Data Centers has broken ground on the phase three expansion of its Toronto North data centre facility, which will provide capacity for an additional 100 cabinets, predominately configured in private cage and suite environments.

Toronto North features 2N redundancy, a managed "Meet Me Room," VESDA & Inergen Systems, the option of rooftop tower colocation, and three-layer security including biometric recognition, as well as 151 Front Street backhaul that provides access to dozens of leading carriers and downtown financial networks.

Source: The WHIR

At a time when neighbouring states are raising taxes on technology companies, Wyoming and Green House Data are causing more businesses to look across the border. New Wyoming tax incentives make Green House Data’s outsourced data centre services to more attractive to technology companies in neighbouring states. A measure exempting data centre operators from sales tax on the purchase of technology equipment was signed into law in March.

A recent survey conducted by the IT-focused consulting firm Janco Associates finds the volume of seasoned IT professionals seeking employment to be the culprit in IT salary raises being minimal at best. IT salary levels clearly face challenges created by the economic downturn. Unfortunately, IT salary raises have been minimal or none at all. According to Janco Associates, "there is now a surplus of seasoned IT professionals" -- hence, the ceiling on IT salary increases.

Data centre operator QTS has announced it has acquired a former semiconductor plant near Richmond, Virginia for $12 million with plans to convert it into a massive data centre campus. Acquired in a bankruptcy court sale, the facility previously belonged to memory chip manufacturer Qimonda.

The telecommunication vendor Color Broadband Communications has selected the AIS Phoenix data centre to expand its colocation footprint. Color Broadband can now have additional leverage inside the untapped Phoenix market by using AIS’ first out-of-state solution.

Van Buren data centre provides premium colocation space as part of a multiphase launch into the Arizona market. The Van Buren data centre is a carrier-neutral facility that is a premier point of interconnection for many of the world’s leading carriers and network service providers in the southwest region.

Switch and Data, a provider of network-neutral data centre and Internet exchange services, has announced that Peerless Network, a service provider that simplifies interconnection of voice, data and signalling across disparate networks, has expanded its market reach into the Seattle, Cleveland, and Indianapolis markets with Switch and Data.

Velocity Technology Solutions has partnered with Primus Telecommunications Canada to expand its hosting services into Canada. Primus Business Services is a national full-service communications provider offering Colo and managed hosting services to more than 40,000 Canadian companies.

Virginia and its embattled computer-services contractor, Northrop Grumman, have reached terms on a new deal -- one that will extend their contentious relationship until 2019 and cost taxpayers at least an additional US$140 million. In exchange, the state expects Northrop Grumman to improve and expand service for more than 80 government agencies, said Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey, adding the contract revisions are designed to stabilize Virginia's computer bureaucracy.

Peak 10, a managed services company with world-class data centres, has been selected to host the consumer Web sites and client data of marketing firm, RED F. The award-winning firm is recognized for its consumer awareness, strategic thinking and data-driven information.

Main Line Health, a non-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs, has awarded a contract to SunGard Availability Services to provide managed services for its primary data centre. SunGard will also deliver remote managed IT services across Main Line Health’s four acute care hospitals - Bryn Mawr, Lankenau, Paoli and Riddle - as well as Bryn Mawr Rehab Hospital and 21 other locations.

Though he knows it's a slow ship to turn, Vivek Kundra is adamant that the federal government will shift its IT infrastructure to the cloud-based model that has been transforming the private-sector enterprise for much of the past decade. Addressing the subject recently at the Brookings Institution, the country's first federal CIO voiced a mixture of bewilderment at the government's failure to keep up with the private sector in cloud computing and resolve to close the gap.

CGI Group, a provider of information technology and business process services, has announced that Portage La Prairie Mutual Insurance Company, a Canadian-owned mutual insurance company, has extended its contract with CGI until 2014. This agreement will extend the existing infrastructure services outsourcing agreement by five years.

iWeb Group, a global provider of Internet hosting services and IT infrastructure, confirms the completion of a new C$3 million financing agreement with BMO Bank of Montreal, one of its major financial partners.

iWeb's Chief Financial Officer, Philip Tousignant, announced that the increased facility will be used to finance the initial 3,000 servers provisioned in the Company's new data centre. Once it reaches capacity, iWeb's fourth Montreal data centre will have an estimated 20,000 dedicated servers online.

