Liverpool IT firm AIMES Grid Services is to invest £100,000 to support the development of new services. The company is to add £50,000 of its own money to a £50,000 Enterprise Finance Guarantee loan through NatWest.

Virtus have enhanced their green credentials by appointing E.ON Energy for the supply of power from 100% renewable sources. This underpins the LEED Gold accreditation status Virtus aim to achieve through the construction, design processes and the selection of key energy efficient plant.

euNetworks has announced it has launched the first phase of an overlay network, dedicated exclusively to the needs of the financial community. The network platform is supported by dedicated fibre and dedicated optronics, ensuring euNetworks’ euTrade services provide the lowest possible latency. As a company who specialises in designing, engineering and building ultra low latency connectivity networks, deploying a network exclusively for the finance market is a natural step in continuing to support the bandwidth needs of the financial services community.

Polish telecommunications company ATM announced revenues of PLN 169.6 million in Q2, up by 16% year-on-year. Net profit rose 180% to PLN 11.33 million. ATM is the operator of the Atman network.

ATM launched a new data centre in H1, which operates under the Telehouse Poland brand. Atman currently owns two data centres and eight fibre networks in major cities around the country.

Source: Telecom Paper

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A Manchester data centre business is to invest up to £2 million at a Scottish wind farm to enhance its environmental credentials. UK Grid aims to become carbon neutral by the end of 2010 by offsetting its energy use by buying carbon credits and funding two turbines at a cost of £1million each.

Data centre firm Sudlows has announced contract wins worth more than £2 million and a new relationship with BT that it believes will see greater investment in the sector in the North West. Manchester-based Sudlows has won a £1.5m deal to design and build a data centre for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. And a £600,000 deal to upgrade a centre for Co-operative Financial services, announced recently, is the latest in a series of projects for the Co-operative Group.

The energy-intensive data centre industry seems to be an obvious target for countries and regions hoping to reduce their energy footprints. While businesses wrestle with legislation on data centres located within their country, there are a number of viable options for companies willing to look abroad. Renewable-energy-rich Iceland offers a lucrative opportunity for organizations' data centre and colocation needs. And with its reasonable proximity to the rest of Europe, many see this island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean as a prime locale for a data centre hub.

Logica has won a four-year contract to take over the IT operations and infrastructure services of Finnish card payment group Luottokunta.

2bm, a provider of data centre technology, has launched iMeter, a new data centre power monitoring offering that helps businesses monitor and reduce power consumption in data centre. The iMeter can be used at rack level, and provides insight into energy requirements of servers, storage area networks, switches, and attendant supporting equipment.

Estonian investment company Martinson Trigon sold 100% of its Lithuania portfolio company Hostex to Baltic Data Centre, a subsidiary of Lithuanian telecom giant TEO.

Hostex is a leading data centre operator of Lithuania and provides web hosting services to residential and small companies as well as Internet portals. From the year 1995 operating enterprise has 20 employees. The parties have not disclosed the price of the transaction.

Source: Baltic Business News

The completion of another project through the £1.9 million Northern Ireland Broadband Fund is set to improve connectivity along the north Antrim coast. The Fund supports next generation broadband services and projects which aim to provide rural areas with broadband.

Data centre provider UK Grid has announced a lucrative deal with TalkTalk as the telecoms company seeks more capacity to serve customers in the North West. The landline and broadband provider has taken on 2,000 sq ft of data centre space at UK Grid’s flagship site in Manchester.

TalkTalk says it needs to increase capacity because its customers are making more calls and sending more data through its network. It already has two data centres in Birmingham and two in London and the new deal increases the group’s coverage in the North West.

Equinix has announced that Go Voyages, a French travel agency, has selected Equinix to protect and connect its infrastructure, enabling the continuity of its on-line services. Go Voyages’ infrastructure is hosted at Equinix’s PA3 International Business Exchange data centre near Paris, where the company can also access an ecosystem of major operators providing direct fibre interconnection to 30 regional and metropolitan telecommunications networks.

