EMC has said it has acquired Montreal-based Watch4net, a privately-held provider of enterprise and carrier-class performance management software, in an all-cash transaction. Watch4net provides real-time, historical and projected visibility into network, data centre and cloud infrastructure performance. The firm has worked closely with EMC over the last seven years. Watch4net leverages EMC's topology awareness, instrumentation and management console.

Managed service providers are embracing cloud technologies either through leaps and bounds or with one foot dragging. Few, however, are finding cloud success 300 meters deep in the side of a mountain. Radix Technologies is the exception to that rule. The global services provider, which is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary, has built a data centre in a former military bunker built into a mountain in the Swiss countryside outside Altdorf.

AboveNet, has announced that at its special meeting of stockholders held on June 5, 2012, its stockholders approved the proposal to adopt the merger agreement, dated as of March 18, 2012, by and among AboveNet, Zayo Group, and Voila Sub, a wholly owned subsidiary of Zayo Group, providing for the acquisition of AboveNet by Zayo Group.

Colocation provider Zayo Group has announced it will acquire dark fiber services provider FiberGate, which adds 130,000 fibre miles to Zayo’s metro network in and around Washington DC.

The current FiberGate network also includes 315 on-net buildings and two recently completed expansions to Frederick and Baltimore, Maryland. Zayo’s colocation unit, zColo, recently opened a data centre in downtown Chicago.

Source: The WHIR

An investor group, comprising Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (Teachers), Providence Equity Partners (Providence) and Madison Dearborn Partners LLC (Madison Dearborn), and BCE Inc. have announced an agreement to acquire 100% of Canadian data centre operator Q9 Networks Inc. (Q9) for C$1.1 billion.

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Singapore Economic Development Board and JTC Corporation are working together on the development of a data centre park to strengthen Singapore's position as an economic and infocomm hub. The DCP will be a specialised industrial park for data centres, built with infrastructure supportive of the setting up of premium DCs.

Carpathia Hosting, the leading provider of complex, compliant managed hosting and cloud services for government agencies and enterprises, has announced a US$71 million credit facility to support growth initiatives, including investments in sales and marketing, global expansion and the recently announced IBX Vault data centre in Dulles, Va. The credit facility is a strong endorsement of the company's track record and significant growth prospects.

Data centre and connectivity services provider C4L has announced the opening of its newly upgraded Bournemouth data centre. The site provides 5,000 sq ft of space, able to house 180 racks of IT equipment. The data centre itself is certified as being 100% powered by green energy, as well as using additional techniques to further reduce its energy usage. As a result, C4L can ascertain that its data centre is producing the lowest possible amount of carbon emissions as well as providing IT resources for potentially hundreds of businesses.

PEER 1 Network Enterprises, a leading provider of IT infrastructure, has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding shares in the capital of NetBenefit (UK) Limited a division of London-based Group NBT Limited, and a leading UK-based managed hosting company, for cash consideration of £25 million.

Is Singapore fast becoming a data centre hub in the region? It seems to be so. Reason: data centres are mushrooming in the city state. This is happening due to an uptick in the demand for services such as cloud computing and increased consumption of content over the Internet.

MTN Ghana has commissioned another switch and data centre with the most advanced facilities to boost its network quality and provide data protection in order to meet growing needs of customers. The centre, the third to be built by the company in the country and second in Accra, is located at Shiashi in East Legon. The other two centres are located at Sakaman in Accra
and Kaase in the Ashanti Region.

Integrated Design Group, an architectural, engineering and planning firm focused on data centre design, has announced that ground has broken on two new data centre projects they designed for Digital Realty.

IDG provided architectural and MEP design services for a 130,000 sq ft building in Needham, Mass., and master planning, architectural, and MEP design services for a major expansion of the company's Northern Virginia data centre campus in Ashburn, VA.

Cloud security provider Qualys Inc filed with U.S. regulators to raise up to US$100 million in an initial public offering of its common stock.

Revenue from server sales declined by about 12% year-on-year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa during the first quarter of 2012, as vendors continue to suffer from a slowdown in server spending, according to market research company IDC.

This was the second consecutive quarter of annual revenue declines, and the first double-digit decrease since the third quarter of 2009. Difficult market conditions compounded the current slowdown in server spending, IDC said. Revenue totalled US$3.1 billion, compared to US$3.5 billion during the first quarter last year.

Building on the success it has enjoyed in Iowa and several other states, Involta of Cedar Rapids is planning a US$15 million Tier III multiple tenant data centre in Tucson, Arizona.

The French data centre operator and web hosting company OVH has said it will open a new data centre in Gravelines, near Dunkirk in Northern France. Founder and chairman Henryk Klaba told French media that the company will invest €180 million over six years The 20,000 sq ft data centre is due to open in 2013 and will have capacity for some 20,000 servers’ initially rising to 400,000 over the coming five years.

Digital China Holdings Limited, China's largest integrated IT services provider, has announced the consolidated annual results of the Company and its subsidiaries for the 12 months ended 31 March 2012. 

