Thursday, June 13th, 2013

Time	Event
11:30a	Server Farm Realty Opens Chicago Building Chicago’s Mayor Emanuel tours Peerless Network’s data center Facility in Server Farm Realty’s new building at 840 South Canal Street. (Photo: Server Farm Realty) Data center developer Server Farm Realty (SFR) this week opened its new Chicago facility at 840 South Canal Street, hosting local officials for a tour of new space for anchor tenant Peerless Network. 840 South Canal is a 450,000 square foot facility that previously housed a General Electric factory and served as Northern Trust’s data center and operations hub. Server Farm Realty says it has has invested more than $220 million to redevelop and transform the building into a Tier III data center. The eight-story building currently has 4 megwatts of critical power available over five data center floors, with the potential to support 20 megawatts of critical power and up to 138,000 square feet of raised floor data center suites. “Server Farm Realty’s selection of Chicago reiterates the strength of what our city offers businesses,” said Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, who cut the ribbon to open the facility and took a tour of the Peerless Network data center. “Our workforce, coupled with accessible real estate, an abundance of power all centrally located with extensive communications infrastructure leading in all directions, there is no doubt that the city is well positioned to continue to attract businesses, create more job opportunities and to grow economically today and in the future.” Server Farm Realty is the data center development arm of the Red Sea Group, an investment group based in Israel. The company is developing new facilities in Santa Clara, Chicago and Washington State. The company acquired the Canal Street site in early 2011. Ideal for Low-Latency Infrastructure “Chicago is the ideal location for secure, low latency network infrastructure,” says Avner Papouchado, CEO of Server Farm Realty. “Aggressive power rates with a low carbon fuel mix and efficient, free cooling conditions throughout much of the year align well with what today’s technology and media companies, healthcare organizations, financial services firms, and many others are looking for a data center. We welcome Peerless into our expanding portfolio, now spanning seven facilities with more than 1.3 million square feet of hardened, state-of-the-art and scalable data center space.” Peerless Network is a privately held company headquartered in Chicago, which currently offers service in Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets in 36 states and over one hundred Local access Transport areas (LATAs). It has occupied the top floor of the Server Farm Realty building, where it operates 1.5 megawatts of space. “SFR’s newest facility is located in one of the world’s most strategic markets for data center development and connectivity,” said John Barnicle, President and CEO of Peerless Network. “As the first tenant in the building, we have already enjoyed highly personable service, customized to meet our business’ unique needs while implemented in a timely and extremely professional manner. “Peerless, SFR, and the Mayor are all bringing big data to the city of big shoulders,” Barnicle added. “And Peerless helps bridge the gap between carriers, service providers and enterprises as they transition their networks to cloud-based applications using internet protocol.” Participating in the ribbon cutting are (from left to right): Avner Papouchado (CEO of Server Farm Realty), Rahm Emanuel (Mayor of Chicago), Darren Thurber, (VP of Critical Infrastructure, Server Farm Realty) and John Barnicle (CEO of Peerless Network). (Comment on this)
12:00p	AiNET Looking to Convert Entire Shopping Mall to Data Center The interior of the Marley Station Mall, pictured above, may soon be filling with servers, if AiNET CEO Deepak Jain has his way. (Photo: The Woodmont Company) After converting a former department store to a data center last year, AiNET has decided that it wants to buy the rest of the mall as well. The IT solution provider’s CyberNAP data center is located in a  former Boscov’s store at the Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie, Md. AiNET CEO Deepak Jain said the demand for his company’s services has been so strong that he wants to transform the rest of the failing mall into a data center. Marley Station Mall is facing foreclosure after defaulting on a $115 million loan, and has been in decline for years. Jain believes the facility can be better used to house cybersecurity companies and service providers, and wants to turn the failing location into more than 1.5 million square feet of data center space. “We are indeed interested in purchasing the rest of the mall, and are working in that direction,” said Jain. “We have a number of carriers and other infrastructure related customers in CyberNAP. We are also working on some very large customer requirements on handling their build out and custom physical and cyber security needs.” The plan would keep the building intact and expand it for data center space. CyberNAP was formerly Boscov, a massive department store, which was turned into a 