created in existing buildings, including skyscrapers in central business districts. With the new Clifton site, Telx will be able to construct a facility optimized from the ground-up for data center use. The three-story facility will house all the mechanical and electrical infrastructure on the third floor and the roof, allowing the first two floors to be dedicated entirely to raised-floor colocation space.

More Design Flexibility

That larger floor plates offer increased design flexibility. “There are no columns, and all the critical infrastructure will be off the floor,” said Shepcaro. “This really gives us the opportunity to do more customization with a purpose-built facility. If a customer wants an enclosed suite, we can do that. Our return air plenums support both hot-aisle and cold-aisle containment.”

Telx remains strongly bullish on the greater New York market. The company just opened 20,000 square feet of new colocation space at 100 Delawanna, and another 40,000 square feet at 111 8th Avenue in New York.

“We continue to see strength across our portfolio,” said Shepcaro. “As we go into 2012 we’re looking for additional space on the island of Manhattan.”

Shepcaro said Telx is in discussions with Sabey Corp. about the company’s project at 375 Pearl Street, the huge former Verizon facility that Sabey acquired last year. The first data center space in the building is expected to be brought online sometime in 2012.

PEER 1 launches Zunicore cloud division.  PEER 1 Hosting (PIX) announced today that it has launched its public cloud division, Zunicore, to offer Cloud Hosting. Utilizing its own infrastructure and network, PEER 1 allows for customizable resource pools, hands-free auto-scaling, and transparent pricing. Core features of Zunicore Cloud Hosting include persistent SAN storage, user-defined resource thresholds, and availability in three geographically dispersed PEER 1 data centers.  ”Zunicore gives us advanced feature capabilities that allow us to meet the specific and changing demands of our customers,” said Douglas Cebik, director of business development for Sorenson Media, the global leader in video encoding and publishing.  ”In particular, we fully appreciate the ability to scale our use of the Zunicore cloud and create our own customized pool of resources, which allows us to optimize the cloud resources for a given video encode preset and priority.” Zunicore Cloud Hosting is available immediately.

CA Technologies and iTRACS partner.  CA Technologies (CA) and iTRACS Corporation announced a partnership agreement to  develop solutions to help customers break through current DCIM limitations and better manage data center power, space and cooling. The joint solutions will pair CA ecoSoftware and iTRACS Converged Physical Infrastructure Management (CPIM) to leverage their respective systems management expertise. Together they will evolve a comprehensive DCIM model – DCIModel, enabling the holistic management of the interdependencies of asset, space, time, power, connectivity and processes. “We’re excited to join forces with CA Technologies to help customers unleash the true potential of DCIM,” said Elizabeth Given, president and CEO, iTRACS. “The capabilities provided by the integration of iTRACS CPIM and CA ecoSoftware will empower customers to see, manage and optimize their enterprise infrastructure holistically, enabling the knowledge-based decisions that drive positive business outcomes. This, we believe, is what DCIM is meant to be.” The companies will demonstrate the integration of CA ecoSoftware and iTRACS CPIM at CA World (November 13-16) in Las Vegas.

Telx hosts Cirracore’s cloud hosting.  Telx announced that Cirracore, a global provider of enterprise cloud hosting services, has joined the Telx Cloud Xchange. Housed in Telx Atlanta data centers Cirracore is able to offer Telx’s colocation customers direct, dedicated access to its Cirracloud turnkey hosted cloud solution. Cirracloud, is a vendor-neutral, customized solution that delivers optimized cloud server and storage uptime, high performance, security, control and flexibility in utility cloud computing, based on VMware architecture.  “As our customer base continues to grow, we find significant value in partnering with a trusted colocation and interconnection provider to contain costs and rapidly expand services in regions where demand is high,” explained Fred Tanzella, CEO of Cirracore. “Telx’s Cloud Connection Center in Atlanta offers the carrier density and dedicated interconnection capabilities that can help us power the cloud, while exposing us to a significant number of new business opportunities with their customer base.” Telx will showcase the Cloud Xchange at the 2011 Cloud Computing Expo, November 7-10 in Santa Clara, California

