Located in northern China, the city of Harbin, known as China's "Ice City" has become the focus of a number of global IT companies who are playing a part in turning it into a new cloud capital.

Harbin is largest city of Heilongjiang Province, and with a population of around 10 million, it is the tenth largest city in China. Its cool temperatures could help to save costs on power consumption in data centres, and supports the proposal for investment in creating China's "Cloud Valley" put forward by the Gopha Group.

Computacenter has acquired a majority stake in the Swiss IT service provider, DAMAX, for £5.4 million cash. Computacenter is a Europe-leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer commenced operation of its new Data Centre Facilitation Unit to facilitate and promote the development of more high-tier data centres in Hong Kong. The Data Centre Portal was also launched to provide useful information on setting up data centres in the territory.

Officiating at the opening ceremony of the Unit, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Gregory So, said, "Data centres constitute an essential part of the infrastructure in our knowledge-based economy.

Source: 7^th Space

CyrusOne, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cincinnati Bell and enterprise data centre colocation solutions provider, has announced the commissioning of an additional 65,000 square feet of premium data centre space in its North Dallas facility (pictured).

NEXTDC has announced that the Company is now expanding its initial fit out program in its Melbourne (M1) facility to include the fit out of an additional data hall (pictured).

Additionally, NEXTDC has announced that it is proceeding with the upgrade of the electrical and mechanical infrastructure to provide 2,000 watts/m² of IT load across the initial 3,000 m² of data centre space representing total IT load of 6 MW. This upgrade represents a massive 200% increase in customer IT capacity and capability.

Japanese power firm Tokyo Electric Power Co. is reportedly examining the sale of its majority stake in its data centre business and of around 230 billion yen ($2.95 billion) of shares in companies including KDDI Corp. JP:9433 -0.69% , the Nikkei reported, citing a draft plan obtained by the news service.

These asset sales are expected to bring in around 400 billion yen for the firm, according to the report. Tepco is also mulling the sale of other assets, the report stated.

Source: Market Watch

Mobile operator Vodacom has opened a new seven-storey, energy-efficient data centre on the Cape Town foreshore. The group said that scalability of the data centre was a key design feature, with the data floor area being able to expand from an initial 1,552 sq m to an ultimate 2,862 sq m.

All major building works and the envelope of the building were completed in Phase I and further expansion can be easily introduced by fitting out of electrical and mechanical services as and when required.

Thousands of town hall records including taxpayers’ private information are at risk of being lost. The South London Press has learned that if a “disaster” strikes Lambeth council’s computer server, all electronic records could be lost.

Logicalis, has been awarded a six-year services and managed service contract with high-street retailer, Marks & Spencer, aimed at improving the efficiency and agility of their network infrastructure, as well as supporting the cost-effective deployment of innovative ICT services. Logicalis' on-site and Managed Service Centre teams will provide professional services and 24/7 management of the wired and wireless network infrastructure across M&S's 700 UK stores, Head Office, regional offices, distribution centres and depots.

Windstream Hosted Solutions, a providers of enterprise-class managed hosting solutions, has announced it has begun a significant expansion to its Raleigh data centre |(pictured), one which will grow the facility's usable space by almost 50% to 32,000 sq ft.

 Stream Data Centers has announced that it has completed the sale of its San Antonio Ready-to-Fit Data Center to a Fortune 100 Corporation. The 150,000 sq ft facility is located on 33 acres in Westover Hills in San Antonio, Texas. The purchasing company conducted a national search and considered multiple locations in the Southwest U.S. before ultimately selecting Stream's RTF Data Center in San Antonio. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

Cyber security and software engineering business Paradigm has been bought out by CACI International as part of CACI's growth in supporting national security missions.

Internap, a provider of intelligent IT Infrastructure services, has announced the expansion of its Atlanta data centre to meet growing demand. 

Phase one of the expansion will include approximately 12,000 net-sellable sq ft and is expected to be online by the third quarter of 2012, bringing Internap’s total Atlanta data centre footprint to 23,000 net-sellable sq ft. When fully deployed, the expansion space will include 31,000 net-sellable sq ft, increasing the company’s total Atlanta footprint to 42,000 net-sellable sq ft.

Echo360, the global leader in campus-wide blended learning and lecture capture solutions, has announced an agreement with the University of London Computer Centre (ULCC) to provide hosted services for Echo360 clients in the United Kingdom.

The arrangement enables institutions to securely manage, store and publish content created with Echo360 in the cloud. Higher education and further education institutions can quickly start and scale lecture capture without worrying about backend infrastructure or on-premise technology integration.

Source: Market Wire

Equinix, a  provider of global data centre services with operations in 38 strategic markets across the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, has announced plans to build a tenth International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centre in Washington, D.C.

The DC10 facility will provide approximately 77,000 sq ft of customer floor space, built out in multiple phases. Targeted to open in early 2012, the first phase is expected to cost US$34 million in expansion capital, which is already reflected in the company’s guidance.

Global Crossing, a leading global IP solutions provider, has announced unaudited second-quarter 2011 results.  "Strong demand and continued enterprise-wide focus on customer experience drove solid progress toward the achievement of our annual guidance," said John Legere, chief executive officer of Global Crossing.  "We are building strong operating momentum as we prepare for our strategic combination with Level 3."                     

Enterprise data services provider Tulip Telecom has posted 20.2% increase in net profit at Rs 77.1 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. This is against a net profit of Rs 64.2 crore for the same period last year.

Independent data centre operator Teraco is expanding its facilities in Johannesburg and Cape Town and building a new centre in Durban as demand in the SA market explodes. But it’s having to focus enormous energy on increasing power efficiencies at all the sites in order to try to combat the effects of fast-rising electricity tariffs. Teraco MD Lex van Wyk says companies have been hard hit by the latest electricity increases and “this will only worsen”. “We’re taking every step in managing our facilities better so that our clients are not affected as seriously as they could be,” he says.

Ramsey Dellinger, CEO of Business Continuity Solutions has announced Q.2 2011 revenue results that more than double Q.1 results. "With a reported 42% increase Q.1 over Q.4 2010 and now a 224% increase in Q.2 over Q.1, we have set an aggressive pace to exceed our 2011 topline growth revenue goal," Dellinger stated.

Federal agencies rushed to meet Office of Management and Budget data centre consolidation reporting and plan deadlines, the Government Accountability Office says, setting up the initiative for the possibility of delay and reduced cost savings. In a report GAO auditors say that agency plans for data centre consolidation due to OMB by August 30, 2010, often lacked some elements, or only partially satisfied them.

Zayo, a provider of bandwidth infrastructure services and carrier-neutral colocation, has announced it has begun construction of a fibre network in the Los Angeles Central Business District in support of data centre connectivity for CoreSite Realty

Data centre operator Digital Realty Trust has announced in its latest quarterly earnings report that it will be expanding its data centre space in London, UK with a US$21 million data centre. Though Digital Realty Trust did not disclose the exact location of the acquired data centre, it did say that the facility is 130,000 sq ft, features 8 MW of power capacity and can support the development of five 1.44 MW data centre PODs.