Thursday, August 8th, 2013

Time	Event
12:05p	SOASTA Raises $30 Million to Expand Cloud Testing SOASTA offers tools for cloud application performance testing. The company has received $30 million in investment, with Macquarie Capital and ROTH Capital joining the company’s existing investors. Cloud and mobile testing provider SOASTA has raised its largest round yet, closing $30 million in a growth-stage investment. New investors Macquarie Capital and ROTH Capital join existing investors Canaan Partners, Formative Ventures and Pelion Venture Partners. The funds will be used to expand globally with additional marketing, sales, and development resources. Mountain View-based SOASTA says  it sees opportunity in Asia and Europe in particular. The company also wants to expand within the channel, which will be a big focus going forward. It will look to expand relationships with channel providers, as well as direct sales, to maintain current momentum in the channel. The company touts MARS Curiosity, Netflix and the London Olympics as customers. “Delivering quality online user experiences are a critical component to sustaining one’s brand.  said SOASTA CEO Tom Lounibos. “As demands of online users continue to grow, we stay ahead of the market by providing companies with predictive analytics to better understand what real users actually experience. This round of funding will accelerate our current expansion around the globe.” Part of what will help that global expansion is the expertise of investors, including its newest backers. “SOASTA is uniquely positioned at the intersection of software and cloud computing, mobile and big-data analytics,” said Tej Shah, Senior Vice President at Macquarie Capital. “Macquarie has a global presence, unique insights into the Asia-Pacific region and a strong institutional understanding of the technology sector.  Our investment will help accelerate SOASTA’s growth plans as it delivers leading-edge cloud and mobile testing solutions to organizations worldwide.” SOASTA has had a solid year. It was positioned as a Leader in Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites. It won top honors for its Real User Monitoring product mPulse at the 2013 Velocity Conference held in June, and it was names to the SD Times Top 100, as well as the AlwaysOn Global 250 Top Private Companies. “SOASTA is a fast-growing company leading the charge in delivering high quality web and mobile applications,” said John Balen, General Partner, Canaan Partners. The company’s proven track record and customer validation gives us confidence that it will continue to dominate the market and maintain its leadership in cloud and mobile testing.” Cloud Driving Innovation in Application Testing The space is being driven by disruptive startups utilizing the cloud to change how software and application quality is made available and affordable. The cloud opens up the market so that it’s no longer the territory of big enterprise; testing can be leveraged by everyone from single developers to big companies. Cloud computing has been a disruptive force in innovation across the board. It was at least part of the impetus for competitor Keynote going from public to private; it’s much easier to move strategically as a private company, as the company has better flexibility to invest and maneuver. Tom Lounibos, SOASTA CEO predicted Keynote going private in a blog post back in May. (Comment on this)
12:15p	How Surveillance Impacts the Cloud and the Data Center As the world becomes more and more digitized, there will be more information, more users and a lot more devices requesting large amounts of data. Now more than ever before, users are continuously connected to the cloud. What privacy and protection challenges does this present when there are an increased number of targets to snoop on? In recent weeks there’s been widespread discussion about the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs. Although they will be discussed, this post takes a broader look at just how widespread surveillance programs are in addition to government programs. There are still many questions that the end-user (your customer) is asking and there are still many unknowns when it comes to the safety  and privacy of your clients’ data. Let’s ask some of the questions that are on everyone’s minds, including your clients. How Might NSA Surveillance Impact the Global Nature of the Cloud? The idea that your enterprise’s data, i.e. your company’s private information, may not be as safe as originally thought has made a lot of people nervous, including both end-users as well as the data center provider. For the corporate organizations that provide data services, the integrity of the information housed on behalf of customers is of the utmost importance. That’s why when government organizations began to eavesdrop on the cloud and data center providers – naturally there were some unhappy parties. The conversation around data security and privacy is heating up, as even enterprises employing simple cloud services such as Gmail could be observed. Perhaps the biggest worry is what can’t be known and can’t be disclosed. From a financial perspective, programs like PRISM can have a very serious impact on U.S companies. The primary reason is that cloud computing continues to be a rapidly growing industry. The August