VeriCenter has successfully completed its SAS 70 Type II audit through the global accounting firm of Ernst & Young. The audit covers all of the company's nationwide Data Centers and each location received an unqualified audit opinion, the highest level attainable. The audit provides assurance that VeriCenter follows policies, procedures, and business processes recognized as best practices for providing a secure, stable data center environment.

The international consulting company A.T. Kearney has announced The A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index. The index analyses the top 40 services locations worldwide against 40 measurements in three major categories: cost, people skills and availability, and business environment. The Index assigns weightings reflecting the drivers of offshoring decisions based on A.T. Kearney research and its engagement experience. Because cost advantages have been the primary impetus behind offshoring, financial factors constitute 40 percent of the total index weight.

Electronic Data Systems Hungary has completed a new office building and document archive at its base in Rabahidveg, thus doubling its office space. The expansion will serve EDS's regional service centre in Budapest, which was opened last year. The office area at Rabahidveg, near Hungary's border with Austria, is now 800 square metres with a 300-square-metre document archive. EDS Hungary provides its services mostly to multinationals such as General Electric and General Motors.

IBM has recently launched a global service delivery centre (GSDC) in Bangalore, India, significantly expanding its existing operations to meet the growing market demand for IT outsourcing and management services. The centre will provide local and global clients with command centre services, including remote monitoring of servers, security operations and network operations, data centre services, including server hosting, server management and storage management, and IT help desk services.

Impsat Value Added Services revenues increased by 48.7% (compared to 3Q 2004) with growth led by hosting and telehouse services in their data centres. VAS for 9 months totalled US$17.14m. Overall, net revenues increased for the seventh consecutive quarter. For 3Q 2005, net revenues totalled US$65.4 million, an increase of 13.6% compared to 3Q 2004, and US$186.7 million for 9 months.

Wipro is providing a Business Intelligence and Data warehousing solution to Thuraya Satellite Communications that will streamline information flow across applications for data traffic, segment and corporate performance. Thuraya will be able to consolidate information for performance analysis, research, decision support and forecasting.

SAVVIS, a global IT utility services provider has been selected by Trilantic, a legal support services company that specialises in the provision of traditional and eDocument management solutions, to implement SAVVIS' virtualised IT utility services. Under the terms of the contract, SAVVIS will supply Trilantic with high-availability IT infrastructure services that include utility storage and computer architectures, as well as managed security services. SAVVIS' pay-as-you-go service offers Trilantic the ability to add server and storage capacity as their business grows.

MCI has launched its NetSec Security Risk Management Service, a new managed solution that helps companies improve their security by quantifying, prioritising and remediating security risks across an enterprise. MCI's latest cloud-to-core offering enables companies to enhance their ability to take proactive decisions and initiate immediate action against threats and vulnerabilities, when and where it most needed. The service will be available to U.S.-based companies, including multinationals beginning in January 2006.

A new managed end-to-end digital video surveillance service has been launched by Singapore Telecommunications. As an extension to the traditional close-circuit TV system, it allows users to conduct continuous video recording and view real-time images of their surveillance recordings from anywhere within or outside of Singapore using broadband or IP connections. Customers can store and retrieve video images up to 30 days from the centrally-hosted video library at SingTel EXPAN, the company's managed hosting solution.

tel(x), the provider of telecom "meet-me" network interconnection facilities, has launched the tel(x) Brilliant Platform(SM) (BP) at One Wilshire in Los Angeles. The BP provides enhanced interconnection capabilities through the conversion and grooming of multiple protocols. Now tel(x)'s European customers in NYC can take advantage of the same high-level services at One Wilshire in LA to interconnect to Asian and Pacific Rim carriers.

Videotron has renewed a contract with Radialpoint, a provider of managed Internet services to broadband providers, as its Internet security services provider. Radialpoint security services are currently available to over 14 million broadband subscribers worldwide. Its customers in Europe include ntl, ONO and Telewest.

Servecentric has launched Emailcentric, a fully managed, outsourced email service, aimed primarily at SMEs. Emailcentric facilitates business continuity and removes the financial and time-consuming strain of mail server downtime and lost emails. A key feature of the service is the strict spam and virus filter, which affords protection from unwanted email. Emailcentric utilises a double layer backup system to ensure that emails are stored in accordance with the latest Irish and EU legislation on the retention of electronic data. The service costs EUR10 per user, per month.

Reports are circulating that Yahoo! Inc. is looking to build a new data centre facility within the Colombia Basin. A long-term service commitment from the Grant County Public Utility District is apparently being sought for use of the utility's Zipp fiber optic network, a communication system the PUD developed to provide broadband access to the residents of Grant County. One report suggested that Yahoo would require about 15-20 megawatts of power from the PUD to operate and the new facility would staff about 40 employees.

The hosting and outsourcing provider has extended its monitoring capabilities to customers whose servers are located outside of a NaviSite data centre. NaviSite's Remote Monitoring Services provide a comprehensive view of IT systems through one interface: NaviView, NaviSite's customer management portal. Customers can assess the availability, responsiveness, and performance of all critical IT components, including critical applications, network devices, security devices, and servers/operating systems.

SAVVIS has won a 3-year contract from Pfizer Health Solutions Inc for comprehensive managed hosting services worth a reported £1.76 million. Under terms of contract, Pfizer Health Solutions will deploy SAVVIS' fully resilient IT infrastructure solution in Europe. This includes managed network services, servers, storage, and disaster recovery services. As part of the solution, SAVVIS is also delivering managed security services that utilise virtualised firewall, load balancing and intrusion detection for hosted infrastructure, and in-network firewalling for the wide area network.

Level 3 Communications, Inc.(NASDAQ: LVLT) announced today that it is commencing private offers to exchange any and all of its 9 1/8% Senior Notes due 2008, 11% Senior Notes due 2008 and 10 % Senior Discount Notes due 2008 (together the old notes) in a private placement for cash and a maximum of $1,230,272,000 aggregate principal amount of its new 11.50% Senior Notes due 2010 (the new notes). The exchange offers are being made only to qualified institutional buyers and institutional accredited investors inside the United States and to certain non-U.S.

DataPipe has acquired data center space and expanded its sales and support teams into Hong Kong, China. this is in response to the growing demand from its clients for customized, cost-effective solutions that improve efficiency and value across the enterprise. By opening a facility in Hong Kong, DataPipe can now extend direct support to its customers and partners in the Pacific Rim. The Hong Kong expansion follows the 2002 establishment of DataPipe Europe based in London, UK. The company expects continued momentum internationally.