St. Louis IT firm Xiolink will receive nearly US$850,000 in state brownfields tax credits to help rehab its new space at 1111 Olive in downtown St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Economic Development has announced.

DED director David Kerr visited the company’s headquarters downtown to announce the award, which will help fund an US$11.75 million project to rehab the five-story building to house a data centre and hosting services. The building, which used to house Post-Dispatch printing presses, is contaminated with lead paint and asbestos.

Moving from all-data interfaces to full IP voice capability, carrier Ethernet exchange provider CENX said it has launched the first fully neutral carrier Ethernet voice exchange service. Founded by former Metro Ethernet Forum president Nan Chen and Ron Gavillet, CENX is designed to solve the growing problem of carrier Ethernet interconnection.

IRESS Market Technology Canada, a member of the corporate group of IRESS Market Technology Limited, has announced it will soon be colocated with Chi-X Canada. Chi-X Canada will, by the end of the second quarter, relocate its primary data centre to Switch and Data's Front Street facility in Toronto, which is one of IRESS Canada's existing hot-swappable data centre locations.

Telx, the interconnection and colocation provider in strategic North American markets, announced today that it has entered an independent marketing partnership agreement with World Telecom Group (WTG), one of the largest and most diverse national telecom Master Agents.

Under the terms of the partnership agreement, Telx has engaged WTG as a marketing and sales agent on a non-exclusive basis, and WTG' Telecom Agents can now offer their customers the best in carrier-neutral connectivity choice and colocation in all 15 of Telx's North American locations.

Quality Technology Services, a US privately held provider of data centre facilities and managed services, has announced that Ultimate Software, the leading provider of unified HR, payroll, and talent management solutions, has renewed its contract with QTS’ Miami data centre facility.

“We chose QTS’ Miami data centre because it offered the best and newest facility for state-of-the-art protection, redundancy, and security,” said Bill Hicks, CIO for Ultimate Software.

Source: Business Wire

The Columbia City Council last night took a major step toward future economic development by approving incentives to entice high-tech industries to set up shop in Columbia. The two approved agenda items will work hand in hand to provide businesses such as data centres with development agreements offering large amounts of cheap power as well as reimbursing those companies up to half of the costs of building the necessary on-site infrastructure to receive it.

Peak 10 will provide hosting services to NPower Charlotte Region, a consulting organization that provides technology assistance to local nonprofits.

Under the agreement, NPower will house its data and that of its clients at Peak 10’s Charlotte facility.

Source: Biz Journals

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Education Management Corp. has selected the former Deluxe Check Printing building in Robinson as the site for its new US$24 million data centre as part of its expansion program that will include 160 new jobs and two active data centres. The Pittsburgh company, which operates career schools throughout the US and plans to add a total of 600 new jobs as part of its expansion in the region, will lease the entire 41,000 sq ft building, said Steve Forde, EDMC spokesman.

FIBERTOWN, Houston’s premier tier-IV-designed data centre and disaster recovery office space provider, has closed a new agreement to provide long-term data centre services for Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, a Houston-based, 350-physcian multispecialty medical group. The Clinic will consolidate and move its current Houston data centres into a large section of FIBERTOWN’s Bryan-based data centre.

Digital Realty Trust, the world's largest wholesale data centre provider, has released the results of its annual study of the US data centre market. The study is based on a detailed survey of senior decision makers at large corporations in North America who are responsible for shaping their companies' data centre strategies. The research was conducted for Digital Realty Trust by Campos Research & Analysis.

Level 3 Communications has announced a multi-year contract with the US Department of State to provide metro network services. Level 3 will deliver services under the Washington Interagency Telecommunications Services contract that negotiates telecommunications services on behalf of all federal agencies operating within the National Capital Region.

Data centre operator Corporate Colocation has announced it recently built a new green data centre in Los Angeles that cuts energy consumption and reduces energy costs. Corporate Colocation hired engineers to design a free cooling system within the facility that would filter the cool Los Angeles air and use it to cool the data centre.

The system takes the hot air from the servers and distributes it from the hot aisles in the data centre. On days when it is too hot for free cooling the mechanical coolers kicks in.

Source: The WHIR

A Kansas firm with ties to the data centre and technology industry wants to buy the former Qimonda memory-chip manufacturing plant in eastern Henrico County for US$12 million. It is unclear what plans the firm, Richmond Semiconductor, may have for the 210-acre campus, which features 1.36 million sq ft of administrative offices, clean rooms and manufacturing space.

Three giant electrical generators were lifted into place Friday at the Yahoo! data centre, as the work continues toward an early summer opening for the US$150 million project. The diesel-powered generators are only backups in case electric power from the regular utility grid goes out, said Jeff LaMartina, service manager for Cummins Northeast in Cheektowaga, which supplied the generators.

