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Monday, August 10th, 2015
| Time | Event |
| 12:00p | Top US Data Center Markets Absorbed 100 MW in First Half of 2015 Hunger for capacity in primary US data center markets continues, with financial services, healthcare, social media, and other types of tech companies driving demand. Wholesale data center providers have closed deals on just south of 100 MW of data center capacity in top US markets during the first half of the year, tightening supply and, in some places, pushing up rental rates, according to the latest market report by the commercial real estate firm CBRE. Data center providers in those primary markets have reported lower vacancy rates in their facilities, despite the fact that many of them have a lot more capacity under construction. According to CBRE, about 100 MW of new data center capacity has been completed in the first half of 2015, and another 184 MW is under construction. There was only about 77 MW of data center capacity under construction in those markets this time last year. CBRE considers Northern Virginia, Phoenix, Atlanta, Silicon Valley, New York-New Jersey, Chicago, and Dallas-Fort Worth to be the country’s primary data center markets. Of them, you can find lowest-cost wholesale data center capacity in Dallas-Fort Worth, where rates in the second quarter ranged between $125 and $155 per kilowatt per month. Data center lease rates in Dallas-Fort Worth stayed flat between first and second quarter, as they did in Northern Virginia, Phoenix, and Chicago. Rates went up from quarter to quarter in the other three markets. Of those other three, New York-New Jersey was the priciest, where second-quarter rates ranged between $150 and $170 per kW per hour. CBRE highlighted two data center markets in the report: Dallas-Fort Worth, which is seeing one of the highest rates of population growth in the country, as well as quick growth of the technology sector, and Jacksonville, Florida, a market that’s emerging as an alternative to Miami thanks to new subsea connectivity to Latin American countries. “Jacksonville is becoming a cable landing destination as new submarine fiber cables from Latin America are coming ashore,” the report’s authors wrote. The city’s newly constructed submarine cable landing stations are for the Pacific Caribbean Cable Systems and the America Movil Submarine Cable System. According to CBRE, Jacksonville offers lower-latency connectivity to Latin America, lower cost, and lower hurricane risk than Miami, where the massive NAP of the Americas, a formerly Terremark and now Verizon data center, has traditionally been the point of departure for connectivity from US to Latin America. Read the full CBRE report here |
| 3:00p | Equinix Kicks Off Singapore Data Center Expansion Equinix has commenced build-out of the second phase of its largest data center in Asia-Pacific, located in Singapore. The company announced the launch of the first phase of SG3 only in March, and the latest announcement illustrates how high the demand for data center space in the tiny island nation is growing. Recently valued at about $1 billion, the Singapore data center market is a hub for serving customers in Southeast Asia, China, and the rest of the Asia Pacific. Structure Research, the market research firm that pegged Singapore’s market size at $1 billion, expects it to reach $1.2 billion next year. There are about 50 data center service providers on the island, operating more than 40 data centers, according to Structure. Redwood City, California-based Equinix is the second-largest player in the Singapore data center market, following the local telco Singtel. Other major players are Singapore’s Keppel, UK’s Global Switch, and San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust. Following the 1,000-cabinet first phase, Equinix expects to build out enough space for 2,000 more cabinets this time around. The building’s total capacity is 5,000 cabinets. The facility’s first two tenants were Datapipe and Orange. Another customer, revealed recently, is Fujitsu. With the second phase, the company’s total investment in Singapore amounts to $350 million, Equinix said in a statement. “Singapore is en-route to becoming a Smart Nation, integrating all aspects of technology into a coherent and cohesive whole to improve the way people live, work and play,” Clement Goh, Equinix’ managing director for South Asia, said in a statement. “SG3 phase two was launched to help companies like Fujitsu ensure that they are in a solid position to support their customers’ needs.” |
