Compromised timing for a new data centre transition and a slowdown in application modernization are among the top IT management challenges facing the Social Security Administration, according to a recent report by the agency's inspector general.

Japanese IT services firm NTT DATA has acquired Keane, a US-based IT services firm. Following the acquisition, Keane International and its subsidiaries will remain outstanding as separate legal entities, said NTT DATA. This transaction is expected to enable NTT DATA to provide fully integrated IT services in the US, in addition to the global SAP service capabilities it has built to date.

In addition, NTT DATA plans to further strengthen its support of the group customers through coordination and cooperation between Keane International and the NTT DATA global group companies.

Web hosting provider TurnKey Internet has announced it has acquired HostPC. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The acquisition expands the TurnKey Internet, which also maintains data centres in New York, Texas, California and London.

Founded in 1998, the Albany, New York-based company provides DirectAdmin and cPanel-based hosting.

Source: The WHIR

Here for full article
 

Convergence and unified communications company Intrinsic Technology has announced the purchase of Dataplex Systems, a specialist in desktop and server virtualisation, storage, infrastructure optimisation and converged infrastructure.

The acquisition follows a 35% increase in Intrinsic’s turnover and 117% t profit growth for its financial year ending 30 November 2010. Intrinsic’s turnover reached £28 million in 2010 (FY09: £20.7million), while operating profits rose to £2.5 million – up from £1.2million in 2009.

Source: Channel Pro

Colocation and data centre provider Equinix has announced it is retiring the mortgage on its data centre campus in Ashburn, Virginia. The company is paying US$93 million to regain control of the campus, which spans more than 620,000 sq ft of data centre space. The 32-acre campus contains six data centres and is considered one of its most important real estate assets as it serves as a major hub for Internet activity. The sixth data centre, which offers 152,000 sq ft of space, opened in late 2010.

Hibernia Atlantic has announced that it has received a US$250 Million financing commitment for Project Express, the lowest latency fibre optic cable system connecting the greater New York City area with London, from one of its vendors, Huawei Marine Networks Co., Ltd.

Canadian Web hosting provider Fully Managed has announced it will acquire Canadian IT services provider HIT Business Solutions. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

HIT provides IT solutions, including technical support, Web marketing, and IT consulting. The company's staff in Vancouver and Edmonton will be retained in addition to several new key positions being announced in both cities.

Source: The WHIR

Konica Minolta Business Solutions, a provider of advanced imaging and networking technologies for the desktop to the print shop, has announced the company has acquired All Covered, a provider of Managed IT Services to the small- and medium-size business market.

A nationwide technology services organization, All Covered delivers a diverse range of services including proactive server management, remote monitoring, cloud computing, on-site network support and consulting through their 22 offices across the United States.

Source: Market Wire

Ho Chi Minh City-based Asia Commercial Bank has launched the project of building a new data centre worth US$2 million here, with IBM partnering in the information technology plan.

The Enterprise Module data centre, to be situated in the Quang Trung Software City in District 12, aims to standardize the fast expanding banking group’s IT infrastructure, ACB said. IBM and Vietnam’s Asia Information and Communications Technology Company do the work of design, architecture and construction of the data centre, which is set for completion in four months.

Source: Saigon Daily

Net Access Corporation, a provider of Internet access and data centre hosting solutions in the New York metropolitan region, unveiled 50,000 sq ft, state-of-the-art data centre in Parsippany, N.J.

Officials with Net Access Corporation said the new Parsippany II facility can accommodate power densities of up to 20 kilowatts per data cabinet compared to the industry standard 4kW to 6kW available at most other data centres.

Source: TMCnet

Sydney West Area Health Service is consulting with state planning officials on the possibility of housing a A$1.5 million data centre in a former convict women's prison. The move has drawn outrage from local historians who have created an action group and petition that has collected almost 600 signatures. The group demanded construction work on the site stop immediately and that its management is handed over to a different government department to preserve the site

Software firm iGate is buying a majority stake in India's Patni Computer Systems for US$1.2 billion, helping it to take on bigger rivals in the country's export-driven IT services industry.

U.S.-listed iGate, backed by private equity firm Apax Partners, said it agreed to pay 503.50 rupees a share for a 63% stake in Patni, valuing the deal at US$921 million. It will buy an additional 20.6% stake through an open offer to Patni minority shareholders for US$301 million.

Source: Reuters

Data centre campus Switch SuperNAP has announced it plans to build another 1.6 million sq ft of mission-critical space on land adjacent to the SuperNAP. The expansion will add to the existing 407,000 sq ft facility and bring the data centre hub's total space to more than 2 million sq ft.

