Thursday, February 21st, 2013

Time	Event
12:30p	Red Hat Adds Storage Plug-in to Apache Hadoop Community Slide from presentation by Ranga Rangachari, vice president and general manager, Red Hat Storage Business Unit, presented during webcast of announcement. Red Hat announced it will contribute its Red Hat Storage Hadoop plug-in to the Apache Hadoop open community to add another component to the big data ecosystem. “The big data market is ripe for disruption,” said Ranga Rangachari, vice president and general manager, Red Hat Storage Business Unit. “Big data is more than just Hadoop to most enterprise customers. We are taking a broad view of big data.” RedHat already has a large share of the big data and cloud markets. According to Rangachari, 72 percent of big data workloads run on Linux and Linux is the primary platform for the majority of cloud-based applications. Red Hat intends to make its Hadoop plug-in for Red Hat Storage (gained through the acquistion of Gluster, an open source object storage firm) available to the Hadoop community later this year. Currently in technology preview, the Red Hat Storage Apache Hadoop plug-in provides a new storage option for enterprise Hadoop deployments that delivers enterprise storage features, while maintaining the API compatibility and local data access the Hadoop community expects. Red Hat Storage brings enterprise-class features to big data environments, such as Geo replication, High Availability, POSIX compliance, disaster recovery, and management. Users will have have a unified data and scale-out storage software platform to accommodate files and objects deployed across physical, virtual, public and hybrid cloud resources. The enterprise big data analysis is supported by RedHat’s approach, with “the ability to create workloads in private cloud and move to public cloud, back and forth, without retooling the applications,” said Rangachari. Red Hat is also building a robust network of ecosystem and enterprise integration partners to deliver comprehensive big data solutions to enterprise customers. Big Data Ecosystem Partners – To provide a comprehensive big data solution set to enterprises, Red Hat plans to partner with leading big data software and hardware providers to offer interoperability. Development of certified and documented reference architectures are expected to allow users to integrate and install comprehension enterprise big data solutions. Enterprise Partners – Red Hat anticipates enabling the delivery of a comprehensive big data solution to its customers through leading enterprise integration partners utilizing the reference architectures developed by Red Hat and its big data ecosystem partners. Keep up on Data Center Knowledge’s cloud computing coverage, check the Cloud Computing channel. (Comment on this)
1:00p	Fighting Back: Big Data Center States Push for More Tax Incentives This is the newest data center building at Digital Realty’s northern Virginia campus. State legislators in Virginia recently passed additional tax incentives for data centers to stay competitive. (Photo: Rich Miller). Financial incentives have been popular among states looking to build a reputation as data center destinations, and to compete with neighboring states. It looks like the growth of incentives is now prompting the traditional data center hubs to beef up their tax breaks. Both Virginia and Texas, already two of the most active data center markets, have recently passed or are working on bills to attract more of these high-tech facilities. Individual states recognize that data centers are good business, and they’re an increasingly important component of site searches for data center projects. Several states have customized incentives programs for data center operations, which focus on full or partial exemption of sales/use taxes on equipment, construction materials, and in some cases purchases of electricity & backup fuel. Virginia is for Data Center Lovers Just a year after revising their existing offerings, Virginia legislators are working on new incentives yet again. Barbara Comstock introduced legislation House Bill 1699, which aims to promote and expand Virginia’s data center industry by providing tax incentives. The bill is intended to “create a separate classification, for purposes of permitting localities to set a lower personal property tax rate, on computer equipment and peripherals used in a datacenter.” It passed in the House of Delegates 95-5 on February 5th. Senate Bill 1133, identical to the above, introduced by Republican Senator Ryan Mcdougle, was passed in the house 94-4. “The data center industry is projected to grow by hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years. This bill will help Virginia continue to be a leader in this 21st century marketplace,” Comstock said in a statement. “Data center jobs and investment are a critical element in diversifying Virginia’s technology economy and attracting private sector jobs as federal