The Bunker has announced that Trans Data Management Ltd has chosen The Bunker to host AlarmLink, an integrated alarm signalling and management system. TDM is a systems integrator specialising in data and telecom-based security and communications solutions. AlarmLink is an IP-based alarm signalling system that provides a alarm transmission solution that can monitor and manage multiple emergency and technical alarms under one system.

Logica has announced a contract win with Stora Enso, a global paper, packaging and wood products company, for the provision of IT infrastructure services. Through the three-year contract, which begins in January 2011, Logica will provide IT infrastructure services to all Stora Enso’s production facilities in Finland. Under the terms of the agreement employees currently working at Stora Enso will transfer to Logica.

CMS Group, a Blackburn-based IT infrastructure specialist, is to create 10 jobs at its Manchester data centre after a string of contract wins worth £2.2 million. The group has secured contracts in the North West with Bury-based Trumeter Technologies and Lancashire law firm Napthens as well as national chains including Elite Hotels.

The deals mean CMS will operate or maintain more than 100 additional servers and is investing in its operations in Manchester to cater for the increase in demand.

Source: Men Media

Interxion, a European provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, has announced that ACTIV Financial, a global provider of fully managed low-latency market data solutions, is to house its ticker plant and aggregated market data feeds at Interxion’s City of London data centre.

The colocation gives existing and new customers in Interxion’s financial hub immediate access to ACTIV’s complete suite of global market data solutions, including ACTIVFeed , ACTIVFeed Direct and ACTIV MPU , hardware accelerated market data systems.

Delta Telekom has transferred about half of Azerbaijani Internet resources to servers of National Data Center. According to Delta Telekom technical director, Rahid Alakparli, has at present 30-40 % of national content have been moved to local servers.

“Till the end of this year we will try to finish this index to 90 %. Today such large-scale resources as www.ilk10.az, www.box.az have already been transferred to servers of local Data Center,” R. Alakparli said.

Source: ABC

Salary: £50 to £60K b Package

The Client is looking for an ambitious Senior / Principal Electrical Design Engineer for the London based office to take a lead role in the design & delivery of Mission Critical projects throughout the UK, Europe and the MENA. They are looking for a dynamic individual that will be able to implement change, improve processes, add value and innovation to all projects and provide expert guidance and advice to a team of intelligent and committed engineers.

AMS-IX, the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, has installed its first extension point at TelecityGroup’s Amstel Park data centre. The further expansion of its infrastructure will enable AMS-IX, already one of the world’s largest internet exchanges, to meet ever growing demand for connections to its peering platform.

BT's dominance of health service IT has been revealed by government figures showing the firm received more than two-fifths of NHS Connecting for Health's 2009-2010 £1.1 billion supplier budgets. The data, released by the Department of Health, shows the UK telecoms and IT services provider was last year by far the largest supplier to Connecting for Health, which runs both the National Programme for IT and legacy services from its predecessor, the NHS Information Authority.

ControlCircle, a data centre and managed services provider, has announced the company has achieved the ISO/IEC 27001:20005 certification for information management and physical security at its UK operations centres

The award is part of an ongoing process to achieve ISO 27001 accreditation at all ControlCircle sites as the firm expands its global footprint deeper into Europe, North America and in the Asia Pacific.

Source: Real Wire

BIS has unveiled a new brand identity and corporate website which reflects its position as a leading owner and operator of secure and expertly managed London data centres and outsourced IT services.

iomart Hosting, a provider of managed hosting and cloud computer services, is launching a campaign to sustain up to 1,000 acres of cloud rainforest in the Neblina Reserve in Ecuador.

Through the ‘Racks 4 Acres’ initiative, in conjunction with Rainforest Concern and supported by Green IT magazine, iomart Hosting will sponsor an acre of cloud rainforest for every additional megawatt of power that is consumed from September this year within its five UK data centres.. This is expected to equate to at least 500 acres, which is the equivalent of 500 football pitches.