Akamai enables NobelPrize.org.  Akamai (AKAM) announced that Nobelprize.org, the official web site of the Nobel Prize, has partnered with Akamai Technologies, to become cloud enabled by using Akamai´s Dynamic Site Accelerator (DSA) for distribution and offloading the web site, as well as using HD Streaming for video on demand delivery. During the 2010 Nobel Prize announcements, the news captured worldwide attention and the live webcasts culminated in a total of 162,000 simultaneous unique visitors. The next announcements in October 2011 will reach a peak of simultaneous viewers, as well as another in December as they stream Nobel Lectures and the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies. “The Nobel Prize captures international interest and we have experienced a continued increase in web site visitors during the past several years,” said Hans Mehlin, Director of Technology at Nobelprize.org. “We want to ensure that our visitors have a good experience – no matter where in the world they are located. Delivery of Nobel Prize announcements and other material on various media platforms has to be reliable. By using the Akamai DSA solution for distribution, we can confidently manage visitor peaks and provide our worldwide audience with a better experience.”

Telx and Hexagrid partner for hosted cloud solutions.  Telx  announced a strategic alliance with Hexagrid Computing, a developer of cloud enablement software solutions. The non-exclusive relationship empowers Telx’s managed service provider (MSP) and enterprise colocation customers in all 15 Cloud Connection Centers to build their own customized cloud environments using highly scalable, secure private cloud infrastructure and connectivity supplied by Telx’s Interconnection services and Hexagrid’s innovative cloud computing platform. The solution combines carrier-dense centers from Telx and the VxDatacenter cloud from Hexagrid, which optimizes kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) hypervisor technology as a comprehensive Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform. “As the cloud market continues to mature and more organizations look to strategically build and position clouds throughout the world, we believe it is imperative for organizations to have a strong connection backbone and data center partner to rely on,” said Joseph Seibel, CFO and VP of Strategic Development at Hexagrid Computing. “We are very excited to announce our partnership with Telx for delivering enterprise class private hosted clouds that only a provider with such a highly connected data center environment can offer.

Verizon Wholesale selected by Global Gossip.  Verizon (VZ) announced that Australia-based Global Gossip has selected Verizon Global Wholesale for a robust cloud computing platform that supports the worldwide communications services provider’s 300 sites across Australia, Europe, Fiji, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S.  The platform will be delivered through Verizon’s Computing-as-a-Service and gives Global Gossip the flexibility to quickly accommodate new functionality and growth. ”As business needs evolve, companies like Global Gossip rely on Verizon Global Wholesale to deliver the high-performance cloud services they need, freeing them to focus on their core goal of providing quality services to their own customers,” said Patrick Sullivan, sales leader for Asia-Pacific at Verizon Global Wholesale.

PDI selected by PeakColo. Power Distribution Incorporated (PDI) introduced PeakColo as its newest customer. PeakColo is utilizing the company’s newly announced PowerMap solution across its five data centers to automatically upload individual circuit-based power statistics and secure power management information in the cloud—eliminating the need for handheld meters. Delivered from the data centers in Denver and Phoenix PeakColo offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). “Energy costs are quickly getting out of control. When you combine rising prices with the expanding size of today’s data centers, it’s easy to see why efficient energy management is so critical,” said Luke Norris, Founder/CEO of PeakColo. “To help our customers maximize their investments in virtualization and cloud services, we needed to keep a close eye on our pass-through energy costs. That’s why we turned to PDI.”

The parties did not disclose the terms of the transaction. ABRY and Berkshire announced on August 8, 2011 that they had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Telx.

Telx, headquartered in New York City, operates a national portfolio of interconnection and colocation facilities in the most strategic data markets in the United States. Founded in 2000, Telx grew its footprint to meet client demand and created an ecosystem of telecommunications carriers, ISPs and content providers.

The connectivity provider decided against an IPO. It had filed papers with the SEC last year for an initial public offering, in which it had hoped to raise up to $100 million in capital to fund its growth. See the Data Center Knowledge story, Telx Acquired by ABRY, Berkshire Partners. Instead, Telx moved forward with aquirers ABRY and Berkshire.