spending and procurement decreases.” Loudoun County recently announced that 3 million square feet of new data centers are under contract or construction. Loudoun is already home to 5 million square feet of server farms, and estimates that as much as 70 percent of the world’s Internet traffic passes through the county. Virginia passed its data center incentives in 2009, partly to remain competitive with North Carolina, which has been competing aggressively for major data center projects. The original incentive package had a 2017 sunset date for the expanded sales tax exemptions, but in early 2012 those incentives were updated to extend the tax benefits to 2020 – a key consideration for companies looking to build or lease data centers with an expected lifespan that will include several server refresh cycles. Comstock has continued to work with the Northern Virginia Technology Council and the tech community to build upon her bill passed last year. The updated incentives passed last year were cited as a key factor in a Capital One project, as well as being a factor in several large leases for DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT). Tax Incentives Bigger in Texas Texas has been a strong market in recent years, but apparently feels the need to play defense as other states enact generous exemptions and other incentives for data center owners and operators.There was a lot of talk of potential new tax incentives at the end of last year, and now there is a draft.  Bill HB 1223 was filed on Feb. 12.    The bill would provide refunds to qualifying data centers on any taxes on the purchase of “tangible personal property,” including electricity, power and cooling equipment, backup generators, servers, storage devices, networking gear and software. The refund is eligible to data cener owners, operators or tenants who create at least 20 jobs and spend at least $150 million in Texas on power and improvements to equipment installed at the data center over a four-year period after initial construction or refurbishing of the facility. Qualifying jobs must pay 120% of the county average weekly wage. Republican Harvey Hilderbran from district 53 is the primary on the bill. Tax incentives remain an integral part of site selection. The moves on the part of both Virginia and Texas suggest that these states can’t rest on their leadership laurels, but need to position themselves as attractive options compared to rival states. (Comment on this)
1:30p	Keep Your Servers Cool, And Your Business Hot Gary Bunyan is Global DCIM Solutions Specialist at iTRACS Corporation, a Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) company. This is the 10th in a series of columns by Gary about “the user experience.” See Gary’s previous columns on Turning DCIM’s Big Data into Actionable Insight and Unlock Your Capacity By Unplugging Your Ghost Servers. GARY BUNYAN iTRACS With more and more computing resources being deployed in denser and denser data center spaces, it’s no wonder data center professionals are focused on cooling. The data center is now at the epicenter of today’s hottest businesses, essential to their competitive positioning and market success. But no matter how dense the data center gets, its servers, blades, and other IT assets must be kept cool. Cooling is an expensive necessity in many data centers. Customers – like the one in the Middle East I was just visiting – are always looking to provide just the right amount of it. What’s the “right” amount of cooling? It’s the perfect balance between under- and over-cooling in a consistent flow across all of your assets. Not enough cooling and the servers are at risk. Too much cooling and you’re spending more on energy that you need. Uneven cooling and you get thermal inconsistencies – areas either too hot or too cold. The right amount of cooling – and you’re running the most efficient infrastructure possible, minimizing both your cooling costs and your risk. The trick is to use a DCIM solution that offers you live data about thermal conditions at the individual server level, and sends you real-time alerts if a threshold is in potential of being reached. Instead of guessing about server temperatures, DCIM gives you actual inlet and outlet readings at the device level in your dashboards. Armed with this knowledge, you can run a “lean machine” that minimizes cooling while keeping your assets safe. This tightrope can only be walked safely if you have real-time information at your fingertips. Guesswork is way too dangerous. Beware of Thermal Hot Spots Using a DCIM tool with visualization lets you identify, manage and resolve potential hot spot issues on your floor before they turn into problems. The key is to be proactive, not reactive. Here’s how it works: Forensics: Identifying the Source of the Hot Spot (1) A thermal hot-spot alert goes off in your DCIM environment. If you’re using a visualization tool, you can instantly see the problem area highlighted in