report from The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation points out that these costs can be in the billions of dollars, “On the low end, U.S. cloud computing providers might lose $21.5 billion over the next three years,” the report states. “This estimate assumes the U.S. eventually loses about 10 percent of foreign market to European or Asian competitors and retains its currently projected market share for the domestic market. On the high end, U.S. cloud computing providers might lose $35.0 billion by 2016. This assumes the U.S. eventually loses 20 percent of the foreign market to competitors and retains its current domestic market share.” How Are Providers Responding? Here’s the good news: Organizations which “live in the cloud” and house your enterprise information are actually on their customers’ side. They want to keep this information secure and private. That’s why cloud providers are actively fighting back against intrusive data requests and looking for options. They have support in some parts of the government, but progress is slow. For example, Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is actively pushing legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing emails and other private online messages. Although by early August, the bill was blocked by legislators. Although the bill would not affect the NSA programs, it would curb the ability of local and federal law enforcement officials to access private online messages. (Comment on this)
12:30p	Building Efficient Data Centers Shawn Mills is a technology entrepreneur, founding member and president of Green House Data. You can find him on Twitter at @tshawnmills SHAWN MILLS Greenhouse Data Development projects from large companies like Google or Facebook are great learning opportunities, but as impressive as their innovation may be, they aren’t always practical lessons for small- and medium-sized operators. When it comes to energy efficiency, we don’t all have the luxury of building our data centers on the edge of the Arctic Circle or in areas with plenty of geothermal or hydroelectric power, but that doesn’t mean building a super-energy-efficient facility is only wishful thinking—low PUEs are juicy fruit for those who are willing to make the effort. The recent series here on Data Center Knowledge describing a Compass Data Center build is another angle. Compass is doing some really interesting things with modular design and data center builds, but as a company that designs and builds data centers as their core business, they face different challenges than operators do. When we make the decision to expand, we must sort out many issues that may not be part of our daily routine, while tackling raising capital and other growing pains. This series will follow the development of a new Green House Data facility in Cheyenne, Wyoming, tracing it from our initial decision to expand through site selection, business grants and incentives, the design process, and finally, wrapping up with ground breaking and construction. I hope other companies of our size come away with new insight into the balancing act of building a highly efficient facility with limited experience and access to resources. When is a New Facility Necessary? Sometimes it’s obvious when it’s time for a new facility, like you’re out of room, or an intense storm tossed a tree through your white space. We currently only have about 5 percent of our cabinet space remaining in our Cheyenne location, yet the decision to expand was made about a year ago, when we looked at market trends and analyzed the projected growth of our current customer base. Demand for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), disaster recovery and colocation services is growing, but it’s worth taking the time to carry projections over 12-24 months in order to time expansion plans appropriately. Nobody wants a shiny new building with thousands of empty square feet. Where to Build? The next step was selecting a site for the new facility. We checked out San Jose, CA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; as well as Iowa and Nebraska. In our case, the location that made the most sense was growing our own data center footprint in Wyoming as we already had a close working relationship with the state, who is making a huge effort to grow the data center industry within its borders. Our business model is designed around many of the values available in Wyoming, such as abundant wind energy, cool and dry climate, the intersection of broadband fiber lines and solid business incentives. The lynchpin was the combination of low power costs and high potential for free cooling, which can combine to a low PUE of about 1.15 for some serious energy savings. With only 5 – 10 percent of each watt going to cooling, the environmental factor drove us to continue our growth in Wyoming alongside other companies like Microsoft and The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Our demand projections came in handy during the actual site selection. Based on our year-over-year growth, we settled on a data center three times the size of our current facility. That gives us 15,000 sq. ft. of actual white space, plus room for offices, electrical, storage, maintenance rooms, loading docks, security entrances, and all the other supporting elements that keep data centers running smoothly. (Comment on this)
