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Friday, March 13th, 2015
| Time | Event |
| 12:00p | ViaWest Accused of Misleading Customers in Las Vegas ViaWest, the Shaw Communications-owned data center service provider, is being accused of misleading customers about reliability of its Las Vegas data center. Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt’s office has asked the company to address the accusations in a letter, a copy of which Data Center Knowledge has obtained. The letter is in response to a complaint filed with the attorney general by a man whose last name is Castor, but whose first name is not included. The accusation is that ViaWest has been advertising its Las Vegas data center as a Tier IV facility, when in fact it was not constructed to Tier IV standards. The attorney general’s letter says that in doing so the company may be in violation of the state’s Deceptive Trade Act. The Tier rating system was created by the Uptime Institute, a data center industry organization owned by the 451 Group. Uptime has described specific design criteria a data center must meet to qualify for each of the four tiers. Tier IV is a designation for the highest level of reliability. Two Very Different Types of CertificationUptime is currently the only organization that can issue Tier certification after inspecting design documents for a data center or the actual completed data center. It certifies design documents separately from constructed facilities, which is a key distinction in ViaWest’s case. Design documents for first phase of the Las Vegas data center are certified as Tier IV. Phase one has not received a tier certification for constructed facility. Phase II of the data center has received certifications for both design documents and constructed facility, but both are Tier III certifications. Julian Kudritzki, Uptime’s chief operating officer, said the Tier III certification of constructed facility was issued earlier this month. ViaWest representatives did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication. A promotional video posted on YouTube in February 2014 describes the Las Vegas data center as a Tier IV facility and features ViaWest Chief Data Center Officer Dave Leonard, who says the data center is Tier IV-certified but does not explain that the certification is for design documents and not for the constructed facility. “An industry analyst recently asked me why we designed a Tier IV data center,” Leonard says in the video. “And to me it’s really simple: peace of mind for the customer. Customers can trust and put their most sensitive data – the most high-availability applications, their disaster recovery applications, whatever they really care about – they can put it into a Tier IV data center.” Shaw, a Canadian telecommunications company, acquired Greenwood Village, Colorado-based ViaWest in July 2014 for $1.2 billion. Uncertified Tier Claims CommonSaying a facility is built to a certain Tier standard in marketing materials without certification by Uptime is fairly common-practice in the data center industry, but the only way for a customer to check whether the claim is true is either to ask for proof of certification or to inspect the design on their own if they have the expertise. Monroe, Louisiana-based telco and data center service provider CenturyLink, for example, used to build to Tier III standards without going through the certification process, Drew Leonard, vice president of global colocation at CenturyLink, said. And several years ago, a provider’s word that their facility was built to the standards was enough for most customers, Drew Leonard said. Today, that is no longer the case. Customers increasingly ask the provider to present proof of certification or to inspect the design. “We’ll open up the books for customers under NDA, and we’ll show them our design and our architecture, and they can see that we’ve mitigated all the single points of failure,” Drew Leonard said. There have also been instances where customers requested in-depth walk-throughs of CenturyLink’s facilities to inspect the infrastructure for reliability. In response to changing customer demands, CenturyLink now goes through the tier certification process for each new data center phase it builds, Drew Leonard said. Chris Crosby, CEO of Dallas-based Compass Datacenters, which provides wholesale data center space and counts CenturyLink as one of its customers, said a number of data center providers “played fast and loose with their claims.” “It’s sad to see companies abusing a third-party certification process, whether through ignorance or intent,” Crosby said in an emailed statement. Tier IV-Certified Facilities RareThere are currently only four Tier IV-certified constructed facilities in the U.S., and one of them is in Las Vegas, but it isn’t a ViaWest data center. It is Phase I of the SuperNAP 8 data center by Switch, according to the Uptime Institute’s website. Two others are in Ohio, occupied by Nationwide Mutual Insurance, and the fourth is a US Bancorp data center in Olathe, Kansas. There are 20 Tier IV-certified data centers in the world. |
| 3:00p | Cisco, Microsoft to Enable Providers to Offer Cloud Services Microsoft and Cisco have teamed up to create a new product package that enables telecoms and other service providers to offer Azure-like cloud services. While Microsoft will bring its cloud infrastructure product—Windows Azure Pack—to the table, Cisco will contribute its networking devices and servers. Together, they will form one of the most comprehensive cloud partnerships around. “For cloud infrastructure there is very little overlap in terms of product coverage, so there ought to be few boundary issues to get in the way,” Synergy Research Chief Analyst John Dinsdale said via email. “Microsoft has strong cloud infrastructure service offerings and totally dominates the OS space. Cisco is an across-the-board leader in networking and has the technology smarts, and between them they have a lot of the software pieces in place.” Although the two companies compete in collaboration and online communication services, they’ve managed to find common ground in the cloud. This is not the first time they have partnered. Microsoft and Cisco also teamed up last year in a bid for enterprise business. Both companies are now in good position to help service providers enable their customers to evolve to a hybrid cloud. Service providers