300,000 square foot data center with room for up to 10,000 server cabinets. Jain says demand is strong. Demand Strong from Cybersecurity Sector “We haven’t opened the facility to the public and are really expecting to fill the entire existing facility with just a few large customers,” said Jain. “I can say that the demand from government and cybersecurity in general is through the roof.” A large part of that demand is from the U.S. Cyber Command Center, the National Security Agency and the Defense Information Systems Agency at Fort George G. Meade. The NSA has been in the news recently – you might have seen something controversial that we won’t get into because they’re probably listening – and is building out data center space like crazy. There are still stores operating in the mall operating, but the plan means working with each merchant to assist a smooth transition. There are a lot of leases in that mall, with a lot of varying terms. Jain says AiNET is the only party interested in buying the mall. There’s a debate going on in Glen Burnie. On one hand, a mall closing is bad for small businesses. However, there’s evidence that data centers are good for communities. They bring in more tech companies, more jobs, and create an industry. Here, AiNET’s proposal could create an industry out of a failing mall that might otherwise have been an empty shell, a commerce ghost town. Mall to Data Center National Mini Trend The recent decision by Sears Holdings to market former Sears and Kmart stores for Internet infrastructure has highlighted the potential for shopping centers and malls to be converted to data centers. There are some existing examples: a facility from a leading colocation firm at the MetroMall in Miami, an Expedient data center in the Allegany Mall near Pittsburgh, Lifeline Data Centers, which operates in the Eastgate Mall in Indianapolis. Rackspace turned a former mall into a headquarters. Shopping is increasingly being done online. Black Friday statistics from a variety of folks that measure traffic show e-commerce growing every year, and every year more and more news about the struggles of brick and mortar stores comes out. Malls are a relatively safe place for teenagers to congregate; so the death of one no doubt makes some sad. However, the reality is that “the mall” is no longer thriving. There are malls like Tyson’s Corner in Virginia that do just fine, if not great business – but these increasingly failing malls across the country mean large, vacant shells unless something is done. Data center design is getting more and more creative, and these malls are becoming cheap shells on sizeable tracks of land, which seem like a logical fit. The key variable will likely prove to be power, and whether retail centers have the capacity for a successful retrofit. It might be tough for a community to see a place that they used to congregate at turn into a data center, not exactly a welcoming installation. However data centers are the lifeblood of the new economy. Data Center Knowledge will keep an eye out on Glen Burnie and bring developments as they come. (Comment on this)
12:30p	Red Hat Summit 2013 Off to a Cloudy Start The Red Hat Summit is underway this week in Boston, and the open source technology event is showcasing the latest and greatest in cloud computing, platform virtualization, middleware, storage and more. Red Hat (RHT) announced numerous items from the event regarding virtualization, OpenStack offerings, Platform as a Service and industry partnerships. The event conversation can be followed on Twitter hashtag #RedHatSummit. Enterprise Virtualization 3.2 Red Hat announced the global availability of Enterprise Virtualization 3.2, with fully supported Storage Live Migration and a new third-party plug-in framework. Offered as a mission-critical end-to-end, open source virtualization infrastructure, version 3.2 brings a variety of new features including full support for Intel Haswell and AMD Opteron G5 processors and numerous enhancements in storage management, networking management, fencing and power management, spice console enhancements, logging and monitoring, and more. The new third-party plug-in framework enables third parties to integrate new features and actions directly into the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization management user interface. The framework continues to evolve based on vendor and community requests, and any vendor may choose to consume the plug-in framework and add unique functionality to Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. In support of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2 environments NetApp, Symantec and HP have all integrated their solutions via the new plug-in. “Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.2 builds on the industry-leading performance of the KVM hypervisor to offer an enterprise-class datacenter virtualization and management solution to customers looking to save costs as well as implement an open architecture,” said Radhesh Balakrishnan, general manager, Virtualization, Red Hat. ”With the addition of Storage Live Migration and third-party plug-ins from our industry partners, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization’s compelling value proposition to customers virtualizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows workloads alike gets stronger.” New OpenStack Powered Products Red Hat announced two new products with one vision of delivering an Open Hybrid Cloud. Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform delivers a scalable and secure foundation for building a private or public cloud. Integrating Linux and OpenStack, the solution is targeted at advanced cloud users, telecommunications companies, Internet service providers (ISPs), and public cloud hosting providers. It offers several enterprise-grade features to allow organizations to deploy with confidence, including testing and certification for each OpenStack release running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for broad hardware and software compatibility and performance. The second product, Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, is designed to allow organizations to build and manage a private cloud IaaS based upon datacenter virtualization and management technologies for traditional workloads, while providing an on-ramp to a highly scalable public-cloud-like infrastructure based on Red Hat OpenStack. Offered as a subscription model, it consists of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Red Hat CloudForms, Red Hat OpenStack, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. OpenShift Online Red Hat announced the commercial availability of OpenShift Online, its public Platform-as-a-Service cloud offering. OpenShift Enterprise was launched last year as a software solution and the new commercial offering will enable OpenShift Online’s users and developers to access Red Hat’s Global Support Services, and complete a full family of open source, online and enterprise on-premise solutions for its OpenShift PaaS. OpenShift Online enables developers to quickly build, launch and host innovative applications in the public cloud. The elastic, multi-language, PaaS architecture of OpenShift Online automates the provisioning, management and scaling of applications.  OpenShift Online features a streamlined payment system that makes it simple for customers to access the enterprise-class strength and security of Red Hat’s services. “Red Hat’s global support services are already known worldwide for providing flexible customer choices both through our expert technical support engineers and the award-winning Red Hat Customer Portal,” said Marco Bill-Peter, vice president, Global Support Services, Red Hat. ”We are committed to supporting the success of our customers and excited to add a new support feature to our robust Platform-as-a-Service offerings. This new PaaS support feature will create even greater accessibility and fast service turnaround for Red Hat enterprise customers.” Red Hat and Mirantis Partner OpenStack systems integrator Mirantis and Red Hat announced that the two companies will collaborate to optimize Mirantis’ Fuel tools for deployment of Red Hat OpenStack, and deliver OpenStack implementation and integration services to joint customers. Fuel and Red Hat OpenStack will support a joint reference architecture designed by Mirantis and Red Hat for enterprise use. Mirantis’ and Red Hat’s professional services organizations will work together to deliver comprehensive OpenStack consulting and services, including services for OpenStack deployment and integration. “The combination of Red Hat and Mirantis working together with customers to optimize OpenStack should substantially increase the speed of adoption, success, and overall confidence of companies in using the Red Hat OpenStack distribution and Mirantis’ services and tools,” noted Adrian Ionel, president and CEO of Mirantis. (Comment on this)
1:00p	Greenpeace to Facebook: 100% Renewable is Not Green Enough! Rows of cabinets inside Facebook’s Lulea data center. (Photo: Facebook) What exactly does Greenpeace want from the data center industry? The answer seems to be more. Always more. That’s reflected in the environmental group’s strange response to Facebook’s opening of a new data center in Lulea, Sweden, which is powered entirely by renewable hydro-electric power. In a statement, Greenpeace first congratulated Facebook for using renewable energy, a goal that had been the focus of a two-year Greenpeace social media campaign calling on the social network to “unfriend dirty coal.” But then, curiously, Greenpeace said it was “disappointed” that Facebook used a utility provider that invests in non-renewable energy for other customers. “Greenpeace welcomes the news that Facebook’s first coal-free data center in Sweden has begun operations, an important sign that Facebook is making progress on its commitment to unfriend coal,” said Greenpeace Senior IT Analyst Gary Cook. “Facebook’s selection of Lulea for its third data center demonstrates the impact of the siting policy it adopted that prioritizes access to clean sources of electricity for its data centers, having listened to its users who asked the social network to be powered with clean energy instead of coal. However … “However, Greenpeace is disappointed to learn that given the choice of energy providers