| 4:36p | PMC-Sierra Unveils Server Flash Switch, Faster SSD Controller At the Flash Memory Summit today PMC-Sierra unveiled a set of PCI Express storage switches and solid-state drive controllers that can drive one million IOPs across up to 20TB of shared server Flash capacity. Roger Peene, director of marketing for Flashtec products within PMC’s performance storage group, said the combination of PMC Switchtec PSX PCIe storage switches and second-generation Flashtec NVMe controllers will enable IT organization to more reliably scale SSD performance using PCIe within data center environments. “These offerings are optimized to scale for Flash using a flexible, programmable model,” said Peene. “We can put anywhere from eight to 20 TB on a single controller.” PMC-Sierra claimed the controllers make use of DDR4 DRAM to deliver ten times the performance and capacity of SATA SSDs and nearly double the IOPS of other SSDs connected to a PCIe bus. The controllers via a Toggle or ONFI interface can support 3-D, TLC, enterprise MLC, MLC, and SLC NAND Flash storage devices across as many as 32 independent Flash channels. The new storage switches, meanwhile, provide a way to reliably pool a large number of PCIe drives in a way that PMC-Sierra claims is up to 60 percent more efficient that other PCIe switches, which according to the company translates into a savings of 1,000 watts per rack. The switches come with a number of diagnostic and debug features that can be used to pinpoint and resolve downtime and performance issues quickly. All told, PMC-Sierra said the PSX uses 75 percent fewer devices than standard switches in a typical Flash array, allowing system designers to increase Flash density, lower the bill of materials costs, and improve mean time before failure. Specifically, the PSX family comprises switches from 24 lanes to 96 lanes per port, all of which, Peene said, makes it simpler to scale out Flash storage inside the data center. As IT organizations increasingly view Flash storage as a way to reduce both the physical size of the data center and the amount of energy consumed by it, there is a shift underway toward using more SSDs for both caching and primary storage. Less clear is to what degree SSDs will supplant traditional hard disk drives. While SSDs provide much higher levels of performance, the cost differential between SSDs and HDDs on a cost-per-gigabyte basis is still a significant issue. As a result, most IT organizations are not replacing HDDs with SSDs all across the data center just yet. But for applications where performance requirement dictate, SSDs are rapidly becoming the new default for primary storage. |
| 4:53p | Cloud Providers, Internet Firms to Comply with New EU Cybersecurity Law
This article originally appeared at The WHIR After months of negotiations, the European Parliament has decided to include digital platforms, including cloud computing providers, in the Network and Information Security Directive (NISD), Reuters reports. The article is based on a report from Luxembourg, which applies what Reuters calls “less onerous obligations,” which were not detailed in the document, to myriad of network and online service providers. Luxembourg is taking its turn as European Union president, and is soliciting feedback on details of the NISD at a September meeting ahead of drafting the actual legislation. The NISD is part of the Digital Agenda for Europe, and “aims to ensure a high common level of cybersecurity in the EU.” Under the NISD, when providing service to an “infrastructure operator,” a broad category that includes energy, transport, and finance companies, Internet businesses such as ecommerce sites, search engines, and social networks would be subject to the same security rules as their client. This includes breach reporting obligations, though some details seem yet to be determined. “We’re pleased to see digital service platforms subject to a different regime but we’re disappointed at the lack of recognition that it is the use of cloud that determines the security risk not the service itself,” Cisco Senior Manager, Government Affairs, Chris Gow told Reuters. The European Commission launched its plan to grow the region’s digital economy as a “Digital Single Market” in May. In June the EU agreed to new data protection laws, and then to enforce net neutrality rules across the 28 member states, as the Digital Agenda for Europe takes shape. Just how concerned digital platform providers should be depends on the specifics of the legislation, and it also remains to be seen how the news will affect the many cloud and digital services companies expanding within Europe. Linode announced a new data center in Frankfurt on Monday. European companies from iomart to Deutsche Telekom and American firms like AppDirect have announced intentions this year to grow by getting European enterprise IT into the cloud. If those enterprises are infrastructure operators, they may now face an extra hurdle in doing so. This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/c |
| 6:49p | Edge Data Center Firm Names XO Comms Exec CTO EdgeConneX, a rapidly growing data center service provider that specializes in edge data centers, has named Don MacNeil, former COO at XO Communications, as CTO, the company announced Monday. Edge data centers are facilities close to high-population areas where web content providers store copies of their content to serve those areas. Storing content locally improves quality of service for end users and reduces network transport fees for content providers and companies whose infrastructure services they use. Demand for such services is driven primarily by online video. Over the last two years, EdgeConneX has built data centers in 23 markets in the US and plans expansion into Europe, South America, and more US metros this year, Clint Heiden, the company’s chief commercial officer, said. Part of MacNeil’s job at EdgeConneX will be driving expansion of the infrastructure to new locations and business verticals. He will also oversee the development of the company’s technology vision, EdgeConneX said in a statement. MacNeil has been with XO for about 10 years, including as COO since February 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’s also had a substantial military career. A former US Navy officer with 27 years of service under his belt, he’s worked on development and procurement programs for large weapon systems, research and development, and operations. MacNeil is not the first former XO employee to join EdgeConneX. Tim Shaheen, the edge data center provider’s VP of business development, is a former XO VP. Chris Flynn, who oversees real estate at EdgeConneX, used to be director of real estate at the telco. |
