RightScale Launches 1 Millionth Cloud Server

Cloud broker RightScale has launched more than 1 million servers on the cloud through its RightScale Cloud Management Platform, the company announced today. RightScale, a three-year old cloud specialist, has helped deploy cloud installations for clients ranging from social gaming company Zynga to entertainment conglomerate Sony Music.

“One million is a big number and testifies to the enormous traction that cloud computing – and automated cloud management – has achieved,” said Michael Crandell, RightScale CEO. “It also presents more undeniable evidence that it’s no longer a question of whether or not cloud computing will become a major force for change in IT – it’s only a question of how fast.”

The announcement underscores the ease and speed with which companies are deploying virtual servers on cloud computing platforms. RightScale has worked closely with the social gaming sector, but its growth also suggests the potentially large role for companies serving as cloud brokers to help companies deploy apps on cloud platforms.

Peak 10 Expands Richmond Campus

Managed service provider Peak 10 is building a second data center adjacent to its current operations in Richmond, the company said today. The 13,500 square-foot addition, scheduled to open later this year, will be the company’s 19th data center facility and bring Peak 10’s total footprint in Richmond to 30,000 square feet.

“The expansion of our Richmond operations is a direct result of high customer demand from enterprise companies stretching from Tidewater Virginia to Washington, D.C.,” said Mark Wensell, the vice president and general manager of Peak 10 Richmond. “We continue to invest capital into our existing state-of-the-art facilities in addition to constructing new ones. This second Richmond facility will allow us to meet the current and future demand for our managed IT services throughout the Virginia business community.”

Google Won’t Claim S.C. Incentives

A photo of the Google data center in Goose Creek South Carolina.

Google has declined a jobs-related tax break from the state of South Carolina, and will not claim a $2.5 million grant that required that the company create 200 new jobs in the state, according to local media. The incentives were part of the package Google negotiated with state officials in the site selection process for its data center in Goose Creek, S.C.

The news provides the latest cautionary tale about the use of tax incentives to lure huge data center projects. These projects bring huge investment in the local economy, but don’t always deliver on the level of job creation envisioned by the incentive packages – which in the case of data centers, aren’t enormous to begin with. 

Cloud Connect Presentations Online

If you weren’t able to make it to the Cloud Connect conference this week in Santa Clara, a number of speakers have posted their presentations online. Here are some links:

• Brett Piatt, Rackspace: The Future of Open Source in a Cloudy World
• James Urquhart, Cisco Systems: The New DevOps Designers: Cloud & The Big Rethink
• Jesse Robbins, Opscode: Operations Culture
• Guy Rosen: Hacking Cloud Computing Adoption
• Tuesday Morning Keynotes

Also worth checking out is the BitCurrent roundup of the Tuesday morning keynotes: 10 Real Life Stories and Insights from Cloud Connect. You can also follow the conference on Twitter using the #ccevent hashtag.

Video Reigns, Corporate Pains and Akamai Gains

March Madness calls to mind passionate fans and office pools on the brackets. The San Jose Business Journal has an article that reveals another angle to the games for IT staff – employees watching games at work.  Instead of a TV in the break room, sites like NCAA.com and CBSSports.com are being visited from company computers, with those sites seeing increases of 10,000 percent during the tournament.

ScanSafe (acquired by Cisco in December 2009) warns that the corporate network can not only be impacted by increased bandwidth demands, but expose companies to malware. Spencer Parker, director of product management at ScanSafe warns that “most employers don’t know the bandwidth impact of these streaming sessions and are unaware of any financial implications.”  Both CBS and NCAA sites, according to network zone records, are served off of the Akamai network.

Further proving that adoption of video on the Internet continues to accelerate, Akamai (AKAM) had two big video-related announcements Tuesday. The first was that they have been selected as the primary content delivery network for movies and TV episodes streamed instantly over the Internet by Netflix (NFLX).  In 2009 Netflix reports that almost half of their 12.3 million members had instantly watched a movie or TV episode on either a computer or TV via a Netflix ready device.  “Akamai’s solutions are a perfect fit to support Netflix as it undergoes a strategic business model shift from traditional DVD shipment to streaming,” said Robert Hughes, Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Services and Marketing at Akamai.  Last September Akamai unveiled the Akamai HD Network, a platform to deliver high-definition online video using Adobe Flash technology, Microsoft Silverlight, and the iPhone.

The second announcement came from the SXSW Festival taking place in Austin.  Akamai announced that leading movie distribution companies rely on Akamai’s global EdgePlatform to ensure high quality movie delivery experiences online. HD quality movies being delivered come from Akamai customers EPIX, Netflix and Roxio CinemaNow. It was also reported that traffic across Akamai’s network associated with the delivery of full-length feature films has seen triple digit growth since November 2009, which Akamai attributes to more content being migrated onto its platform.  As the number of movies being delivered digitally rises, a number challenges emerge, including smooth playback, highest bitrates (geography-based delivery), and offering interactive content.  “We strive to provide a digital distribution channel that allows distribution companies to experiment with new services and promotions, fully capitalize on unplanned growth and grow their business, without high up-front capital costs. This technical capability, coupled with consumer demand, is exciting for the industry,” said Steven Chester, Vice President, Film at Akamai.

EpixHD.com, a joint venture between major movie studios has subscribed to the full suite of Akamai services and delivers more than 200 full-length HD movie experiences online with the quality, speed and convenience demanded by today’s consumers of digital media.  Customer Sonic Solutions reports that Akamai supported a 93% increase in movie downloads by Sonic since November.