red. The alert is being fed by real-time data from any number of sources depending on your environment – Intel DCM, Power Assure, RF Code, or other data feeds. With a few clicks, you interrogate the alert and learn that rising temperatures in the top U positions of 3 racks are about to go critical. Real-time thermal readings indicate an issue. (2) You run forensics at the device level, looking at a live data feed of inlet and outlet temperatures from each affected server. You confirm that server inlet/outlet temperatures have exceeded thresholds. Inlet/outlet temps in the server pool have exceeded thresholds. (3) With a few clicks – still within the DCIM system – you review maintenance schedules and reports. You learn that a CRAC unit is still offline, past its scheduled repair window. (4) With a few more clicks, you interrogate the servers under threat and identify which business unit owns them – you confirm they are revenue-generating applications with direct impact on profitability. So you must take action immediately. Resolution: Migrating the Applications to a Safer Environment (5) Using DCIM’s predictive what-if scenarios, you quickly determine where you can move the applications running on the endangered servers – you need to migrate them to cooler IT assets with the appropriate power and connectivity. (6) You confirm your migration strategy in the safety of the DCIM software and give your technicians a clear set of instructions – complete with automatically-generated 3-D diagrams – so they know exactly what to do. (7) You confirm with the business unit and secure approval to move the applications, then dispatch you technical teams to execute the move. Applications are temporarily moved to safeguard the business until hot-spot is resolved Images courtesy of iTRACS.. 8) Once you’ve confirmed that the CRAC maintenance has been completed and the CRAC unit is back online, you migrate the applications back to the original servers. The Bottom Line – Uninterrupted Revenue for the Business Identifying and resolving hot spot issues is relatively easy when you have the right DCIM tools.  And the benefits are quantifiable: Optimum business continuity – the organization’s revenue-generating applications continue operating with no impact on customer service or revenue streams. Uninterrupted service levels ­– you continue to meet your SLAs. Mitigating risk associated with maintenance – you use incident to improve maintenance scheduling and minimize potential future risk to operations. See Gary’s previous columns on Turning DCIM’s Big Data into Actionable Insight and Unlock Your Capacity By Unplugging Your Ghost Servers. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
2:00p	Wall Street Debates How to Value Data Center Stocks A favorable feature article in Barron’s can lift some stocks with a “Barron’s Bounce,” while a tough critique will also be felt in the markets. Last Saturday Barron’s followed up on a slide in Rackspace shares by taking a critical look at the methods used to value data center companies on Wall Street. That kicked off a series of articles in the financial press and blogosphere debating the merit of data center investments. Here’s a review of this week’s action: Adjusted for Reality, Neither Rackspace nor Equinix Shine – Barron’s Tiernan Ray focused on the use of adjusted EBITDA: “Investors have cooled a bit on some of the best-known data-center REITs, such as Digital Realty Trust (DLR) and Dupont Fabros Technology (DFT). Their stocks are down 6% and 4%, respectively, this year, on results that failed to sustain the magic. And that makes one wonder about the data-center names that aren’t REITs, but that investors like to think of as if they were. Cases in point: Rackspace Hosting (RAX) and Equinix (EQIX), both of which are way overvalued on the basis of reported earnings and that, given their massive investment costs, make little to no actual cash profit.” Will The Sun Keep Shining On The Cloud Storage REITs? – Seeking Alpha’s top-rated REIT blogger, Brad Thomas, follows up on the Barron’s critique, and sees value: “In all likelihood two new data storage companies will convert to REITs soon and the massive ‘brick and mortar’ data-lords will almost triple the size of the sector. Rackspace Hosting (RAX) and Equinix (EQIX), with markets caps of $8.09 billion and $10.93 billion respectively, will likely enter the REIT-dom as both companies look to exploit the favorable tax friendly structure. It’s plain to see the benefits for converting to a REIT structure as Mr. Market has rewarded both data companies for the mere suggestion of being a REIT. The same has been true for other REIT wannabes. I suppose that’s great for yield-hungry investors who are looking for added diversification in the form of sustainable rental income that is paid out in the form of dividends. But let’s take a closer look at the two new players in data-dom and see if there’s a reason to reserve a seat, in advance, for the flight to REIT-dom.” Data Centers Vs. Hosting Providers: Why The Distinction Is Critical For Investors – At Minyanville, Fil Zucchi says the distinctions between business models is getting lost in the valuation debate. “As pointed out in a research note by Stifel Nicolaus, Barron’s makes no distinction between ‘data centers’ and ‘hosting companies.’ But understanding the difference is critical accurately valuing the stocks. The former lease ‘physical space’ where customers can place their servers, and the data center supplies power, cooling systems, and storage facilities. In the case of ‘hosting companies’ such as Rackspace, it may or may not own the real estate in which the servers reside, but in any event its primary business is to ‘lease’ its servers to clients who want to host their websites without having to manage the IT infrastructure. From a valuation standpoint, the distinction is critical.” What has the market had to say since the Barron’s article? Shares of Rackspace closed at $54.98 Wednesday, down from $58.96 at Friday’s close, a decline of 6.7 percent. Equinix ended yesterday’s session at $215.62, down 3.9 percent from Friday’s close of $224.48. (Comment on this)
2:30p	With New Owners, Kansas City Carrier Hotel Gets Upgrades One of the entrances at 1102 Grand, the data center hub in Kansas City, which has been acquired by Amerimar. (Photo: 1102 Grand) The new ownership of Kansas City data hub 1102 Grand has commenced redevelopment. Amerimar Enterprises and Hunter Newby acquired the property in October 2012 and quickly worked on a master plan to reinforce its position as the leading carrier hotel in the region. “Kansas City is booming with innovative business opportunities and pushing the limits of telecommunication network capacity and as 1102 Grand is the City’s carrier hotel, these building improvements are necessary to foster continued growth,” said Newby, a joint venture partner at 1102 Grand.  “We look forward to strengthening the building’s infrastructure and providing connectivity options for the many growing companies in the region.” This plan includes a complete overhaul of the electrical and cooling infrastructure. A permit has been secured for two additional 2 megawatt generators and has commenced construction on the first new generator. During the installation of the new generators, the partnership will be simultaneously increasing the incoming electrical service at the property by 66 percent to 5 MVA. “These infrastructure improvements are in response to existing customer growth and robust new demand we are seeing in the market,” said Gerald Marshall, CEO of Amerimar Enterprises and owner of 1102 Grand. Cooling Upgrades Cooling upgrades will include significant capacity increases, as well as redundancy at each level from origination to delivery. The building will also benefit from a full façade repointing and selective replacement and resealing of windows. With these improvements, the new owners seek to secure the building envelope and eliminate any potential points of intrusion that could compromise the data center operations. The partnership will also be upgrading the building management systems to monitor all security, fire alarm, fire suppression, cooling and power systems from one central command center, which will also be available remotely. The size of the facility’s support team has nearly doubled as well. The project ownership cited the importance of cooperation from the city of Kansas City, Missouri, and the leadership of the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority, which have authorized the public-private partnership necessary to reinvigorate the historic structure. (Comment on this)
2:55p	Teradata Enhances Big Data Analytics Platform Teradata (TDC) introduced Teradata Aster Discovery Platform 5.10, a comprehensive discovery solution with more than 20 new big data analytic capabilities, including purpose-built visualizations. Teradata is a leading analytic data solutions company focused on integrated data warehousing, big data analytics, and business applications that provide actionable business intelligence. Insights from the discovery platform analytics can empower organizations to be more profitable by enhancing customer engagement and improving sales. “The Teradata Aster Discovery Platform is full of new capabilities that can empower them to accelerate their innovation and supply new options to their business users,” said Scott Gnau, president, Teradata Labs. “It is Teradata’s goal to be our customers’ trusted partner in building a Unified Data Architecture, which includes a powerful set of big data solutions. The result is effective deployment of transformational technology that drives tangible results.” New technical enhancements to the Aster Disaster Recovery Platform include Visual SQL-MapReduce functions, that generate sophisticated purpose-built data visualizations coupled with other Aster SQL-MapReduce analytical functions generated