for Lulea, Facebook has not immediately opted for a 100% renewable energy provider, instead choosing the giant utility Vattenfall, which still invests primarily in non-renewable energy,” said Cook. Translation: It’s not enough that Facebook is using 100 percent renewable energy. To satisfy Greenpeace, data centers must buy only from a “100% renewable energy provider.” Cook disagrees with the notion that Greenpeace is continuing to criticize Facebook (although we’re not alone in that interpretation). “I think it’s a stretch to say that we are ‘criticizing Facebook’ here,” Cook wrote in an email exchange with DCK. “We seek to present an honest appraisal of every data center operator, and in this case our appraisal is to offer genuine praise of Facebook for being a leader based on its siting policy and decision to locate in Lulea.” Missing on the Nuances This was followed by the “yes, but” transition that regularly appears in Greenpeace’s press statements noting progress on data center sustainability by Apple or Facebook. “With that said, there are nuances to everything,” Cook writes. “Facebook has options for which utility would service its electricity demand for its Lulea data center, and have initially chosen Vattenfall … who in the last 10 years has shifted from its hydro-electric base in Sweden to investing heavily in coal in other parts of Europe, particularly Central & Eastern Europe.” In arguing that Facebook has chosen its utility poorly, Cook pointed us to a bewildering chart in Swedish put together by Greenpeace Sweden. Google Translate couldn’t make sense of it, so we’ll take Greenpeace’s word that Vattenfall fares worse than other providers. The environmental group’s call for greater transparency from the cloud computing sector has earned plaudits from many who yearn for more accountability on data center energy use. But Greenpeace sometimes seems incapable of catching folks doing things right. If Greenpeace genuinely sees data centers as potential partners rather than punching bags for publicity purposes, it would do well to find a way to win gracefully. (Comment on this)
2:00p	Instart Logic Launches Application Streaming Network After emerging from stealth in April with a $17 million Series B funding round, startup Instart Logic has launched its Application Streaming Network. Using a unique solution designed specifically to enhance user experiences on wireless networks, Instart Logic’s patent-pending technology streams web applications and web pages to users instead of downloading them. “Just as RealNetworks and Adobe changed the game with intelligent video streaming and Microsoft and Citrix made streaming Windows applications possible, Instart Logic is disrupting web performance with our unique web application streaming technology,” said Manav Mital, CEO of Instart Logic. “Our web format aware architecture leverages transparent client-side intelligence and a deep understanding of how a web application loads and executes to efficiently stream these applications for local execution in an end users’ browser. “This is particularly important for web applications delivered over mobile networks that suffer from bandwidth congestion,” Mital added. “Ultimately, our Web Application Streaming Network changes the game for web publishers. It empowers them to not just speed up their existing sites but to bring to life a new generation of web applications to boost customer acquisition and revenue.” Content Routed Through Instart Network Instart Logic provides this technology to web publishers that lets users interact with an application, or shopping on a web site or playing a game – almost immediately after only a partial download. Its Web Application Streaming Network is a globally distributed service with 30 different locations covering all major Internet peering points and boasting 99.9999% uptime since the service went live in the summer of 2012. Deploying Instart Logic requires no code changes, the company said, and no additional software to install. Operations teams only need to redirect their DNS settings to send traffic to the Instart Logic network in order to achieve the full benefits of the technology. “In luxury retail, the image quality is paramount and users will not wait,” said Keiron McCammon, CEO of luxury Internet retailer Bonfaire. “For each product we load five ‘hero’ images, each as large as 1.5 megabytes on every single page, even for mobile devices. Instart Logic reduced our time from click to first interaction by almost 2X and pushed rich images into our users’ browsers much faster. This enables us to provide magazine-like graphical experiences and significantly boost our transactions.” (Comment on this)