NASA has recently announced via one of its websites that it is restrategizing its plans to acquire an enterprise data centre.

NASA decided to postpone the acquisition after realizing that the NASA Enterprise Data Center program did not adhere to its enterprise needs. The agency's needs shifted after recent leadership changes and new requirements from the Office of Management and Budget were introduced in relation to cloud computing, greening information technology, virtualization, and federal data center leadership.
 

Source: The WHIR

Google has published a post-mortem of an incident in February that saw its Apps service go down for a couple of hours.

BlueBridge Networks, a premier data centre colocation and managed services provider, has announced that Toolingu.com selected the organisation to house their mission-critical data within the company's Cleveland-based enterprise-class data centre. As part of the selection, Toolingu.com has signed a multi-year contract with BlueBridge Networks to include data Center services, managed storage and managed security services.

Vitelity, a VoIP network provider, has selected XO Communications to provide dedicated long-haul network connectivity between Denver and Los Angeles. The 10 Gbps backbone will be the Denver-based company's first long-haul route to Los Angeles. Vitelity also is upgrading its Denver metro network service with XO, moving to a 10 Gbps backbone.

Steadfast Networks, a leading Chicago based colocation services and dedicated server hosting provider, has announced its environmental green initiative by implementing a full carbon offset for staff commuting, office usage, core infrastructure, networking equipment, shared web hosting, VPS hosting, and backup services. Steadfast Networks is certified “CarbonFree” by Carbonfund.org, an environmentally-friendly organization that helps businesses reduce and offset their environmental impact.

Equinix, a provider of global data centre services, and Boston Options Exchange Group, an all-electronic equity options market, have announced BOX is moving its operations, featuring an ultra-fast matching engine, within the Equinix NY4 International Business Exchange data centre. The deployment provides a secure, high performance trading environment that BOX requires for its present and future plans.

C7 Data Centers, a national provider of colocation, disaster recovery and virtualisation solutions, has announced that eFileCabinet, a global provider of data management products and services has signed a multi-year agreement for colocation services.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has said that it will use a US$14.3 million grant from the National Center of Research Resources to double the size of its genomics data centre to 32,000 sq ft.

From strong thunderstorms to tornadoes .to even earthquakes, spring weather in Oklahoma can be very unpredictable, and one local hospital is taking steps to make sure your health information will be protected when a disaster strikes. It may be the last thing on your mind during a natural disaster, but having access to patient medical records can be vital for doctors and nurses. Now thanks to a new US$60 million facility, patients records throughout the Mercy Health System will be safe.

Globecomm Systems, a provider of satellite-based communications infrastructure solutions and services, said it has received an infrastructure contract valued at US$4.6 million.

Under the terms set forth in the contract, Globecomm will act as a general contractor to provide a new media data centre. Systems to be provided include conversion of analog, standard definition, and high definition video feeds to Internet Protocol streaming formats realized by the Globecomm network design.

Source: Trading Markets

Horizon Data Center Solutions has announced it has leased space at the new Power Loft data centre in Manassas, Virginia as part of its national expansion strategy. The company will occupy a data centre suite that is supported by 2MW of power, with an option for an additional 10MW of capacity.

Peak 10, a managed services company with world-class data centres, has announced the signing of biotechnology company BioSignia, to a multi-year contract. Peak 10 will provide BioSignia with a scalable, redundant and managed virtualization platform as well as backup and storage management for its mission-critical data.

Worldwide network integrator Global Telecom and Technology has announced that telecommunications provider Telx is now offering Gigabit Ethernet connectivity via GTT's network to its interconnection and colocation customers in eight US cities. The announcement follows GTT's recent acquisition of IT services provider WBS Connect.

Telx has announced that HyperCube, a provider of local and national tandem services to the nation’s largest carriers, has established a colocation centre within Telx’s Miami, Florida facility. Maintaining a colocation suite in this location allows HyperCube to offer their full complement of competitive tandem services to the Miami marketplace while significantly reducing expenses associated with network implementation.

BAIS., a premier Silicon Valley colocation and managed IT solutions provider, announced today it has been awarded the maximum incentive amount from Silicon Valley Power’s (SVP) Customer Directed Rebate program for energy efficient measures taken in its newest colocation facility at Martin Avenue in Santa Clara, California.

The Department of Homeland Security conscripted Navy facilities at NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi as home for the new primary data centre in the DHS' major data centre consolidation effort, and in a new report, DHS auditors have expressed concern that problems with that agreement could disrupt the multi-year project.

The state Senate has approved a temporary tax exemption for companies that want to build server farms in Washington. The measure now heads to the House for further consideration. The measure grants a sales and use tax exemption for eligible server equipment and power infrastructure at eligible computer data centres.