2:00p	PernixData Launches Flash Hypervisor PernixData virtualizes the flash storage layer, Fusion-io test enables test drives of its ioDrive2 at Microsoft Technology Centers, and Toshiba and SanDisk expand efforts to fabricate NAND flash memory. PernixData FVP Flash Hypervisor. PernixData announced the general availability of its FVP hypervisor for server side flash. The software virtualizes all server side flash into a clustered acceleration tier that enables IT administrators to quickly, easily and cost-effectively scale-out storage performance completely independent of storage capacity. Installed in just minutes, the FVP allows IT to aggregate available server side flash into clusters that are used to satisfy the storage performance needs of the virtual infrastructure. Its patent-pending Flash Cluster technology enables any host to remotely access the flash device(s) on any other host in the cluster. As a server side solution it supports full read and write acceleration for maximum performance across all virtual applications. ”Everyone running a virtual server environment wants predictable scale-out storage to go with it, but that simply hasn’t been practical to date,” said Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst at ESG. “By virtualizing the flash layer, PernixData let’s those shops have their cake and eat it too – they let you add the performance, predictability and linear scale-out requirements you need to operate a real virtual environment, without forcing you to change out your underlying storage architecture. How can that be anything but goodness?” Fusion-io ioDrive2 featured at Microsoft Technology Centers.  Fusion-io (FIO) announced that IT professionals can now schedule testing with the Fusion ioDrive2 featured at all Microsoft Technology Centers (MTCs) worldwide. Microsoft SQL Server enterprises across numerous business verticals are achieving 10X or greater improvements in application performance with Fusion-io products, as well as significant savings in operational and capital expenditures. Through the MTC Alliance Program, the Fusion ioDrive2 is now available for testing with Microsoft SQL Server in all MTCs around the globe. When Fusion ioDrives are evaluated as part of an MTC Proof of Concept engagement, customers can also benefit from side by side testing and consulting from MTC Architects. “Enterprises around the world rely on innovative databases like Microsoft SQL Server to power their business,” said Sean Hehir, Fusion-io Vice President of Strategic Business Development. “Fusion-io solutions are easily added to datacenter servers to help Microsoft SQL Server customers of all sizes unlock the real-time value of their information. By teaming up with Microsoft to showcase the Fusion ioDrive2 at the Microsoft Technology Centers, the global Fusion-io team will help even more companies discover how Fusion ioMemory can accelerate the applications that power their success.” Toshiba and SanDisk plan $4 billion Memory chip Factory.  Toshiba and SanDisk have entered a joint venture to make NAND flash memory, and will split the bill for a new 400 billion Yen (approximately $4 billion dollars) memory chip production factory expansion. The new venture will help prepare process technology for 3D chips, stacking NAND die one on top of the other, and will add on to the existing plant at Yokkaichi Operations in Mie, Japan. (Comment on this)
3:10p	Large Lease Drives CyrusOne’s Growth in San Antonio A look at the cooling units and emergency backup generators in the equipment yard of the CyrusOne data center in San Antonio, Texas. The company leased all the remaining space in the facility. (Photo: CyrusOne) Data center service provider CyrusOne has purchased land to expand its data center campus in San Antonio after leasing all of the remaining space in its existing facility to a single customer. The five-year lease was for 5 megawatts of power, representing 19,500 square feet of space, and includes all of the final data hall in the San Antonio facility, which will come online later in this quarter. The same customer, identified only as a Fortune 50 customer, also leased space in CyrusOne’s facilities in Phoenix and Houston, and will use the company’s new interconnection services. “Once construction is completed, we will have sold out the (San Antonio) facility in 15 months, exceeding our initial expectation,” said Gary Wojtaszek, President and CEO of CyrusOne. Since it is out of space in San Antonio, CyrusOne today purchased land where it will build a new data center. The company paid $6.6 million for the 22-acre property, where it will build a 200,000 square foot data center. Construction Kickoff Later This Year “As we anticipated, demand for colocation space in our existing San Antonio data center has been strong, and we’re excited to get started on the new facility,” said Kevin Timmons, chief technology officer for CyrusOne. “We anticipate breaking ground in the fourth quarter of 2013 and plan to use our innovative Massively Modular facility engineering approach to achieve construction and asset utilization efficiencies and enable a speedy commissioning of the site.” The new data center will be near CyrusOne’s existing facility in Westover Hills, a western suburb of San Antonio