Source: CNW

The Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency has sold 1001 North Sixth Street, a 58,800 sq ft building, to GreenWorks Development, as part of GreenWorks' continued efforts to revitalize Midtown Harrisburg.

CB Richard Ellis coordinated the sale and the lease back of an approximately 20,000 sq ft data centre on behalf of PHEAA.

Source: City Biz

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With US spending now expected to grow faster than previously thought, a new report on information technology has provided more evidence that an industry recovery is on its way. Forrester Research expects information-technology spending in the U.S. to grow 8.4% this year, to US$500 billion. That is up from its January forecast of 6.6 %. Higher spending on communications equipment has helped better the outlook, accompanied by ongoing rebound in computer and software purchases.

O'Fallon city officials have approved offering an incentive package to Centene for a 10,000 sq ft data centre that would bring a handful of jobs to O'Fallon, Missouri. The City Council voted 6-1 in favour of a plan to issue US$24 million in bonds to finance the project for the Clayton-based health benefits administrator.

Jim Mello, a lawyer representing Centene, said the project is expected to bring six to 10 full-time high-tech jobs. He said the 8.5-acre site is along Progress Point Parkway near highways 40 and K.

Source: STL Today

Architel, a Dallas-Fort Worth managed services provider and technology start-up incubator, has announced that it has acquired Applied Resource Technologies, one of the area’s oldest and largest managed services providers. The combination creates the largest MSP in North Texas.

Q9 Networks has announced that it secured a new C$210 million Senior Secured Credit Facility from a syndicate of banks led by TD Securities as agent, BMO Capital Markets, RBC Capital Markets and Barclays Structured Principal Investing. The facility substantially increases Q9's borrowing capacity and its ability to accelerate expansion plans.

In what could prove a mixed blessing for Austin and its commercial real estate market, more than half of the massive, nearly 1 million-square-foot Freescale Semiconductor campus in North Austin is now available for lease, according to Aquila Commercial.

Switch and Data, a provider of network-neutral data centre and Internet exchange services, has announced that IPC, a industry leader in voice and data communications for financial services has expanded its participation and now provides low latency GeoReach interconnection solutions in Switch and Data's Toronto and New York Financial EcoCenters.

Hilton Worldwide and IBM will collaborate to improve and enhance the hotel chain’s infrastructure to better enable next-generation technology solutions. The agreement means that IBM will host and manage Hilton Worldwide’s technology platforms and provide data centre management, monitoring, global email services, Web hosting and maintain the central guest reservation system.

Digital Realty Trust, the world's largest wholesale data centre provider, has announced strong leasing results for the first quarter of 2010. For the quarter ended March 31, 2010, the Company commenced leases totalling approximately 116,000 sq ft of space. This includes approximately 108,000 sq ft of Turn-Key Datacenter space and approximately 7,500 sq ft of non-technical space.

Level 3 Communications has announced that the company has enhanced the performance and service options offered on its low-latency, fibre-optic network between New York and Chicago. With this enhancement, Level 3 is offering two new ultra-low-latency options backed by service level guarantees.

The Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General has found several weaknesses in the process SSA used to choose a location for its new data centre near Baltimore, a new report says. In general, SSA has developed a “highly sophisticated set of selection criteria” to use to evaluate prospective sites, but there are some unresolved concerns about the process, states a summary of the report from SSA's inspector general.

EcomNets plans to invest about US$1.94 million to build its "green" computers in the Airside Industrial Park in Danville. The company plans to renovate a 20,000 sq ft plant previously occupied by an electronic components company that closed its Danville plant last year. An information-technology company, EcomNets makes the Verdio computer, which is much smaller than a typical desktop PC. Verdio is made with recyclable materials and uses about 70% less energy.

Verizon Wireless says it now expects to trim its work force in central Arkansas by about 400 jobs, instead of 1,100 as earlier projected. Alltel had about 3,000 employees in Arkansas when the US$28.1 billion sale was completed in January 2009, according to Lucie Pathmann, a spokeswoman for Verizon in Arkansas. About 2,400 of those jobs were at the former Alltel corporate headquarters in Little Rock, she said.