Infinera has announced that OVH, France's largest web hosting company, has selected Infinera's unique digital architecture for its pan-European network. OVH has deployed an Infinera Digital Optical Network to offer high-speed connections with reliability, flexibility, and intelligent management throughout its network.

Information technology company IBM has inaugurated its new service delivery centre in Wroclaw, Poland. The new IBM technology service delivery centre, located in the Wojdyla Business Park in Wroclaw, is part of an extensive network of IBM service delivery centres in over 20 countries, with multiple sites in many of those countries. These delivery centres provide IT services and business process outsourcing capabilities to IBM clients around the world, the company said.

Equinix has announced that it has successfully completed the external audit for ISO 27001 certification for its International Business Exchange data centres in Germany. The ISO 27001 audit specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, operating, monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving a documented Information Security Management System, taking into account the organization’s overall business risks.

IT services company Atos Origin has announced that it is the first supplier to sign a memorandum of understanding with the UK Government following the negotiations launched by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, in July.

The agreement marks the start of a new single-client approach to engagement with central UK Government. The company said that it will continue to deliver all its existing IT contracts to UK Government, and will look for further business opportunities, building on the agreed centralised approach.

Source: CBR

Digital Realty Trust, the world’s largest wholesale data centre provider, has signed a Turn-Key data centre lease agreement with a global financial services company for a new data centre in a Digital Realty Trust property in London.

“This global financial services company will use our data centre facilities to consolidate its existing data centre assets and support the ongoing reliability, performance and efficiency of its IT infrastructure,” said Bernard Geoghegan, Senior Vice President, International Operations of Digital Realty Trust.

Interxion, a European provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, and IPC, a provider of indispensible trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, have announced that IPC will locate its core Electronic Connectivity Services (ECS) infrastructure at Interxion’s Financial Hubs located in London and Vienna.

T-Systems has opened its first Innovation Center in the Bavarian capital. On some 450 sq m in the Euroindustriepark in Munich, companies will now be able to test new information and telecommunications solutions in a realistic work environment. T-Systems want this workshop to bring innovations alive.

Swiss financial institution Arab Bank Switzerland has contracted Swisscom to use Swisscom's 'Telehousing metro' hosting service.

With Telehousing metro, the bank gets a high-security environment for its servers in its own private computer room located in one of Swisscom's data centres.

Source: Telecom Paper

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Montagu Private Equity is to acquire web services company host Europe Group from AIM-listed firm Oakley Capital. Montagu is to pay £222 million for the company, which provides hosting and domain services to small and medium-sized enterprises in the UK and Germany.

A much-rumoured new core router from Brocade has emerged, and is enabling a massive capacity increase at Amsterdam’s AMS-IX Internet exchange. AMS-IX, one of the world’s largest Internet exchange points, is using the new MLXe core router as an upgrade path in response to a massive growth in demand for capacity. The router includes a blade that meets the IEEE standard for 100Gigabit Ethernet.

GTS Central Europe, the multinational provider of corporate and wholesale telecommunications services, has revealed its interest in acquiring two telecommunications companies owned by the Polish government.

Due to rising demand for its services from the business sector, GTSCE is interested in expanding its physical infrastructure footprint in Poland, with fibre cable, data centre and points of presence deemed to be particularly attractive.

Source: Telecoms Insight

Telecommunications firm BT Group has won a five-year contract with Debenhams to transform the high street retailer's data network and upgrade it onto BT's next generation, high-speed 21CN software-driven network.

The Bunker has announced its Secure Hybrid Cloud proposition, delivering all the benefits of a scalable and flexible hosting environment but with the ultra secure peace of mind afforded by a solid SLA and years of experience delivering security and business continuity.

In the world of ideas, cloud computing has the potential to revolutionize the way people work. “We’re not quite there yet, but it’s coming,” Eric E. Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, a promoter of the technology, said at a gathering of cellphone industry executives after evoking the image at a convention in Barcelona in February.