“Berkshire and ABRY’s deep knowledge of the communications industry and long history of successfully partnering with management teams make them ideal partners,” said Eric Shepcaro, Chief Executive Officer of Telx. “The combination of experience and capital creates exciting opportunities for Telx as we remain focused on building the company organically and developing innovative interconnection products and data center services for our clients.”

Telx this week announced Cloud Connectivity Centers, cloud-optimized infrastructure to support cloud service providers. Cloud Connection Centers are purpose-built, physical platforms within each of Telx’s 15 data centers where cloud providers can house infrastructure and enterprise end users can directly connect to them, according to Darryl Brown, Director of Cloud and SaaS services for Telx.

SoftLayer, Voxel Join cloudXchange
Telx also announced SoftLayer and Voxel as as early members of the Telx cloudXchange, a community designed to create business opportunities for customers within the Telx data centers. The cloudXchange adopts many of the principles that fueled the growth of Telx’s telecom interconnection business as it grew from a single-facility provider at New York’s 60 Hudson Street into a national provider with data centers in 15 geographic markets.

Through the cloudXchange program, SoftLayer will gain additional exposure to Telx customers. Through the exchange, SoftLayer can integrate its automated hosting services with Telx’s interconnection capabilities to create hybrid solutions for customers.

“This partnership enables a unique, hybrid delivery model that opens new business opportunities for Telx’s customers across a variety of industries,” said George Karidis, Chief Strategy Officer with SoftLayer. “As a Telx customer ourselves, we have long valued how their colocation and interconnection solutions help optimize the reliability, security, and latency of our on-demand infrastructure. We are proud that Telx appreciates and trusts the power, reliability, and adaptability of our platform enough to confidently refer our services to their own customers. This partnership enables a unique, hybrid delivery model that opens new business opportunities for Telx’s customers across a variety of industries.”

“Telx has enjoyed a long and successful engagement with SoftLayer, as the company expanded its network footprint across several major U.S. markets leveraging our Interconnection services,” said Eric Shepcaro, CEO of Telx. “This partnership is a natural extension of that relationship, and benefits both companies as well as our Enterprise customer base, who continue to consume cloud-based services. Working with SoftLayer helps us build a strong community of interest for our new Cloud Connection Centers, while offering our customers direct access to the industry-leading mix of SoftLayer’s services.”

Telx said Tuesday that Voxel had expanded its infrastructure at Telx’s facility at 111 8th Ave. New York to expand its international service delivery footprint. The arrangement allows Voxel to directly offer its VoxCLOUD solutions to Telx’s customers at the 111 8th Ave. Cloud Connection Center.

“By integrating into the Telx Cloud Connection Center, we can quickly and cost-effectively offer onramp connections in additional markets, increase connectivity performance and bring our cloud services closer to the end-user networks for the best Quality of Experience available,” said Stephen Callahan, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Voxel.

Verizon completes SAS 70 audits around the globe.  Verizon Business (VZ) announced that it has completed the annual SAS 70 Type II examinations of its data centers around the globe, which support the company’s colocation, managed hosting and application management services. The SAS 70 Type II examinations were completed for 15 colocation data centers in North America, remote IP application management centers in San Francisco and London, and the tenth consecutive year for a successful examination in Verizon Managed Hosting Centers in the U.S. and U.K. “Given the nature of a SAS 70 Type II examination, we believe our successful completion further differentiates Verizon in the marketplace while providing tangible proof of our commitment to delivering unsurpassed value, performance and security,” said Kerry Bailey, group president – enterprise cloud strategy and services at Verizon.

Equinix completes Zwolle data center.  Equinix (EQIX) announced that the expansion of its Equinix International Business Exchange data centre in Zwolle, ZW1, has been completed.  The Netherlands facility is operated by Virtu Secure Webservices BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Equinix. An additional 494 square meters (about 5,317 square feet) of space has been added and was driven by strong demand for data center services in the region. “Our SME and service provider customers rely on Platform Equinix to improve their application performance and to connect to partner and customer ecosystems,” said Frank van der Heijden, Director Managed Services at Equinix. “The expansion of ZW1 will enable our customers to grow their business in this part of the Netherlands as well as abroad.”