Austin's newest data centre, CyrusOne, is ringed by an 8-foot-high security fence. Regular visitors have to present an ID and have their fingerprint scanned to gain access to the computer rooms. Security cameras monitor both the outside and the inside. Computers operate inside locked cabinets or larger areas that are caged in and locked. Tight security is part of what data centres sell.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), an operators of regulated global futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, has signed a new agreement with AT&T for the provisioning of hosting services delivered through AT&T's internet data centres located around the world. The new agreement extends and expands ICE's eight-year relationship with AT&T.

Intellifiber Networks has announced it has activated a new low latency system between New York City and Chicago. Intellifiber now offers Gigabit Ethernet, 2.5 Gbps and 10 Gbps wavelength and Ethernet services with the fastest roundtrip speeds currently available. Several major financial institutions and service providers are already taking advantage of the system and the outstanding service provided by Intellifiber.

HP has opened its first internal data centre that is "Cisco-free" thanks to products from newly acquired 3Com and it says it plans to remove Cisco gear from all six of its major data centres within a year. The new data centre in Houston, Texas is one of six facilities running HP's worldwide business operations. It currently includes 34 3Com core switching and routing devices, more than 300 HP ProCurve switches and four TippingPoint (a 3Com company) intrusion detection and protection devices.

Enterprise storage service provider Zetta has announced the opening of a new data service facility on the East Coast. The new service facility is located in the greater New York City area. This will be the first East Coast data centre for Zetta, which also operates two facilities on the West Coast.

Zetta has continued its partnership with Equinix as a colocation provider for this new facility.

Source: Market Watch

Fannie Mae’s technology centre has realised a total of US$1.7 million in energy savings - a 35% cost reduction - as the nation’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - certified data centre marks its fifth anniversary. The 247,000 sq ft data centre represents the cornerstone of Fannie Mae’s technology operations.

SingleHop, the Chicago-based provider of dedicated servers and complex hosting solutions, has announced a five-year and US$7 million commitment to expand their data centre facilities in the Chicago region. The expansion effectively doubles the firm’s worldwide network capacity, as well as their footprint at the Elk Grove facility where their second data centre is located.

The doubling of SingleHop’s data centre space occurred within less than 11 months after opening for business at the Elk Grove facility in May of 2009

Source: ereleases

Plans for a 315,000 sq ft data centre facility on Chicago’s Near South Side are moving forward, with city approval clearing the way for design and construction. The facility, to be located at 111 E. Cermak Road, is being developed by Chicago-based JRM Technology. James McHugh Construction has been selected as the design-build contractor, with ESD as lead architect/engineer, Archideas the consulting architect and CS Associates, as structural engineer.

The development team has set a goal of fall 2010 to begin construction, with a potential completion date of late 2011.

Equinix has announced plans to increase the size of its presence in the Dallas metro with the addition of a new Dallas 2 (DA2) International Business Exchange data centre. Residing in the same location as the company’s DA1 IBX data centre, the new facility will initially add approximately 40,000 gross sq ft of data centre space and 420 cabinet equivalents.

Zayo Bandwidth, a regional provider of fibre based bandwidth infrastructure and carrier neutral colocation services, has unced that it has further expanded its network by extending its reach into the Atlanta, Chicago and Houston markets.

Canadians could be denied basic public services such as income tax returns and employment insurance cheques unless the federal government updates aging computer systems that are on the verge of "breaking down," the auditor-general has warned. Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's office examined the information-technology systems of five agencies: the Canada Revenue Agency, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the RCMP, and Citizenship and Immigration.

CenturyLink and Qwest Communications have announced that their boards of directors have approved a definitive agreement under which CenturyLink will acquire Qwest in a tax-free, stock-for-stock transaction.

Terracon, a dynamic and growing employee-owned firm of consulting engineers and scientists that provide geotechnical, environmental and construction materials services to clients at local, regional and national levels, headquartered in Olathe, KS, has selected CoSentry to provide colocation and data centre services. Utilising CoSentry's Kansas City Data Center and its managed services capabilities, Terracon is able build a redundant data centre operation to ensure continuity of operations in the event of any type of disaster or disruption.