Travel agents Thomas Cook Group has agreed terms with Capgemini to move its IT to an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. The organisational structure at Thomas Cook is decentralised with 21 CIOs reporting into group CIO Gary Edwards. The former banking CIO with experience at Barclays and Lloyds TSB said he is not looking to centralise Thomas Cook, but by opting for an IaaS IT structure aims to create a common IT infrastructure his 21 CIOs can draw resources from.

iomart Hosting has today announced that it is continuing to generate strong organic growth, and is currently adding 30 – 40 managed hosting contracts per month from both new and existing customers. Included within this growth are several large and complex contracts, reflecting the continuing trend among businesses to consider outsourcing hosting services to the cloud. Seven of the contracts won each had a total contract value in excess of £100,000 and collectively had a value of over £2.5 million.

Strencom, the data network and cloud computing provider, has announced details of a €750,000 investment as the company seeks to accelerate its international growth. The company, which is an Enterprise Ireland client, is using the funds to target UK customers with its cloud infrastructure as a service and data network services. The investment includes seven new jobs, three of which have been filled and it also sees Strencom opening a London office.

Digital Realty Trust, the world's largest data centre provider, has extended its international relationship with IBM through the completion of a new Turn-Key data centre lease agreement, expanding IBM’s data centre footprint in Digital Realty Trust's suburban Paris facility.

"This new agreement highlights Digital Realty Trust’s ongoing support for IBM’s data centre strategy, and reinforces the global nature of our partnership," said Bernard Geoghegan, Senior Vice President of International Operations of Digital Realty Trust.

Developers at the cutting edge of digital technology can test their innovative applications, using South Yorkshire's groundbreaking £90 million superfast broadband network. DRBSY, one of the first internet service providers to make use of the new Digital Region network being built across South Yorkshire, is offering to open up its Manvers-based data centre so that developers and service providers can carry out real-time.

Business communications provider Colt has won a contract from The Association des Paralyses de France to manage the latter's strategic IT overhaul programme called 'IT System 2010.

CSC – IT Center for Science Ltd. is to establish one of the world's most eco-efficient data centres in the Renforsin Ranta business park in Kajaani, on the site of the former paper mill of UPM in northern Finland. The data centre will be built jointly by CSC and UPM, and it will provide a state-of-the-art environment for supercomputers, data storage, and other demanding IT systems.

UK data centres are facing a ‘data crunch’ unless more than £1billion is invested in this critical IT infrastructure over the next 12 months according to Alex Rabbetts, Managing Director of data centre specialists, Migration Solutions.

Virtus has forged ahead with the speculative build of its Enfield Tier III enhanced Data Centre with the completion of a new mezzanine floor The mid-market data centre operator has almost doubled the footprint of the brand new distribution shed to circa 70,000 sq ft. The mezzanine, which has a floor loading of circa 12 kN per m², will house five of the six column less data halls with the final hall residing on the ground floor.

Capgemini has won a long-term IT outsourcing contract with Nokia Siemens Networks. Capgemini Outsourcing Services, a subsidiary of the French IT services group, will provide order management services to NSN.

The French company will provide services including preparation for delivery, customer order management, distribution and customer invoicing, while customer-facing activities will remain with NSN. As per the deal, 400 employees from NSN will be joining Capgemini’s supply chain services teams from several countries including Brazil, China, Finland, Germany and India.

Irish-owned outsourcing company IT Alliance has won a number of export deals in Europe. The company, which employs 400 people, have won contracts valued at €750,000. These contracts are for optimising and supporting two data centres in France and Denmark.

“Overseas revenues exceeded 50pc for the first time last month but to date most of this work has been in the UK,” said Philip Maguire, CEO of IT Alliance. “These wins represent an important expansion of our business into the rest of Europe.”

Source: Silicon Republic

21c Telecom, a UK converged telecoms services provider and a partner of Griffin Internet, has won a contract to handle complete communications for all 46 TGI Friday's UK stores.

21c Telecm co-operated with systems integrator Foehn to win the bid to implement a fully converged solution to all sites nationwide as part of a 3-year contract. 21c is providing all fixed lines, colocation set-up, Ethernet provision, exchange server migration and provision, PBX installation and wi-fi configuration across the estate.