inside the database. It also features in-database ‘R’ execution capability, support for in-database PMML execution via Zementis, in-database integration of Attensity capabilities and manufacturing and financial services industry analytics. “With newly added analytics and visualization functionality, the Teradata Aster Discovery Platform offers the convenience of a ‘data scientist in a box,’” said Dan Vesset, program vice president of business analytics and big data, IDC. “Much of the market attention has been on vendors trying to build SQL engines on Hadoop. Teradata Aster Discovery Platform already provides an ANSI SQL-compliant method with its SQL-MapReduce framework to acquire, prepare, analyze, and visualize data from any data source including Hadoop. Without the need to integrate multiple point solutions, customers using this Teradata technology are able to accelerate the discovery process and visualize information in new and exciting ways, and to focus the scarce expertise of data scientists on highest value- added tasks.” (Comment on this)
4:08p	VMware and Citrix Launch Workforce Mobility Solutions The mobile device management market continues to heat up, as VMware and Citrix expand product offerings to help manage personal laptops used in the workplace and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) initiatives. VMware Horizon Suite VMware (VMW) unveiled the VMware Horizon Suite, a comprehensive platform for workforce mobility that will connect end users to their data, applications and desktops on any device without sacrificing IT security and control. In addition to updates to Horizon View and Horizon Mirage products, VMware introduced VMware Horizon Suite, which will enable IT organizations to empower users with a secure, easy-to-manage virtual workspace that delivers a consistent, compelling experience across devices. “Our customers are looking for a comprehensive, enterprise-class solution to empower workers in a world where the proliferation of devices and consumer cloud services have changed user expectations, while putting IT security and governance at risk,” said Boaz Chalamish, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing, VMware. “VMware virtualization has helped hundreds of thousands of customers change what is possible in the datacenter, and we believe it can have the same transformative impact in end-user computing. The VMware Horizon™ Suite will help our customers accelerate their journeys from the PC Era to the Multi-Device Era.” As a unified solution the Horizon suite will combine a desktop virtualization solution with technologies that VMware has built from the ground up to support a mobile, collaborative workforce. Horizon Workspace was also introduced, as a new product that will combine data, applications and desktops into a single aggregated workspace, that can be securely delivered on any device. Citrix launches XenMobile MDM Citrix (CTXS) announced XenMobile MDM, an enterprise mobile device management solution that gives users device choice while also enabling IT to meet its management and compliance requirements. XenMobile MDM provides the foundation to address these needs through role-based management, configuration and security of corporate and employee-owned devices. The product is directly integrated with Microsoft Active Directory and public key infrastructure systems, as well as security information and event management tool. “In today’s complex enterprise mobility environment that includes a mix of corporate and employee-liable devices, companies need solutions that allow them to manage devices, data and apps,” said Stephen Drake, Program VP, Mobile Enterprise at IDC.  ”The addition of an MDM solution to the Citrix MAM and data management capabilities create a complete solution. By offering a platform for mobile enterprise management that gives options, Citrix can help give customers the peace of mind that, if their needs change, the platform can adjust.” In addition to XenMobile MDM, Citrix now also offers a Mobile Solutions Bundle for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM). The Mobile Solutions Bundle is comprised of XenMobile MDM and CloudGateway and eliminates the need for multiple point solutions from other vendors. (Comment on this)