| 7:13p | Windstream Gets Government Grant to Bring Connectivity to Rural Communities
This article originally appeared at The WHIR Windstream Communications has been granted $175 million annually in federal funding to bring broadband services to more than 400,000 rural households across 17 states over the next seven years. The funding is under Phase II Connect America Funds (CAF-II), a program that aims to help Americans living in rural areas access to broadband networks as an estimated 15 million Americans don’t have access to entry-level broadband in their homes. Last year, Phase II of the CAF was implemented, and the minimum broadband speed for receiving support to 10/1 Mbps from 4/1 Mbps, the first adjustment since 2011. Reports have shown that improved and higher speed broadband access can have a positive effect on local economies. In the UK, for example, lack of superfast broadband access was a main factor in hindering growth of small and mid-sized businesses. Last year Windstream and CenturyLink expressed concern that the timeline to meet the 10/1 Mbps requirements laid out by the CAF was unrealistic, noting that they would need a longer buildout and support term since it would require “a massive extension of fiber, new remote terminal equipment, and reconfiguration of existing copper.” It seems that Windstream has come to an agreeable plan with the FCC as it said in a statement that it has made “significant strides in expanding and improving its broadband capabilities in its rural service areas, through its own investments and universal service and stimulus funds.” “Windstream is committed to providing robust and reliable voice and broadband services to our customers,” Tony Thomas, Windstream’s president and CEO said in a statement. “This ongoing support supplements Windstream’s substantial network investments, enabling us to continue service in many high-cost areas and to offer new service to many others.” States supported by the agreement include Iowa, Georgia, Kentucky, Texas and Alabama. Thomas said that it has declined the offer for New Mexico because it would not be able to meet the program’s obligations. Windstream will “remain focused on providing affordable broadband service to consumers throughout” its New Mexico service area. Cities across the US are relying on their own resources or partnering with private companies in order to bring a Gigabit Internet service to their communities without having to wait for big telcos. Ting is one of the companies partnering with several cities, most recently launching its Gigabit Internet service in Charlottesville, Virginia. This first ran at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/w |
| 10:24p | White Glove IT Services Start with Data Migration When it comes to managing data centers, there are few tasks quite as expensive or painful as moving massive amounts of data from one data center to another. At the Data Center World conference in National Harbor, Maryland, this September, Peak Hosting CEO Jeffrey Papon plans to outline the practical steps every IT organization needs to think through when planning for a data migration project. Of course, in the context of Peak Hosting that data migration involves moving data into data centers that it manages. As a provider of “white glove” data center services, Peak Hosting handles everything from servers and switches to staffing of the data center facility. “We handle everything except the code,” Papon said. “We have 180 people with over 10,000 servers under management.” Papon freely admits that kinds of service typically only makes sense when the application workloads are absolutely mission critical. But demand for it is already generating over $100 million in annual revenue. The one thing he cannot abide, however, are public clouds. The data centers managed by Peak Hosting are all running single-tenant applications to make sure the highest application performance levels are maintained. For that reason, Peak Hosting is only looking for customers that want to commit to two-to-three-year contracts. Naturally, all that attention to IT detail starts and ends with data migration both into and out of those data centers. For more information, sign up for Data Center World National Harbor, which will convene in National Harbor, Maryland, on September 20-23, 2015, and attend Jeffrey’s session titled “Avoiding the Migration Migraine: How Eight Steps and Three Weeks Delivered CloudCoverMusic’s Successful Migration.” |
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