Source: Griffin Internet

The Information Tribunal has ordered a government department to publish most of the till-now withheld details of a major IT contract, after ruling that the public interest was served better by disclosure than secrecy.

The First Tier Tribunal has said that most of the withheld material in a contract between the Department of Work and Pensions and Atos Origin for the provision of the Government Gateway service should be made public. The financial model used by Atos in the contract and the exact location of its data centre can be kept secret, it said.

Interxion, a European provider of carrier-neutral colocation data centre services, has announced that Director of Corporate Communications, Ali Moinuddin has been appointed by the Green Grid as co-chair of its European Communications Committee. Moinuddin’s new role will encompass creating awareness of advanced energy efficiency in data centres and the broader ecosystem of business computing amongst the pan-European community.

eMOD is a new modular concept that will make it easier for data centres to gain immediate energy savings and comply with industry best practice. It comprises a set of server racks incorporating cold aisle containment and airflow management. Dataracks will launch eMOD at ‘5th Power and Cooling for data centres’ 7-8 October 2010.

Attenda, the Always On managed services company, has announced that it had signed a new four year contract renewal with Fleurop AG to host its ecommerce website on Attenda's Cloud computing platform.

Under the contract, Attenda is providing a fully managed web applications hosting service for Fleurop's transactional website, which makes a significant contribution to its international sales of flowers, floral arrangements and gifts. Customer orders are fulfilled by arranging to send the flowers from the nearest flower shop to the recipient.

Digital Realty Trust, the world’s largest wholesale data centre provider, has adopted EDF’s Certificats Équilibre scheme at its Paris data centre. The facility in the French capital has now funded 8,921,000 kWh of renewable energy within the national electricity network. Introduced in coordination with clients at the data centre, the scheme enables Digital Realty Trust to participate in the development of responsible energy sources within one of its key European markets.

The new StoreData data centre has opened in Moscow. The Moscow internet exchange MSK-IX and Russian company NIC established the new Tier-3 data centre,

The centre offers colocation, dedicated server and VDS services, as well as access to the MSK-IX. Construction of the data centre started in 2009, with a budget of 60 million roubles. The MSK-IX access node is already operational in the new data centre.

Source: Telecom Paper

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Rackspace Hosting, a specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, has announced that it has been chosen by Vodafone to host and support the M-PESA platform.

M-PESA is a platform designed to provide a fast, safe and easy way to transfer money from person to person and is a valuable service in emerging economies where there is little or no existing banking infrastructure outside the major cities. It is now available in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and Fiji and boasts over 16 million customers.

Source: Market Watch

Swiss triple play service provider MyGate has announced the sale of its data centre in Chur to Informatica.

The sale of its hosting, housing and web design business will allow MyGate to focus solely on its triple-play VoIP, IPTV and broadband internet services for business and private customers.

Source: TMC Net

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AppNexus, the real-time ad platform, has announced that it has opened its first data centre outside North America -- in Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- a move which significantly expands the opportunity for real-time bidding in Europe and the Middle East in response to rising demand among global ad networks, demand-side platforms and other online advertising companies in those regions.

Network technology solution distributer Westcon Group launched its first global LEAP (Learn, Experience, Architect and Plan) centre in Brussels, Belgium. Designed so resellers can capitalize on various next-gen technologies related to data centres, the training facility replicates real-world scenarios in an IT environment.

Featured technologies include Cisco's Unified Computing System, storage offerings from NetApp, EMC, and virtualized applications from VMware, Microsoft) and Oracle among other manufacturers.

Source: The WHIR

BT is to provide super-fast broadband to up to 90% of homes in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, in the biggest fibre optic roll-out in the UK to date. The project, due for completion in 2014, could provide a blueprint for future rural broadband projects.

The £132 million funding pot is being shared between BT and the European Union. The government said it was "a big step" towards its goal of having the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.

Source: BBC