2:30p	Modernizing Vintage Data Centers Hardware refresh cycles grew longer and more organizations tried to squeeze as much life as possible out of their data center environments. Unfortunately, there came a time when vintage systems could no longer meet modern demands. In fact, because of cloud computing, virtualization and even big data – data centers have had to re-engineer their platforms to allow for high-density, super-efficient computing. In today’s market, IT environments with a data center 10 years of age or older have several options, including building a new data center, putting applications in the public cloud, leasing space in a colocation facility or modernizing the existing data center. Many companies looking to make the most of previous investments choose to modernize their existing facilities, as it can often be done more cost effectively than the other options and usually yields significant improvements in reliability, efficiency and operational effectiveness. [Image source: Eaton] In this white paper, Eaton outlines modernizing a vintage data center’s mechanical and electrical infrastructure can enhance availability, raise power and cooling capacity, lower operational expenses and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can also, however, yield these additional and perhaps less obvious advantages: Improved safety levels Enhanced flexibility and functionality Improved serviceability Greater scalability Enhanced customer perception The world of technology has seen plenty of change in recent years. To keep up with it, organizations with data centers that are 10 years of age or older should seriously consider modernizing those facilities. Upgrading a vintage data center’s mechanical and electrical infrastructure can boost reliability, efficiency, flexibility and scalability, while simultaneously reducing operational spending. It can also save companies the considerable expense of building entirely new facilities. Download this white paper today to learn how aging MEP infrastructure components can affect older data centers. Furthermore, this paper goes on to suggest a series of beneficial upgrades and outlines best practices for successfully planning, implementing and testing those renovations. (Comment on this)
7:02p	Cupertino Electric Acquires California Design Group Cupertino Electric CEO John Boncher and Andrew Nebbs, a principal at CDCDG, celebrate Cupertino’s acquisition of CDCDG. (Photo: Cupertino Electric) Construction and engineering company Cupertino Electric has acquired data center design and commissioning consulting firm California Data Center Design Group (CDCDG), the companies announced today. CDCDG brings more than 20 years of consulting experience to bolster Cupertino Electric’s current data center offerings, with established clients on the Fortune 100 list and completed projects located around the world.  “For the last 20 years, CDCDG has built a rock-solid reputation in the data center industry as the premier data center design and commissioning firm,” said John Boncher, president and chief executive officer of Cupertino Electric. “CDCDG’s widely-respected design and commissioning expertise, coupled with Cupertino Electric’s nearly 60 years of successful construction project execution, unites the best of both worlds. Together, we will offer expanded, high-quality and high-performance data center services to customers to continually drive innovation in the industry. Under terms of the acquisition, CDCDG and its five principals will operate as an independent division of Cupertino Electric, allowing CDCDG to maintain the vendor agnostic role that CDCDG plays in the data center industry. CDCDG will retain its name and brand identity, while leveraging the resources and infrastructure of Cupertino Electric. New services available to CDCDG customers following the Cupertino Electric acquisition include enhanced budgeting, scheduling and constructability assessments. CDCDG will continue to provide services to international clients located in Europe, Asia, South America and the Middle East. California Data Center Design Group was founded in 1992, and brings together data center design, engineering, construction and project management. The company has completed projects totaling more than 8 million square feet of data center space in the last decade, with a current client list that includes GoDaddy.com, Jet Propulsion Laboratories, eBay, Vantage Data Centers and the State of California. “There are not many companies in the industry that we would consider joining forces with because they simply do not truly share our same commitment to innovation, integrity and quality,” said Rich Greco, managing principal at CDCDG. “Starting from the day I met Chief Technology Officer Rudy Bergthold in 1999 and was introduced to Cupertino Electric, the company has always represented that unique blend of honesty and technical excellence that we at CDCDG believe is critical to any successful data center project. The strong resources and infrastructure that accompany every Cupertino Electric project will enable us to expand our offerings to new and existing CDCDG customers. We could not have picked a better partner to complement our capabilities, while still retaining our independent spirit.” Cupertino Electric, Inc. is a private company headquartered in San Jose, Calif. that provides engineering and construction services. CEI designs and installs custom electrical solutions for clients in a variety of industries, including alternative energy, biotech, commercial, data center, education, energy infrastructure, gaming, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing and retail. (Comment on this)