leveraging the duo aren’t necessarily interested in enabling wholesale moves, but rather providing something more than just an Infrastructure-as-a-Service, or complementary cloud options to more traditional enterprise managed infrastructure. They’re now equipped to help service providers create combined IaaS, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions that deliver more value to their customers. “We want our service provider partners to move up-market with us and offer higher-end cloud services,” Nick Earle, senior vice president for Cisco’s Cloud and Managed Services, said in a press release. “By partnering with Microsoft we’re able to deliver a tightly integrated, application centric cloud architecture. This unique new platform will help our partners dramatically accelerate the delivery of new and innovative hybrid cloud services for their customers.” Mutual partner Concerto Cloud Services is one of the first to benefit from the “The Cisco Cloud Architecture built with the Microsoft Cloud platform.” Concerto used the duo to create a hybrid cloud featuring seamless integration between its virtual private cloud and Microsoft Azure, according to a statement by Greg Pierce, vice president of Concerto Cloud Services. The collaboration will also deliver pre-packaged policy management libraries that allow cloud providers to implement applications more quickly with consistent policy management. In addition, Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 is integrated with the Cisco Unified Computing System. It will complement Cisco’s OpenStack-based architectures for cloud-native workloads and provide seamless hybrid cloud capability for connecting to Intercloud and Azure. Cisco plans to publish the first reference architecture in April 2015. Close to 15 new cloud providers announced plans to join Cisco’s Intercloud partner ecosystem, bringing the number of providers to more than 60 with a footprint of 350-plus data centers across 50 countries. The partnership is somewhat akin to the recent Google-VMware partnership. Arguably competitors in some respects, the two joined forces to tackle hybrid cloud needs with Google providing the public cloud resources to VMware-heavy enterprises looking to leverage public cloud. The difference is the extension of the Cisco-Microsoft partnership is aimed toward the channel. |
| 4:00p | Friday Funny Caption Contest: Unicorn Rainbows and unicorns and leprechauns oh my! Kip and Gary are at it again. Join in on the St. Patrick’s Day fun by submitting your caption below! Diane Alber, the Arizona artist who created Kip and Gary, has a new cartoon for Data Center Knowledge’s cartoon caption contest. We challenge you to submit a humorous and clever caption that fits the comedic situation. Then, next week, our readers will vote for the best submission. Here’s what Diane had to say about this week’s cartoon, “So I thought it would be pretty amazing to see a unicorn in a data center…” Congratulations to the last cartoon winner, Ken, who won with, “Alright, who let Marketing into my server room?” For more cartoons on DCK, see our Humor Channel. For more of Diane’s work, visit Kip and Gary’s website. |
| 5:17p | Cisco, HP Make Up 27 Percent of Global Cloud Infrastructure Equipment Market: Report
This article originally appeared at The WHIR The total worldwide cloud infrastructure equipment market grew by nine percent in Q4 2014 to reach $13 billion, led by Cisco and HP. Data released by Synergy Research Group on Thursday shows that Cisco and HP lead in public and private cloud infrastructure, respectively, and combined for 27 percent of the overall market. Overall market growth was robust enough to actually shrink both Cisco and HP’s market shares, despite the fact that revenues for each company grew. “Cloud infrastructure is a fast-growing market and now accounts for almost half of all data center infrastructure shipments,” said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and chief analyst. “We are seeing strong growth across private, public and hybrid cloud deployments and across all geographic regions. While it remains relatively small, by far the highest growth is being seen in hybrid cloud and I expect this to continue over the next five years.” After the sale of its x86 server line to Lenovo, IBM’s market share declined sharply, falling behind Microsoft and Dell, while Lenovo became the seventh largest cloud infrastructure equipment vendor. Synergy says Cisco’s market lead is due to networking equipment dominance, augmented by “rapidly growing” server sales. An IDC report earlier in March showedCisco holds 5.3 percent of the world’s $50.9 billion server market. The report says that HP, the global server market leader, is also the cloud server leader, as well as a main challenger in storage. Unsurprisingly, Synergy describes Microsoft’s role in the server OS market as “total dominance,” and also says it is a leader in virtualization applications. HP launched its Cloudline server series this week at the open Compute Summit. Overall server sales rose by 2.3 percent in 2014, according to the IDC report, and since servers, OS, storage, and networking make up 92 percent of the cloud infrastructure equipment market, it seems likely that cloud server sales significantly drove the overall server sales growth. This article originally appeared at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/c |
| 5:27p | Latest Facebook Server Based on Intel’s New Xeon SoC Intel announced a new Xeon processor D product family, the first venture for the Xeon on a low power System-on-Chip (SoC). The Xeon processor is the work horse of the data center, and by extending it into a 64-bit SoC Intel offers a dense, low-power processor for telecoms, hyperscale data center operators, and architectures such as microservers, storage, network, and Internet of Things. Facebook is one of the first users of the SoC. The two companies collaborated on designing the latest Facebook server called Yosemite and a server card called Mono Lake that is based on a Xeon D SoC. The companies announced they would contribute Yosemite and Monolake to the Open Compute Project, Facebook’s open source data center and hardware design initiative. They announced the Xeon SoC family and the latest Facebook server at this week’s Open Compute Summit in San Jose, California. With four- and eight-core microserver-optimized 14nm SoCs launched this week, Intel says it