The centres must be located in a rural county, have at least 20,000 sq ft dedicated to housing servers. They also must have started construction between April 1, 2010 and July 1, 2011. The exemption ends on April 1, 2018.

Source: Business Week

BlueLock, a provider of cloud computing and managed information technology services, will expand its Indianapolis headquarters operations, creating 118 new jobs by 2014.

The company, which offers a tailored selection of Infrastructure-as-a-Service environments to best configure clients' computing resources, will invest more than US$35.6 million to make improvements and upgrade hardware at its 20,000 sq ft data centre on the city's Northwest side.

Source: MFR Tech

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CyberlinkASP has announced the expansion of the company's Dallas InfoMart data centre facilities. The additional space marks a milestone in CyberlinkASP's growth and development. "While other firms across the industry throttle back and maintain the status quo, Cyberlink is poised and positioned to capitalize on this unique and challenging economic environment," said Stephen Phillips, President of CyberlinkASP.

Cyberlink has increased its customer count, added staff and continues to demonstrate steady and stable growth throughout 2009 and into Q1 20.

M5 Hosting, a leader in customised, high performance Linux and BSD dedicated server hosting solutions, announced today it has begun operations at its new data centre at 9305 Lightwave Ave. in San Diego. It is the company’s second data facility.

The new facility is an 80,000 sq ft purpose-built data centre located in the San Diego Spectrum area of San Diego, California. The facility is owned by American Internet Services.

Source: W3 Reports

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Mankato-based Enventis, a subsidiary of HickoryTech, began installing an integrated MPLS network for Minneapolis-based Hawkins, with operations in 10 states. Hawkins said it chose Enventis for its MPLS network, which provided increased bandwidth, dedicated Internet services, and data centre colocation services. Hawkins, a growing chemical manufacturer, needed greater bandwidth and an upgraded network for 19 of its locations.

The US Green Building Council has awarded a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification to Allstate Insurance Company’s new data centre in Rochelle, Illinois. The Green Building Certification Institute has verified the certification. LEED is the leading program for certifying high performance green buildings in the country for their design, construction and operation.

PEER 1 Network Enterprises has announced it has acquired Atlanta based VIA Net.Works USA, a privately held subsidiary of Clara.Net Holdings, in an all-cash transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

VIA Networks USA is a provider of primarily dedicated and managed hosting solutions built around the Microsoft platform for small and medium sized businesses. During calendar year 2009, VIA Networks USA generated approximately US$2 million in revenue and an operating loss for the year.

Source: CNW

Apparent Networks has issued a new Performance Advisory detailing an outage in Terremark's vCloud Express services. Apparent Networks' Cloud Performance Center confirmed that a connectivity loss caused the outage, which took place in Terremark's Miami data centre. Businesses utilising Terremark's vCloud Express services from this data centre were affected.

Richardson could give US$5 million in incentives to a new data centre that is expected to add US$160 million to the city's tax rolls. The City Council will vote tonight on a tax-increment financing grant for Datacenter Park. It is a joint venture between developer Tod Fobare and San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust.

Multnomah County, incorporated in 1854, covers approximately 466 square miles. It’s the smallest Oregon county in area, but the largest in population. The Multnomah County data centre is in the basement of the Penumbra Kelly Building at 4747 E. Burnside St. in Portland. The facility is approximately 2,800 sq ft and houses US$2.5 million to US$3 million of critical telecommunications and computing infrastructure that supports the county’s networks and business applications.

The Richardson City Council has approved a deal landing one of the largest data centres in the nation. Datacenter Park will be built at the corner of Alma Road and Collins Boulevard. On Monday night, the City Council unanimously approved a Tax Increment Financing grant of US$5 million.

Consolidating information technology infrastructures used by hundreds of state government agencies not only makes financial sense but also positions states to better use technology, according to several state CIOs. For example, Massachusetts officials consolidated 100 IT agency groups into eight organizations and are in the process of consolidating all of the state’s IT infrastructure under the direction of a single organization, Anne Margulies, the state’s chief information officer said.

The National Security Agency's plan to build a massive data centre for intelligence analysis has drawn interest from some of the country's largest construction firms. More than a dozen contractor teams have announced they are gearing up to submit bids on the US$1.7 billion data centre.

The players include Salt Lake City-based Jacobsen Construction, which is teaming up with New York-based Turner Construction and Kiewit of Omaha, Nebraska.

Source: The Spectrum

Colocube, a provider of disaster recovery storage and IP bandwidth transit services, has announced that it is going to enhance its Atlanta facility located at 56 Marietta Street in downtown Atlanta. The company has begun offering a cloud storage disaster recovery solution from the facility.