DukeNet joines Telx Ethernet Exchange. Telx announced that DukeNet Communications, a fiber optic telecommunications provider, has joined the Telx Ethernet Exchange. As a major network expansion initiative in the Atlanta Metro area DukeNet will enjoy simplified interconnection with service provider networks within the Telx Atlanta data center. “Getting connected to the Telx Ethernet Exchange expands our access to lit buildings in the Metro Atlanta area,” said Tony Cockerham, senior vice president of Sales and Business Development, DukeNet Communications. “We see it as a quick and easy way to provide valuable exposure to our Ethernet services while enabling us to expand our reach by interconnecting to regional providers also on the Telx Ethernet Exchange.”

DataSite Orlando selected by Nerv Web Hosting.  DataSite Orlando announced that hosting provider Nervweb.com has selected them for data center services.  “All of our decision making boils down to one question, ‘What is best for our customers?’” said Sean McCarthy. “DataSite provides the best data center option that supports our customers’ 100 percent uptime requirements.” Nervweb offers hosting and dedicated servers and will soon offer cloud hosted virtual servers, cloud storage and cluster computing. The DataSite Orlando facility is 130,000 square foot, SAS70 Type II audited and has dual underground power feeds from diverse utility substations.

The raised-floor area at the Telx data center in Clifton, NJ.

Citing steady demand for colocation and interconnection services, Telx said today that it is expanding its data center in northern New Jersey, and hinted at additional expansion plans in the region.

Telx will add 15,000 square feet of additional raised floor space to its footprint at 100 Delawanna Ave. in Clifton, N.J. This is the second expansion at the Clifton facility, which opened in 2009 and now houses a total of 50,000 square feet of space.

“We have been proactively adding square footage in New Jersey to give customers more room to grow and explore new opportunities,” said Eric Shepcaro, CEO of Telx. “We are also finalizing plans for an even larger expansion in the NY/NJ metro area due to customer demand. We believe that New Jersey is one of the prime markets for colocation space across several industries, particularly financial services, legal, cloud computing, pharmaceuticals, and large enterprise.”

The Clifton site connects to Telx’s carrier-neutral facilities at 60 Hudson and 111 Eighth Avenue, as well as a data center in Weehawken, providing Clifton customers with access to more than 400 networks in the New York metro region. The Clfton facility is about 11 miles from Manhattan.

Telx said the customer base at the Clifton facility includes a mix of financial institutions, media and content companies, service providers, cloud providers, pharmaceutical companies, legal, and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers.

In this video from 2009, Telx Director of Sales Engineering Kevin Strasheim provides an overview of the features of the Direct Edge nstallation at the Clifton data center, as well as space that will provide expansion for Telx and its customers. This video runs about 6 minutes.

Telx Adds Data Center Space in Dallas – Interconnection and colocation provider Telx has expanded the data center footprint of its facility at 2323 Bryan St. in Dallas, Texas. The addition of a total of 20,000 square feet of conditioned/raised floor capacity for financial institutions, media and content companies, service providers, cloud providers and Software as a Service (SaaS) providers allows Telx to meet increasing demand for colocation and interconnection services in the Dallas area.

Quest Expands Data Center Space in Sacramento – Quest has completed the Phase 4 expansion of its Service Delivery Center (SDC) at the former McClellan Air Force Base near Sacramento. Quest,a Sacramentoarea provider, has added 10,000 square feet of  operational space offering an all-new networking, electrical, and environmental conditioning infrastructure. The latest expansion will soon be followed by Phase 5 and Phase 6 expansions at the McClellan facility. The Phase 5 expansion will be completed by August, adding another 20,000 square feet of capacity dedicated to both SDC co-location and Quest’s Business Resumption Center (BRC). Phase 6, currently in planning, will bring Quest customers yet another 30,000 square feet of new space.

Appia Signs Master Lease With Digital Realty in St. Louis – Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (DLR) has signed a master datacenter lease agreement with Appia Communications for a combination of IT space and office space in Digital Realty Trust’s 210 N. Tucker property in downtown St. Louis. Appia plans to utilize this space to expand the colocation services it offers to customers. The space will also serve as the U.S. headquarters for Appia’s datacenter-related business.