The Pflugerville City Council has approved a multimillion-dollar agreement voting unanimously to sign a slate of incentives to bring a US$210 million, 15- megawatt co-location data canter facility to the city. The deal calls for Pflugerville to build a new road, improve area infrastructure, build an on-site power substation and provide discounts on water for the facility at a cost of about US$11 million, plus provide tax rebates over a 15-year period.

Cologix, a network neutral interconnection and colocation company, has announced the acquisition of colocation and connectivity provider Carrier Connex. Carrier Connex operates a data centre in Toronto’s carrier hotel at 151 Front Street, where Cologix is the largest operator.

The acquisition further reinforces Cologix’s commitment to the Toronto market, adding to recently announced expansions within 151 Front Street that are expected to come online in Q3, 2012 as well as at 905 King Street which is expected to come online in Q4, 2012.

Digital Realty Trust, a leading global provider of data centre solutions, has announced that it has signed a new lease in the first quarter with DataBank Holdings, a leading provider of secure and reliable data centre services for enterprise and cloud providers, for a stand-alone facility.

Integrated Electrical Services has announced that it has further expanded its data centre technology infrastructure service capabilities. The IES Communications Division, based in Tempe, Arizona, has expanded its physical infrastructure and expertise to Silicon Valley in northern California. With data center and other mission critical projects for some of the leading U.S.

A state-of-the-art data centre has broken ground recently after the purchase of 8 acres of land at 2600 W. Germann Rd. in Chandler for US$1.6 million or US$200,000 per acre.

A Thai citizen identification data centre will soon be in service, reducing costs, speeding processing times and simplifying the transfer of information. Under an agreement signed recently between the Provincial Administration Department and the Electronic Government Agency of the Information and Communication Technology) Ministry, state agencies requiring Thai citizen identification information will be able to access the relevant data through the centre.

Equinix, a provider of global data centre services, has announced the launch of phase four of its second Singapore International Business Exchange data centre to accommodate increasing market demand from cloud and financial service providers. Equinix is investing an additional US$28.5 million in the expansion of SG2, increasing the number of cabinets to 3,256.

Cognizant Technology Solutions has signed a seven-year,US $330 million agreement to provide financial and insurance support services to ING U.S., which has Windsor operations. ING U.S. is the domestic arm of Dutch financial services company ING Group.

Colocation and managed hosting provider Savvis sees no let-up in demand for space as it prepares to go live with its fourth and fifth London centres in the coming weeks, its EMEA managing director has said. Savvis is due to open its L03 centre at Docklands in London on June 25th. That will be followed in a few months by L02. The company already has L01, L04 and L06 up and running, part of a staple of 50-some centres around the world.

Cogeco Data Services is opening its new state-of-the-art data centre in the heart of Toronto's business district. This new centre will serve local customers as well as organizations requiring easy access and low latency connections to Canada's largest business and financial institutions.

Digital Realty Trust, a leading global provider of data centre solutions,  has announced that it has completed the acquisition of 8025 North Interstate 35, a 62,000 sq ft data centre facility located in Austin, Texas. The property totals 62,237 rentable sq ft and is 100% leased on a long term, triple net basis to a leading provider of integrated disaster recovery, managed services, IT consulting and business continuity management software solutions. The purchase price was US$12.5 million.

Without offering a long-term data centre land supply policy, the Hong Kong SAR Government puts its 'hopes' on two measures announced in the 2012-13 Budget Speech to give the data centre sector some boost.

IT services relationships at the London tri-borough group of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea are likely to become more complex following the acquisition of Westminster's IT supplier Vertex by Serco.

Jasco Networks has expanded its operations into Central Africa with the formation of Jasco Congo, a subsidiary company with dedicated presence and local shareholders in the region.

Following this expansion, the newly-formed Jasco Congo subsidiary has signed a partnership agreement with Warid Congo to manage and maintain a carrier-neutral colocation data centre in Congo-Brazzaville.

Source: Business Tech

Mahindra Satyam, a leading global consulting and IT services provider, has announced the opening of its new delivery centre in Fargo, North Dakota. The company intends to develop Fargo as a near-shore delivery location, offering innovative solutions in Business Processes and Infrastructure Management Services sector and IT Services. 

Data centre provider, NextDC has set a clear strategy for delivering a national network at colocation data centres and will focus on building those facilities over the course of the next 12 months, its new CEO, Craig Scroggie, said.  “The first part is to continue making sure that all of those colocation data centres get delivered on time and then, it is overseeing the delivery of all of the facilities from constructive projects to a live operating facility,” he said.

Channel-focused Equus has opened a new Southern California production facility to meet the growing demands of the cloud and Internet hosting markets. Equus hosted the grand opening of its 102,000 sq ft facility in the City of Industry, located in the Los Angeles metro area. Three Equus companies - Equus Computing Systems, Intequus and Servers Direct - will have use of the facility to build and ship customer servers and storage devices for data centre customers.

Level 3 Communications, has announced that it is further enhancing its global data centre capabilities with the deployment of a new enterprise-grade data centre facility located in the Scott Data Center complex, Omaha, Nebraska. The Level 3 facility offers enterprises and government agencies a state-of-the-art infrastructure designed to support the power, redundancy, cooling and security requirements of today's IT applications. Premier Elite facilities are designed to support IT solutions with on-site staff to support site access and monitoring.