will have a broader portfolio of chips in this line available in the second half of the year. New Xeon D-1520 and D-1540 processors feature x86 cores with two integrated 10GbE ports and integrated IOs (PCIe, USB, SATA), according to Intel. The company also notes that server-class Xeon features come with the new D line, such as support for error-correcting code memory, Intel virtualization technology and Intel Advanced Encryption Standard-New Instructions (AES-NI). Taking on the data center edge and network markets, where ARM-based designs are plentiful, Intel leverages the Xeon’s clout. With the Intel D announcement Intel also launched over 50 new Xeon D server designs from companies such as Cisco, HP, NEC, Quanta, and Supermicro. The company also showcases the power of the Xeon D compared to its own second-generation 64-bit SoC Atom C2750, noting that it delivers up to 3.4 times faster performance per node and up to 1.7x better performance per watt. “The growth of connected devices and demand for more digital services has created new opportunities for information and communication technology,” Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of the Data Center Group at Intel, said in a statement. “By bringing Intel Xeon processor performance to a low-power SoC, we’re delivering the best of both worlds and enabling our customers to deliver exciting new services.” Yevgeniy Sverdlik contributed to this report |
| 6:00p | SingleHop Acquires Server Intellect to Add Microsoft Hyper-V Expertise
This article originally appeared at The WHIR SingleHop has made its first acquisition since its launch in 2006, buying Microsoft managed hosting solutions provider Server Intellect on Tuesday. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. According to an announcement on Tuesday, the acquisition will enable SingleHop to deploy private clouds powered by both leading hypervisor platforms used by enterprises: VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V. As security and data protection concerns drive enterprises to private cloud, offering expertise in both Microsoft and VMware environments will help SingleHop win more enterprise customers. SingleHop launched its Virtual Private Cloud infrastructure last year, using VMware technology and achieving VMware Hybrid Cloud Powered status. “Server Intellect brings an incredible amount of expertise in a wide range of Microsoft-based hosting technologies,” SingleHop CEO Zak Boca said. “As a top-to-bottom Microsoft shop with an unparalleled level of experience with Microsoft Hyper-V, Server Intellect was the obvious choice for expanding SingleHop’s private cloud platform into the Windows ecosystem. There was an undeniable, innate synergy in our respective focus and mission that made the collaboration a natural fit.” According to the recent Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker Report by IDC, Microsoft’s Hyper-V represented more than 30 percent of the hypervisor market at the end of 2014. SingleHop’s Microsoft Hyper-V support will begin immediately as the company has “completed all necessary integrations with Server Intellect.” “At the end of the day, it’s our customers who will benefit from being able to choose from the two leading hypervisors when deploying their hosted private clouds on our platform,” SingleHop COO Andy Pace said. “For many enterprises, Microsoft Hyper-V is the best choice, and we are committed to extending SingleHop solutions to a broader set of customers.” Server Intellect, based in Orlando, Fla., offered expertise in managed servers, private cloud servers based on Hyper-V as well as other managed services. Its customers will be migrated to SingleHop’s orchestration platform, which automates the deployment process. “With SingleHop there was total alignment and a like-mindedness in our pursuit to build solutions that meet customer needs,” Server Intellect CTO Adam Cady said. “Together, we’re deepening our bench of highly-skilled hosting and cloud experts while continuing to focus on the highest level of customer care and satisfaction.” The acquisition reflects a strategy that service providers use to quickly develop expertise in a particular market where they are seeing demand, in this case, Microsoft Hyper-V. Rather than building up internal expertise via training or appointments, service providers can acquire the expertise, quickly doubling down on a particular service segment. SingleHop said its acquisition will build on its continued momentum, including its funding. The company most recently raised $14.8 million last year. SingleHop said it “will continue to explore every opportunity to scale its operations” and develop its partner network and expertise in managed services. This article originally appeared at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/s |
| 7:30p | Report: Google Eyeing Data Center Expansion in Atlanta Suburbs Google may be considering a $300 million data center expansion at its campus in Atlanta suburbs. Douglas County officials recently approved a package of tax breaks for the potential project to entice the Mountain View, California-based internet giant to commit to the build, according to a local news report. Companies like Google constantly expand their data center capacity around the world to support growth of their user base and roll-out of new products and services. State and local government officials use tax breaks to attract data center construction projects which are seen as strong drivers of local economic development. Besides investment in real estate and equipment purchases, Google is also expected to add more than 25 jobs if it decides to go through with construction. The Google data center deal approved by Douglas County officials would give the company a 10-year tax exemption from property taxes on equipment in the potential future data center and the real estate it will occupy. Google would have to agree to pay $1.2 million to the county over a period of two years in lieu of the tax payments. The decision now reportedly lies with Google, which has to decide whether or not it will accept the deal. The first Google data center in Lithia Springs, Georgia, launched in 2003. It is one of a handful of Google data center sites that use recycled water for all of their cooling needs. Google has six data center locations in the U.S., one in Chile, two in Asia, and four in Europe. |
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