7:30p	FireHost Secures $12 Million Here’s our review of some of this week’s noteworthy links for the data center industry: FireHost extends cloud with $12 funding.  Secure cloud hosting company FireHost announced a $12 million Series D funding round led by investment partner The Stephens Group. The funding will help extend its solutions in secure cloud category. With locations in the U.S. and Europe, FireHost customers span more than 30 countries. “FireHost has had tremendous traction in extending the cloud into the most secure and mission-critical applications, and this investment will enable them to extend their reach in cloud and security innovation. Enterprises can no longer reactively address gaps in security,” said Aaron Clark, vice president at The Stephens Group, LLC. “The company has strong and proven leadership, has a defensible advantage in the market, continues to push innovation and product development and is driven to succeed. As investors, we are thrilled with the company’s continued performance and look forward to our next steps together.” Equinix selected by  CNSX Markets. Equinix (EQIX) that CNSX Markets Inc. (CNSX Markets) has deployed a point of presence in Equinix’s TR1 International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Toronto, Canada. CNSX operates the Canadian National Stock Exchange and Pure Trading.  The CNSX presence in Equinix’s Toronto data center enables maximum connectivity, performance and agility for the company, lowering the barrier to entry for dealer participation. ”The Equinix data center in downtown Toronto represents a significant concentration of equity market liquidity in Canada,” said Richard Carleton, CEO, CNSX Markets. ”As an organization, we are constantly looking for ways to assist our dealers and other market participants to reduce costs and network management challenges. By offering our customers a low cost, high performance access to our services through the new point of presence at Equinix we can broaden the access and visibility of our marketplaces.” Colt extends cloud services in Asia.  Colt Technology Services announced enterprise class cloud services in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore. By joining together with KVH, Colt will now be able to offer enterprise customers the ability to deploy, manage and automate network and compute resources in both Europe and Asia, remotely from any location. With 10 Colt data centers across Asia and Europe Colt and KVH remove the challenge of managing multiple service providers across continents. “The expanding Asian markets are increasingly attractive for our Eurpean customers looking for growth opportunities outside the euro zone,” said Simon Walsh, EVP at Colt. “But this expansion creates a challenge for the CIO who needs to provide remote users with fast and reliable access to business-critical systems while at the same time complying with individual country data sovereignty requirements. This needs to be addressed without the significant CAPEX budget required to build infrastructure locally, or the time to seek out trusted providers in Asia. Colt can now meet customer demand for scalable services in Asia backed up with support in local languages, a single SLA and flexible commercials. Customers can be confident that IT can keep pace with the speed of business transformation but also pave the way for future growth.” (Comment on this)
8:00p	Verizon Offering Private IP Out of 16 Equinix Data Centers Verizon is offering its Private IP service out of 16 Equinix data centers around the world. The partnership means Verizon customers gain access to over 300 cloud service providers inside Equinix data centers, and Equinix bolsters its connectivity options. Fully integrated solutions will be available by the end of 2013. “By leveraging Verizon’s Private IP Service and Equinix data center and interconnection services, customers can count on high levels of security, reliability and performance as they grow their businesses and expand into new markets,” said Equinix CEO and President Steve Smith. Verizon said in the release that rapid growth of cloud computing and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications is driving demand for data center services, so there’s a reason to get cushy with Equinix, which is the leading player in interconnection and has been building up its ecosystem of partners. “Verizon and Equinix are market leaders, and the new alliance we have formed will provide customers of both companies the foundation to transform their businesses,” said John Stratton, president, Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Whether it is e-commerce applications, big data, media and entertainment or cloud computing, enterprises need to quickly and securely access and move information from various points around the world.” Verizon’s Private IP solution is offered in 147 countries across six continents (not much infrastructure on the 7th). Verizon offers reporting and monitoring tools with its private IP solution to let users customize their network to meet needs. The company recently announced 100GE access for Private IP at the end of May. (Comment on this)

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