The University of Auckland is gearing up for a sharp increase in traffic over its network thanks to a new supercomputer, housed at UoA, and through the August 2012 launch of a 439 sq m capacity second data centre.

Open Data Centers, a privately held, carrier neutral, data centre operator, has announced the grand opening of its first data centre facility in Piscataway, New Jersey. Located 16 miles south of New York City, the Piscataway data centre is Open Data Centers' first carrier neutral facility.

IT spending in Europe will virtually grind to a halt this year and next due to economic uncertainty over the euro currency, according to a Forrester Research. "The most likely result is either near-zero growth or economic recession in 2012, depending on the country," Forrester analyst and lead report author Andrew Bartels wrote. "The worst case is a possible collapse of the euro and a resulting depression."

Presence in all four major European markets, and power supply will differentiate winners in the data centre market by 2016. However, outsourcing growth across the next 3 years will fall only slightly short of the US level of 30%. The conclusions are drawn in a major new report by consulting firm BroadGroup, Datacentres Europe IV.

Jasco Networks has expanded its operations into Central Africa with the formation of Jasco Congo, a subsidiary company with a dedicated presence in the region. Following this expansion, the newly formed Jasco Congo subsidiary has signed a partnership agreement with Warid Congo to manage and maintain a carrier-neutral colocation data centre in Congo-Brazzaville.

Following a complete redesign and expansion, BT has re-opened its data centre in Nieuwegein. BT has done so in response to increased customer demand for hosted and managed ICT services. The new location complements BT's existing data centres in Amsterdam, Brussels and Nieuwegein.

Power and automation technology company ABB and Tieto, the IT service company in Northern Europe, have launched a feasibility study for the construction of a solar power plant at Tieto's data centre in Espoo, southern Finland. Experience has shown that solar power production in Finland has good potential. For example, solar panels can produce more power annually in southern Finland than in northern Germany of southern England.

South London data centre operator Netwise Hosting has reported a 300% increase in revenue since 2011. A spokesperson for the organisation, which specialises in dedicated servers, server colocation and online backup services, attributed the company’s impressive growth figures to an industry-wide upward trend in demand for server colocation, coupled with new service additions that have been grabbing industry headlines in recent months.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has announced it will be closing its Croydon data centre next year. The bank told staff they will be moving out of Galaxy House in Cherry Orchard Road and relocating to other offices in Canary Wharf and Bromley. The centre which is close to East Croydon station, will close during the first quarter of 2013.

Detailed plans have been unveiled for a A$27 million data storage facility to house sensitive government information at Unanderra. Metronode, which operates computer data centres across the country, has lodged hundreds of pages worth of reports with Wollongong City Council outlining its vision for the state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly South Coast centre.

Manhattan is one of the fastest-growing technology hubs in the nation, a trend that is expected to increasingly and positively impact the city’s commercial real estate market, according to a report, “NYC Tech 2012: Implications for Real Estate,” issued today by CBRE Group Research.

Business analytics firm IHS has announced the opening of a new electronic data centre in Northwest Houston to serve clients in the oil and gas sector. The IHS Data Transformation Centre will convert hard copies of sensitive records into digital files for storage. The centre provides a hedge against hurricanes and other natural disasters, according to IHS vice president Jim Wortham.

When Facebook started work on its new data centre in Forest City, North Carolina, the idea was to create pretty much an exact copy of the new-age facility the company had just built in the high desert of central Oregon. But about two months into the project, Jay Parikh, the man who oversees Facebook’s entire data centre infrastructure, and company decided this was a poor idea — not because the Oregon facility was deficient in any way, but because Facebook’s network traffic had changed in a big way.

On-site computer rooms are facing a slow demise in Australia as data centre operators continue to build new colocation facilities, according to Colliers' bi-annual international office tenant survey. But the real estate services firm's 2012 figures indicate on-site data rooms still account for 74% of the estimated 500,000 sq m of total data centre space in Australia.

Colt, Europe’s information delivery platform, has announced that its new network route from Dublin to London is now fully operational, allowing enterprises to deliver information at the fastest possible speed between Ireland and mainland Europe via London with improved resilience and lower costs.

Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) has launched VITRO Cebu, its first data centre outside Luzon. The setting up of a “world-class” data centre in Cebu is testament to the province’s “success as a location for business,” said Eric Alberto, PLDT executive vice president and head of enterprise and international carrier business. It also increases the infrastructure capability of Cebu as an investment destination, said ePLDT president and chief executive officer Beth Lui.

A 320-acre technology corporate park, being planned in Douglas County, could employ up to 2,000. The Riverside West Business Park, developed by Rooker Co., will be marketed to data centre operators and companies seeking a corporate campus.

The park, which will include 2.9 million sq ft of developed space, could host data centres, R&D operations, and corporate headquarters, said Tim Huffman, a director with Colliers International, the commercial real estate services firm marketing Riverside West Business Park.