In March the company plans to break ground on the first of a series of additional facilities that will span between 200,000 and 500,000 sq ft each. Named SuperNAP-West, the expanded campus will feature 500-megawatt, house 31,000 cabinets of servers, nd be supported by 200,000 tons of cooling.

GlassHouse Technologies, a global data centre consulting and managed services firm, today announced that Citrix Systems, a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service, has made a strategic investment in the company.

Dutch telecoms group Royal KPN has said without providing financial details, it has agreed to sell PharmaPartners, part of its IT unit Getronics, to Total Specific Solutions

PharmaPartners develops and markets IT solutions serving pharmacies, general practitioners, medical professionals and patients at regional and national level. These activities are no longer part of the core operations of Getronics, which is primarily focused on workstation management, data centres, hosting services and consultancy, KPN said.

Source: TMCNet

A real estate firm has purchased the Northern Trust building in Chicago, and plans to spend US$200 million to convert it into a data centre. The former check processing plant in Chicago’s south loop was purchased by the Red Sea Group late last month for US$35 million from Northern Trust. Last November the Red Sea Group launched Server Farm Realty with projects in Washington state and Santa Clara, CA.

The Icelandic parliament recently approved amendments made to the Value-Added Tax Act that will consequently benefit Iceland’s data storage industry. The amendments will put data centre services in Iceland on the same footing as other European centres regarding VAT on exported services and equipment owned by clients.

The state’s highest court will now decide whether to strike down energy tax breaks for Google. The North Carolina Supreme Court heard oral arguments on a lawsuit challenging incentives offered to lure new Internet data centres. Google will receive an exemption on sales and use tax for its Lenoir County facility, worth an estimated US$90 million over 30 years

Building automation solutions provider Pacific Controls, with its headquarters in Dubai's Techno-park, is currently working on building the largest data centre in the Middle East with an investment of $85 million (Dh312.15 million), the company's chairman and CEO Dilip said.

Infosys Technologies, India's No. 2 software services exporter, said quarterly profit rose 14%, lagging market forecast as a firmer rupee and higher wage costs weighed on rising demand.

Kicking off the earnings parade for the country's showpiece US$60 billion IT services sector, Infosys reported net profit for the fiscal third-quarter ended December rose to Rs 17.8 billion (US$396.4 million) from Rs 15.6 billion a year ago.

Source: Times of India

TA Associates, a leading growth private equity firm, today announced it has made a minority investment, through a secondary purchase from an existing shareholder, in AboveNet Communications, a provider of fibre optic network services throughout major metropolitan cities in the United States and Europe. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

US computer chip giant Intel posted its best earnings ever in 2010 as businesses beefed up data centres to handle services increasingly shifting to the Internet "cloud." Intel said it took in a net profit of US$11.7 billion for the year on revenue of US$43.6 billion, a 167% jump from the profit it posted in 2009.

"2010 was the best year in Intel's history," the California-based company's chief executive Paul Otellini said in comments released with the earnings report. "We believe that 2011 will be even better."

Source: AFP

TekLinks is spending nearly US$1 million to expand its Summit Parkway data centre space and plans to add jobs in Birmingham, Alabama.

The US$960,000 price tag on a 7,000 sq ft building across the street from its current location will double the company’s square footage for data centre space to accommodate a growing demand for off-site data and software storage, or “cloud-based” services, said David Powell, vice president of managed services. He said demand for cloud-based and data centre space has been enormous the past few years.

Source: Birmingham Business Journal

Intel Corporation has reported full year revenue of US$43.6 billion, up US$8.5 billion year-on-year. This represents a 24% increase in profits. In its fourth-quarter results, Intel posted revenue of US$11.5 billion. Operating income during this quarter was US$4.3 billion, with a net income of US$3.4 billion.

In the fourth quarter 2010 PC Client Group revenue was flat, while Data Center Group revenue was up 15%, other Intel architecture group was also flat, and Intel Atom microprocessor and chipset revenue of US$391 million flat, all sequentially.

Source: ITP

A Yorkshire internet and telecommunications services supplier has invested £1m in a new 10,000 sq ft data centre.

Sheffield-based ask4 Business, whose parent company ask4 supplies broadband internet services to multiple tenanted developments including student accommodation, luxury flats and managed offices, has opened the doors to the new centre in Sheffield, which aims to be the city’s premier hosting, co-location and virtualisation facility servicing the entire region.

Source: The Business Desk

The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) has pledged to establish internet exchange points in all the geographical zones of the country.

Dr. Eugene Juwah, the executive vice chairman NCC who gave the pledge at the commissioning of the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, said the commissioning was a major starting point for realizing the desire to achieve speedy spread of internet services across the country, and the quest to reduce cost of internet connectivity, improved quality of internet services and above all, keeping the nation’s local internet traffic local.

Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest software exporter, reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates after customers outsourced more information-technology contracts.

Net income rose 30% to 23.7 billion rupees (US$520 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 18.2 billion rupees a year earlier, Tata Consultancy said. The earnings are based on Indian accounting standards.

Source: Bloomberg

Tulip Telecom Limited has, announced the acquisition of a data centre facility in Bengaluru by acquiring 100% shares of SADA IT Parks Private Limited at a value of Rs. 2.3bn. This is the Company’s fifth data centre and will have the total data centre space of approximately 10 lac sq. ft.

The Bengaluru facility will be owned and operated through a wholly owned subsidiary of Tulip named ‘Tulip Data Center Private Ltd (Subsidiary)’.

Source: IIFl

A high-profile North Dallas corporate address has been bought by investors. The 20-acre 7171 Forest Lane campus once housed the headquarters of Electronic Data Systems. But for the last 15 years, it’s been home to CompuCom Systems Inc.’s head office.

Now the property has been purchased by Optima Ventures, a Florida real estate investor. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The eight-story, 162,138-sq ft office building and a 93,240-sq ft data centre were built in the 1970s.

Source: Dallas News

A new EU data centre project aims to create cloud infrastructure for data-intensive computing environments, facilitating decision making and collaboration across the continent. Named Dicode, the initiative brings together high-performance computing capabilities and technologies designed for processing significant amounts of data, with academics from the UK, Germany, Greece and Spain partnering on the delivery of the scheme.

Digital Realty Trust, a global wholesale data centre provider, is expanding its data centre facility at 2121 S. Price Road in Chandler, Arizona, adding approximately 226,000 rentable sq ft data centre space and 13 megawatts of power to meet customer demand in the Phoenix market. The existing facility totals over 293,000 sq ft and was 97% occupied as of September 30, 2010. When construction is complete, the expanded facility is expected to feature more than 31 megawatts of total power.

Data centre management solutions provider Raritan has announced that private equity firm NewSpring Capital has invested in the company. Although the company did not disclose the exact amount of the investment, NewSpring says it will hold a minority stake in Raritan.

The investment will support Raritan's growing power management business that helps companies improve energy efficiency and operations in their data centres. Funds were provided through NewSpring's growth equity fund, NewSpring Growth Capital.

Source: The WHIR

Telecommunications company MTN SA is building a new data centre in Centurion, north of Johannesburg, that can operate entirely independently of SA’s electricity grid. The site will be able to function indefinitely without drawing any power from Eskom by using natural gas piped in from Mozambique.

Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded a US$10.6 million, one-year contract by the U.S. Information Systems Engineering Command to upgrade the communications and IT networks at 23 US Army Medical Treatment facilities.

Harris will provide IT wired and wireless network modernization support, delivering a robust network with the connectivity, reliability, data integrity, and information security medical professionals need to provide high quality care at the 23 treatment sites.

Source: Web Wire

More than 50% of the total energy consumption of data centres can be attributed to the power and cooling infrastructure that supports the IT equipment housed in them. Guidance in a new book from ASHRAE aims to help reduce that energy use through proven, easy-to-implement tips.

Sify Technologies has announced financial results for its third quarter ended 31st December 2010.

Financial Highlights: Total operating revenues were at US$ 38.72 million in the third quarter 2010-11 and EBITDA is at US$ 2.13 million vis-a-vis US$ 1.21 million in the previous quarter. Previous year third quarter EBITDA was at US$ 1.17 million.

Source: PR Newswire

Here for full article
 

A double jobs boost for Scotland by North American technology giants Dell and Microsoft signals a revival in fortunes this year for those who supply IT services and products. David Mitchell, a senior vice-president with Datamonitor, gave an upbeat analysis for 2011 to members of ScotlandIS, the country's trade body for software, IT and creative technology businesses.

A consultant has found that the new Washington State Data Center being built in Olympia is much larger than what the state requires for its future computer needs and that some excess space could be leased to businesses. The Olympian says the report estimates the state might need less than 10 percent of the high-cost space being built for information storage and computer operations, because technological advances allow more data and processes to be consolidated on scattered computer servers.

Xybion Corporation, provider of preclinical R&D solutions has announced the launch of a new data centre in Singapore to deliver its flagship Pristima application suite in a hosted environment.

Maccine Pte, a preclinical service provider, is the first client in Singapore to implement and validate Pristima in Xybion’s new data centre.

Source: PR Web

Here for full article
 

IT managers are to focus spending on generating growth, says report IT managers will focus spending on innovation and growth over the coming years, it has been claimed. According to analyst Gartner, CIOs are beginning to dedicate a greater proportion of their budgets towards technologies that will help to increase business.