that is also home to a major data center for Microsoft. “We’re taking a uniquely sustainable and innovative approach to the design of this facility, which will blend it seamlessly into the native landscape,” explained Timmons. “The building will be layered with the terrain to allow at-grade access to each level of the building. The master plan is highly flexible with best-in-class redundancy, security, and scalability.” “San Antonio is a great example of our massively modular approach to building data centers allows us to cost effectively deliver space in record time,” said Wojtaszek. The lease and land purchase were disclosed as part of CyrusOne’s quarterly earnings announcement. CyrusOne reported revenue of $63 million, which is up 18 percent from the same period in 2012. The company added 31 new customers as it leased 37,000 square feet of data center space in the quarter, nearly double the 19,000 square feet from the year-ago period. That figure doesn’t include the 19,000 square foot San Antonio lease, which was signed in July and will be included in third quarter results. Fast Start for Interconnection Service A highlight of the quarter was the early performance of the CyrusOne National Internet Exchange (IX), the company’s interconnection service, which was a component of 68 percent of the leases in the most recent quarter, boosting those customers’ average monthly billings by 23 percent. CyrusOne took 18 months to develop and deploy the new product, which Wojtaszek sees as a differentiator. “I think it is important to point out that our strategy towards developing and deploying our IX product is completely different than what other companies are doing,” he said. “We look at the IX product as a way to create the data center platform that virtually connects all of our data centers together. CyrusOne’s solution provided customers with a high-quality enterprise data center and which is now complemented by high quality enterprise connectivity solution for a price an enterprise company simply cannot achieve on their own. “This is a very different strategy than what other companies have been discussing, which is predominantly focused on developing an ecosystem of single-point, cross-connect solutions in a particular building,” said Wojtaszek. “Our solution provides a holistic means for enterprise companies to architect and replicate their existing data center platform, which generally is deployed in three or more facilities.” Here’s a look at CyrusOne’s national footprint and data center utilization rate: (Comment on this)
7:47p	CDN Provider Highwinds Secures $205m, Recapitalizes Content Delivery Network provider Highwinds has secured $205 million in new debt financing. This is a lot of dough, at least some of which will likely go towards its data center/colo provider spend as it expands its global content delivery platform. The financing has resulted in the recapitalization of the business, and positions Highwinds for aggressive growth, through both organic and M&A investment opportunities. This is big money, among the largest single transactions ever closed by a CDN provider. Highwinds’ growth plans include increasing investment across all functional areas of the business, including sales, business development, product, marketing and operations, as well as executing on strategic M&A opportunities. The financing is by Cerberus Business Finance and Goldman Sachs BDC, an investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management. It includes participation from the company’s existing equity sponsor, General Catalyst Partners, and the company’s management team. “Highwinds has tremendous financial strength, with positive cash flow, a strong balance sheet and sustained profitability. They also have proven technological innovation, an impressive customer roster, a brilliant, thoroughly vested executive team, and demonstrated success in supporting the shift to online digital entertainment, which is now a global cultural phenomenon,” said Kevin Cross, managing director, lending, for Cerberus. “These factors make Highwinds a great investment for us, and we are pleased to be able to fund their next stage of growth.” Highwinds’ network comprises dozens of data centers spanning five continents, massive peering infrastructure, egress capacity in excess of 4 Tbps. It content delivery and cloud services are used by gaming, advertising, software, and media & entertainment companies for delivery of assets to millions of global users. The company launched Highwinds Cloud Storage (HCS) earlier this year. Founder and CEO Steve Miller has now orchestrated over $420 million in total new equity and debt financing since 2006. “Highwinds continues to provide excellent service and support for its CDN customers, and this, together with management’s focus, has allowed us to grow profitably year-over-year,” said Miller. “I am excited to align ourselves with partners who will help finance our vision and execute our mission.” “Our lofty ambitions have become a reality time and again because we’ve never wavered in our commitment to customers, and because we’ve had great financial partners along the way,” said Miller. “We’ve made a monumental move here to secure financing that will further fuel our growth.”   (Comment on this)

<< Previous Day

2013/08/08 [Calendar]

Next Day >>