Akamai notes that a critical factor to enable high bit rate delivery of very large (5-8GB) files is the proximity of the end-user to the server sending the file.  As an example, the only way to achieve 10 to 20 Mbps throughput for typical PC end-users is if the server is less than 20 milliseconds away.  The consumer side of the pipe is getting some help as well — on Tuesday the FCC delivered the National Broadband Plan to Congress, setting an ambitious agenda for connecting all corners of the nation.  Between that and the hundreds (if not thousands) of cities submitting to receive Google fiber, the consumer bandwidth bump should aid plans (and revenue) for Akamai and the Studios.

Roundup: SGI, Level 3, Gartner

Here’s a roundup of some of some of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

SGI unveils Origin 400 Blade System.  SGI announced the availability of Origin 400, an integrated workgroup blade system that features compute and storage area network (SAN) storage functionality. Targeting enterprise verticals such as healthcare, education and local government, the new blade system has extensive software certifications, including VMware, Linux, SAP, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server.  In a 6u enclosure the Origin 400 can scale to six dual-socket compute blades and 14 2.5″ SAS hard drives.  It also supports the new Intel Xeon processor 5600 series with up to 72 cores per system.  “SGI’s new Origin 400 offering will not only help SGI expand further into the business computing market, but will be vital for resellers that serve small- to medium-sized enterprise markets,” said Jed Scaramella, senior research analyst, servers at IDC.

Level 3 Expansion of Switched Ethernet footprint. Level 3 (LVLT) announced delivery of a significant phase within its Ethernet Expansion Program.  Level 3 will expand the number of Ethernet switches on its U.S. network by almost 400 percent. “This expanded architecture enables Level 3 to address a significantly broader set of enterprise and wholesale customer requirements for Ethernet services, said Sureel Choksi, chief marketing officer for Level 3. Level 3 will also make additional feature enhancements that will expand the company’s already comprehensive Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF)-certified Carrier Ethernet services portfolio.

Gartner’s Take on Data Center Networks.  Gartner issued a press release Tuesday advising users to not assume that a single converged data center network is more efficient than two well-designed separate networks. Their research shows that a converged network requires more switches and ports, is more complex to manage and consumes more power and cooling than two well-designed separate networks. Joe Skorupa, research vice president at Gartner states “alternatively described as Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), Data Center Ethernet (DCE), or more precisely, Data Center Bridging (DCB), this latest set of developments hopes to succeed where InfiniBand failed in its bid to unify computing, networking and storage networks.”  He continues the argument by saying that “while the promise that a unified fabric will require fewer switches and ports, resulting in a simpler network that consumes less power and cooling, may go unfulfilled, that doesn’t mean that enterprises should forgo the benefits of a unified network technology.”  Additional information on this research is available in the report “Myth: A Single FCoE Data Center Network = Fewer Ports, Less Complexity and Lower Costs.”

Bay Area Gets $750,000 Energy Rebate

Bay Area Internet Solutions (BAIS) will receive a $750,000 rebate from Silicon Valley Power for the energy-efficiency measures the company has implemented in its newest colocation facility in Santa Clara. The incentive for the company’s 83,000 square foot data center is the maximum available from Silicon Valley Power (SVP).

“We are very proud to have built a data center that actually surpassed the SVP energy efficiency requirements in order to qualify for their maximum incentive rebate,” said BAIS president and CEO, Tom Wye. “We have constructed one the most technologically advanced colocation facilities, including an innovative economizer design to accommodate today’s growing customer demands for high-density power coupled with efficient and consistent cooling requirements.”

The BAIS Santa Clara site features an unusual economizer design. One end of the data center is lined with more than 200 fans to bring fresh air into an exterior “air corridor” that surrounds the data center. The air is then filtered and used in the facility’s cooling system. Bay Area Internet expects to be able to use the air economizers to provide free cooling for 85 percent of the year.

A Closer Look at Power Loft’s Design

Power Loft @ Innovation is a 225,000 square foot data center that just opened in Prince William County, Virginia. The facility was built with a two-floor design that physically separates the server rooms from the power and cooling infrastructure, allowing clients to run power densities of up to 300 watts a square foot in the equipment space. In this video from last week’s opening, Michael Armm from Power Loft and Jason Chartrand from T5 Partners provided an overview of the innovative two-story design. This video runs about 6 minutes, 30 seconds. NOTE: We’re having some trouble with YouTube … if you get a message that the video is private, please try again in a few minutes.

For more on this topic, see our Data Center Design Channel. For additional video, check out our DCK video archive and the Data Center Videos channel on YouTube.

Perseverance Brings Progress for Power Loft

The exterior of the Power Loft data center in Manassas, Virginia.

Sometimes you have to be ahead of the curve to reach the finish line at the right time. That’s the story for the new Power Loft LLC data center in northern Virginia, according to president and CEO Jim Coakley.

Back in 2006 the Power Loft team and data center designer Peter Gross began developing plans for a two-story data center that would create a “hard separation” between the server area and the mechanical equipment. The speculative project rode out the financial crisis, and came online in December with CapGemini as its first tenant.

“This is the right product at the right time,” Coakley said Thursday as he welcomed local officials from Prince William County to the facility for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, where Horizon Data Solutions was announced as the facility’s second tenant, leasing 12,500 square feet of space.

LEED Silver Certification
Power Loft was designed for both high efficiency and high density. The $330 million project has earned a Silver certification under the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) benchmark for energy efficiency in commercial building.

The data center has 50 megawatts of power capacity from the Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative (NOVEC) and employs a flexible “hybrid power” distribution system from Validus DC Power that offers users the option of AC or DC power. The company also says it use of larger air handlers makes its cooling system more efficient, giving the facility a reported Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.28.