UK broadcaster BSkyB is reportedly in acquisition talks with The Cloud, a UK public WiFI network that supplies wireless internet services in over 22,000 European locations. BSkyB recently sold Easynet, focussing its efforts within its natural consumer space, so talks of a move back into networks may come as a surprise to many.

"Group sales in the quarter increased 8% year-over-year and 32% sequentially mainly driven by a strong development in mobile broadband" says Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson "Sales in the quarter for comparable units, adjusted for currency and hedging, increased 7% year- over- year.

Web hosting provider PEER 1 Hosting has announced that it had begun building out a 50,000 sq ft green data centre in Portsmouth, UK. The facility is designed according to the company’s “POD” plan, which enables it to build out stages as demand increases. The first of four PODs is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2011, with an initial cost of almost C$16 million.

EMC, the world’s biggest maker of storage computers, reported a 61% increase in fourth- quarter profit after companies upgraded their data centres. Net income rose to US$628.6 million from US$390.6 million a year earlier, EMC said. Sales rose 19%t to US$4.89 billion, exceeding the US$4.79 billion average estimate.

EMC is benefiting as companies buy new storage computers to hold increasing amounts of corporate data and manage disaster recovery, according to Daniel Ives, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets.

Source: Bloomberg

A group of seven domestic Internet service providers, or ISPs, have joined forces to turn Istanbul into a regional Internet peering hub, the general manager of Koç.net, a leading Internet company, has said. Leading Turkish ISPs Borusan Telekom, Do%9fan Telekom, Global leti%9fim, Grid Telekom, Koç.net, Superonline and Turknet launched the country’s first Internet Network Infrastructure Platform.

Turkish investors and content providers mostly use either the Frankfurt Internet Exchange Point or London Internet Exchange, Koc.net’s Mehmet Ali Akarca told journalists

CGI Group beat analyst estimates in the first quarter with profit rising 14% to C$126.6-million amid increased client project activity and a major U.S. acquisition that contributed to higher revenue.

The Montreal-based IT services company said that its net income was equivalent to 45 cents per diluted share with C$1.12-billion of revenue, which was up 23% from a year earlier. During the quarter, CGI booked C$1.2-billion in new contract wins, extensions and renewals, bringing the total bookings over the last 12 months to C$4.2-billion.

Source: Globe and Mail

The Belgian KBC Group is set to open a twin data centre near Budapest in a bid to cut costs in Central Europe, said K&H, the Hungarian unit of KBC.

The centre will become operational in the coming months and will generate recurrent annual cost savings of €10 million. Since 2007 KBC has invested €100 million on its new Hungarian data centre, which will manage the network infrastructure and customer data storage for KBC companies in Central and Eastern Europe.

Source: Budapest Business Journal

At the midpoint of the 2010-11 fiscal year, Purdue's information technology areas are well under way to meeting their target of returning US5 million to the university's general fund. Gerry McCartney, vice president for information technology, chief information officer, told members of the University Senate that so far the IT areas have identified US$4.7 million to return to the university general fund.

Colocation provider Telehouse America has unveiled its growth plans. Following the opening of the first phase of its new 60,000 sq ft data centre in Manhattan, Telehouse says it is now looking at different sites on both coasts for further expansion. "We need to add inventory and will continue to look for new facilities," says Fred Cannone, director of sales and marketing for Telehouse America. "We’re looking at additional East Coast locations as well as additional West Coast locations."

Interxion, a Netherlands data centre company, priced shares in its initial public offering at the top of the expected range on Thursday, according to an underwriter. Interxion sold 20.4 million shares at US$13 each, raising about US$264.9 million, an underwriter said.

The company will use the proceeds for general corporate purposes including construction of new data centres, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source: Reuters

Global information technology spending by financial services institutions is expected to reach US$363.8 billion in 2011, an increase of 3.7% over 2010, according to estimates by research house Celent.

With the internet generating an immense amount of data traffic, Force10 Networks is poised to capitalise on this, and expand its presence across industries worldwide. "There is an ever growing need for data to be stored, moved, accessed or switched. We are in a terrific market at present to capitalise on the demand for data and traffic," Chief Marketing Officer Arpit Joshipura said.

Macquarie Telecom Group has lifted its guidance for first half earnings to around A$20 million, from an earlier forecast of A$15-17 million. For the full year, Macquarie Telecom said it expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $37-39 million, representing a 30% rise from the prior year.

Savvis Inc. Chief Executive James Ousley said his company isn't rushing for a takeover even as Wall Street bets a deal for the data storage provider could be on the horizon. Such speculation follows Verizon Communications’ announcement late Thursday to acquire Terremark Worldwide. in a US $1.4 billion deal. The news prompted Savvis shares to hit a three-year high Friday.