QuadraNet has announced the opening of an additional data centre in Dallas, Texas. The location marks a large leap in QuadraNet's footprint in the United States as it is the first location of multiple across the country, in order to meet the demand for geographically dispersed data centre solutions. Multiple locations across the USA will enable customers to fulfil their load balancing, redundancy, and geo-targeted requirements from a single company, allowing for ease of management and streamlined business processes.

Colocation and network services provider Telx has announced it has expanded its Manhattan data centre at 111 8th Avenue by an additional 21,500 sq ft of data centre space. The data centre serves a range of financial firms, cloud infrastructure and software providers. Telx, which recently filed for an initial public offering in which the company hopes to raise up to US$100 million, decided to expand on the data centre to meet its customer demand.

Natural gas distributor AGL Resources has said that it has made a deal to sell its AGL Networks telecommunications fibre-optics business to Zayo Group. The price was not disclosed. The Atlanta-based networks unit builds, owns, and runs fibre optic networks for customers in Atlanta, Phoenix, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

AGL Resources said selling the network operation would let it get money for its investment in a noncore business. It said it would use the money to pay down debt and for growth opportunities, especially in its natural gas business.

While most industries were negatively affected by the recession, the data storage sector actually benefited from slashed budgets, as many companies began to outsource their data storage needs during the downturn in an effort to cut costs. “[Customers] are outsourcing more because of the difficulty and the expense of putting up their own data centres. That has driven more and more business to the colocation and managed services providers,” said Mark Kelleher, a managing director and senior analyst at Brigantine Advisors.

Global, on-demand virtual data centre and hosting services provider SoftLayer Technologies, has been given a US$10 million in new investment, bringing its total of funds available under its senior notes facility to US$30 million, which will be used to fund the company's continued growth. Facilitated by investment banking firm DH Capital, the additional financial commitments came from a group of private investors organised, and DH Capital served as exclusive financial advisor to SoftLayer on the transaction.

AGL Resources has announced it has reached a definitive agreement to sell its AGL Networks dark-fibre telecommunications business to Colorado-based Zayo Group.

AGL Networks, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, constructs, owns and operates fibre optic networks that provide connectivity and related dark fibre services to customers primarily in the Atlanta, Phoenix and Charlotte markets. The company owns and operates a network of more than 795 route miles and 182,000 fibre miles.

Source: PR USA.net

It gets cold in Green Bay, WI - very cold. Yet until recently all that natural cooling was wasted at Associated Bank. So when the time came to expand the data centre and upgrade the cooling systems Associated Bank installed a glycol-based "free cooling" system at its two data centres. Glycol is akin to the antifreeze in a car. During the winter, pumps move the glycol around, allowing the outside air to cool the liquid, which in turn cools the data centre. The compressor, a costly energy drain, stays off.

CyrusOne held its Grand Open House event earlier this month for its new 92,000 sq ft data centre within Beltway 8 Corporate Centre, Houston, Texas. Built from the ground-up in six months, the state-of-the art, colocation, data centre facility has been operational since December 2009 with on-going customer installations.

Hudson Fiber Network, an exclusive provider of high-bandwidth, low-latency networking solutions, has announced that it has partnered with Cervalis to deliver network services at its brand new, state-of-the-art site in Passaic County, New Jersey. This partnership enables Cervalis customers to connect to North America's top exchanges in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and Toronto using HFN's X-Change Connect.

The commonwealth’s planned data and computing centre in Western Massachusetts has been handed US$25 million by Gov. Deval Patrick, who also tagged the area around the centre’s future home of Holyoke as the Holyoke Innovation District. All told, the new High Performance Computing Center will get US$65 million in funding, including US$40 million from a group of universities.

When it comes to saving power across a huge business or enterprise, a small savings in power consumption can add up to a huge savings in electricity use. This is the big reason that many companies were updating to more power efficient data centres over the last few years. Ford has been moving towards a much greener operation with new vehicles like the 2011 Ford Mustang that offer power and performance without sacrificing fuel economy. Ford is also looking at other methods of improving its green footprint and saving money internally.

Chicago colocation provider CoreLink Data Centers, a provider of high quality, Tier 3 data centres, with colocation facilities in Phoenix, Seattle, Las Vegas and Chicago, announced today the hiring of Mr. Michael Duckett as President and Chief Operating Officer.

Duckett comes to Corelink from Terremark Worldwide, where he was Senior Vice President, Operations. While at Terremark, Duckett was a core member of the executive team that orchestrated high organic growth as well as successful execution of M&A opportunities.

Source: Trading Markets

Phoenix NAP, a next generation data centre and network access point, has announced Global Crossing, a global IP solutions provider, has completed a fibre build into the Phoenix NAP facility. Global Crossing's presence in the NAP will enable tenants of the new data centre to easily access Global Crossing's premier IP-based network to support their IP and data networking needs.