6:36p	Why IPS Devices and Firewalls Fail to Stop DDoS Threats Cloud computing and the growing usage of the Internet has placed even greater demands on a corporate data center. Now, organizations are relying more and more on their IT infrastructure to be the mechanism to drive growth and enable agility. Because of this focus on the data center, concerns around security have continued to grow as well. As a result, the growing scale and frequency of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are taking a toll on these businesses. The creativity in attacks has evolved with the growth in data center utilization. Where “volumetric” attacks were common, now organizations have to deal with advanced application-layer attacks. Furthermore, they are seeing greater amounts of attack-based data being thrown at an organization. The challenge now becomes understanding how modern security system interact with DDoS attacks. IPS devices, firewalls and other security products are essential elements of a layered-defense strategy, but they are designed to solve security problems that are fundamentally different from dedicated DDoS detection and mitigation products. When analyzing the structure and impact of a DDoS attack, administrators must understand that their current security infrastructure may not necessarily protect them against a denial of service attack. This is where working with Intelligent DDoS Mitigation Systems is a must. IDMS solutions are placed within a data center to help prevent both volumetric and application-layer attacks. Arbor Networks outlines the key features of IDMS and how they can benefit an organization. These features include: • Stateless • Inline and Out-of-Band Deployment Options • Scalable DDoS Mitigation • Ability to Stop “Distributed” DoS Attacks • Multiple Attack Countermeasures • Comprehensive Reporting • Industry Track Record and Enterprise Download this white paper to see where current security devices fall short and how a DDoS attack can actually maneuver around modern firewalls and IPS solutions. By securing both internal and external data center components, security administrators create a logical layered defense strategy. By doing so, managers are able to be proactive against attacks and help prevent data loss, unwanted intrusions, and increase uptime. (Comment on this)
7:00p	Global News: Level 3, Alcatel-Lucent, Juniper Here’s a roundup of recent headlines from the data center industry around the world: Level 3 selected to expand Rocket Internet to Brazil.  Level 3 Communications (LVLT) announced Rocket Internet, a global e-commerce website developer headquartered in Germany, is expanding its reach in Brazil by using Level 3′s hosting and network services for its servers. “We chose Level 3 because of its recognized position in the e-commerce market and the amount of value-added services it provides,” said Fabricio Pettena, CIO at Rocket Brazil. “Our relationship with Level 3 already exists in Europe and now expands to one of the most promising e-commerce markets in South America.” Level 3 will provide hosting services for Rocket’s websites at its data center located in Cotia, Sao Paulo. Operating in Brazil since 2011, Rocket Internet develops retail websites with a focus on sportswear, children’s products, handicrafts and home goods. Alcatel-Lucent to boost network in Belgium.  Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) and Belgium service provider Belgacom announced plans to expand its network infrastructure as it continues to address the exponential growth in bandwidth demand driven by demand from customers, businesses, data centers and content platforms. To meet current and future bandwidth needs Belgacom will deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s Extensible Routing System (XRS). The 7950 XRS allows Belgacom to support the rapid adoption of ‘cloud’ applications, the explosion in video traffic and the widespread use of smartphones and tablets and prepares the core of their network for the next decade of growth. “The XRS is a truly groundbreaking innovation, capable of reinventing the very heart of the Internet,” said Luis Martinez Amago, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s EMEA region. “It will benefit Belgacom significantly in both meeting the needs of home and institutional customers, and in lowering the operational cost of running an IP network, while at the same time reinforcing our long-term relationship and cooperation in bringing innovations to market that improve the experience of consumers.” Juniper selected by Finland mobile services provider. Juniper Networks (JNPR) announced Elisa, a leading mobile services provider in Finland, has deployed Juniper Networks MobileNext mobile packet core solution to support the future data growth in its network. Elisa is expecting a significant growth in data traffic primarily driven by the increased use of LTE-enabled mobile devices. “Juniper’s MobileNext solution has enabled Elisa to not only meet the demands of today’s highly mobile world but also prepares us for the next generation of “anytime, anywhere” services,” said Timo Katajisto, executive vice president, Production, Elisa. ”We methodically selected Juniper for our LTE expansion because they clearly understand mobile network innovation, and will deliver strategic value as our business partner rather than just a supplier.” Built on a foundation of MX Series Universal Edge Routers Elisa’s deployment uses the Juniper MobileNext solution to focus on service-specific performance and scalability with resilient security capabilities. (Comment on this)

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