Google has its head in a federal government cloud. The search engine giant wants to shift federal agencies from traditional desktop and server-based computing to so-called cloud computing, which relies on the web and outsourced remote file servers to deliver e-mail, send instant messages and share files. That shift ranges from software as a service and suites of applications - like Google Apps - to remote data storage.

Logicalis, a US$1 billion provider of integrated information and communications technology solutions and services, has chosen Farmington Hills, MI., as the new location for its US headquarters.

Previously headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, MI, Logicalis has recently moved into its new, 22,000 sq ft facility at 34505 West 12 Mile Road, Suite 210, in Farmington Hills. Logicalis offers data centre services, managed services, unified communications solutions and application services combined with products from Cisco, HP, IBM and Microsoft.

Source: Earth Times

Cisco has announced that Fixnetix, one of the leading providers of low-latency trading, market data, hosting and direct market access services for the financial services industry, has completed its US low-latency network expansion using Cisco technology.

General Dynamics Information Technology's VIPS business sector has been awarded a task order to support the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The task order has an initial value of US$16 million with a maximum value of US$84 million for five years if all options are exercised.

The Canadian wireless sector has been growing healthily for the past decade, so it comes as no surprise that a study paid for by the industry says it provides “significant value” to the economy. The report on the benefits of the wireless industry to this country, done by the research firm Ovum Consulting and paid for by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, said that in the estimated value all companies in the industry contributed to the gross domestic product in 2008 was C$16.3 billion -- including C$15.9 billion in revenue from wireless operators.

The City of McCook was awarded US$505,000 in federal funds to help set up a data centre for Omaha-based 21st Century Systems, which designs and builds intelligent software. Gov. Dave Heineman said 21CSI’s data centre will create 21 new jobs. State officials approved McCook’s request for money from the federal Community Development Block Grant program. “This expansion into southwest Nebraska will generate job opportunities in technology and new economic opportunities in this part of the state,’’ Heineman said in a press release.

Colocation provider CoreLink Data Centers has announced it is now providing cloud solutions provider Virtuon with colocation services. "Virtuon found CoreLink to be an ideal partner for our aggressive cloud computing rollout," says Forrest Blair, CEO of Virtuon. "CoreLink's business model, pricing, and responsiveness are the key elements that attracted us and are making it a win for both parties and ultimately our customers."

Virtuon offers a range of virtualization and cloud computing solutions including consulting, education and software development.

Tinet, formerly the carrier arm of Tiscali Group, has announced that it has selected Markley Group's flagship data centre facility at One Summer Street in Boston, Massachusetts as its latest network expansion location, further demonstrating Tinet's commitment to its North American and global clients' ever-increasing demands for IP and Ethernet services.

Markley Group's 800,000 sq ft facility is considered the most significant data center/telecommunications facility in the New England region, making it an ideal location for expanding companies such as Tinet.

The Missouri Legislature has a number of incentives to consider before its session ends May 15 that could attract new data centres to the state. That was the message of a briefing in Jefferson City by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry and representatives of the data centre industry and related developers. Industry investment in data centres will be an estimated US$10 billion to US$12 billion within the next three years, according to the Missouri Chamber.

Interxion has announced that Lex Coors, Vice President, Data Centre Technology and Engineering at Interxion, has accepted the role of head judge for the Data Centre Efficiency and Green Enterprise IT Awards, to be hosted at the Uptime Institute Symposium 17–19 May 2010 in New York.

The event is one of the most influential on the IT industry and data centre operator calendar, as it is one of few that focuses entirely on data centre efficiency and green enterprise IT.

FiberLight, an optical networking provider, was able to accomplish the impossible when it turned up a 10Gig Ethernet network with dedicated IP Services in less than a week for Horizon Data Center Solutions, a fast growing facilities-based colocation and IT service company headquartered in Dallas.

The new infrastructure will enable Horizon’s clients to efficiently connect to their Tier IIIb, SAS 70 II data centres from any location and will provide a 5 9’s fully redundant network architecture to ensure optimum uptime.

Source: Host Review