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Friday, January 22nd, 2016
| Time | Event |
| 2:17a | Verizon Confirms It May Sell Its Data Centers After months of dismissing news reports that the company may be considering selling its data centers as rumors, Verizon Communications CFO Francis Shammo finally confirmed that the reports were true. Speaking with analysts during the company’s fourth quarter 2015 earnings call Thursday, Shammo said the company was exploring opportunities to sell the assets. “We will always look for opportunities,” he said. “The data centers is an exploratory exercise to see if the asset is more valuable inside or outside the portfolio.” Last year, Verizon sold its wireless communications towers, switching from an ownership to a leasing model, and it views its data centers in a similar fashion. If it can sell its data centers in a way that will free up capital that can be used for higher-return investments, they will be sold. “There is no decision that has been made,” Shammo said. “This is an exploratory, and as we explore, if the numbers come out like it did on towers, then we’ll execute on a transaction. If it doesn’t, then we won’t.” Read more: Who May Buy Verizon’s Data Centers? Reuters reported last year that Verizon was mulling the sale of its data center assets, citing anonymous sources. The news agency also reported that the 48 data centers in question could be worth as much as $2.5 billion. Verizon’s data center portfolio is a mixed bag that includes some of the most valuable data centers in the world as well as many smaller, older facilities that aren’t attractive for potential buyers. The most valuable assets are data centers it gained through the $1.4 billion acquisition of data center provider Terremark in 2011. The question now becomes whether Verizon will be open to selling some of its data centers, or whether it will insist of offloading the entire portfolio at once. The latter scenario, while good for Verizon, will be difficult to realize. There are many data center providers that would find former Terremark assets, such as NAP of the Americas in Miami or NAP of the Capital Region in Culpeper, Virginia, attractive, but there aren’t many that would want to own the whole portfolio. |
| 5:37p | Docker Looks beyond Linux Containers with Unikernel Acquisition
By The Var Guy Docker, the open source company that specializes in enabling developers and DevOps professionals to use Linux containers, took a step toward the world beyond containers this week with the acquisition of Unikernel Systems. As its name implies, Unikernel Systems develops unikernels. Those are minimalist apps that contain only the code needed to run specific functions, rather than all of the libraries and overhead that come with traditional programs. That makes them sort of like Docker containers, which package applications into portable virtual environments that can run without virtualizing an entire operating system. Read more: Cloud Giants Form Foundation to Drive Container Interoperability But unikernels are not just another form of container. They’re a very different technology, and by acquiring them, Docker seems to be signaling its intent to expand beyond containers. Unikernels will make it possible for organizations to use the Docker platform to build other types of minimalist, portable apps, not just containers. Docker made clear that its main interest in acquiring Unikernel Systems was to gain the expertise of the company’s developers, who include veterans of the Xen open source hypervisor project. The programmers will continue to contribute to open source unikernel projects as Docker employees, but Docker will now have their brains at its disposal as it works to integrate containers with unikernel technology. Read more: Docker Wants to Make the Internet Programmable “We are honored to have the Unikernel Systems team, with its incredible pedigree, join the Docker family,” said Solomon Hykes, founder and CTO of Docker. “Our shared vision to take transformative technology and make it accessible to a much wider audience has made the union a natural fit and it aligns with one of our core tenets to separate applications from infrastructure constraints. Through the Docker platform, unikernels will be on a ‘continuum’ with Linux and Windows containers, enabling users to create truly hybrid applications across all formats with a uniform workflow.” This is an acquisition that is likely to pay large dividends for Docker, especially as distributed applications and IoT sharply increase the demand for portable apps that consume minimal resources. This first ran at http://thevarguy.com/open-source-applica |
| 5:50p | Verizon Latest Telco to Join ONOS Open Source SDN Project
By The Var Guy Verizon has become the newest member of ONOS, a Linux Foundation collaborative project that aims to build a carrier-grade, SDN-enabled operating system for service providers. ONOS brands itself as an “SDN network operating system.” It’s a set of communications tools and applications that allow organizations to build clustered network infrastructure that takes full advantage of software-defined networking, or SDN. The idea is to make communications more scalable, more reliable and faster by abstracting infrastructure from physical devices. Read more: Why Should Data Center Operators Care About Open Source? ONOS open sourced its code in December 2014. Last October, the project took the further step of becoming a Linux Foundation collaborative project, with a founding membership that included AT&T, NTT Communications, SK Telecom, China Unicom, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel and NEC. On Jan. 21 Verizon joined that line-up, bringing the support of another major American telecommunications services provider to the project. “Verizon recognizes the potential of ONOS as an open source SDN platform and the service provider solutions it enables, as well as the promise it holds to transform the networking industry,” said Brian Higgins, Vice President of Network Planning at Verizon. “By joining the partnership, we hope to advance open source SDN and NFV solutions based on ONOS and to help shape the future of this ecosystem.” ONOS already had the support of other big telecoms. But Verizon’s endorsement is an important additional step toward making open source SDN-based solutions the norm for mainstream service providers. This first ran at http://thevarguy.com/open-source-applica |
| 6:56p | Emerson Claims Water-Less Data Center Cooling Tech Saved Billion-Plus Gallons of Water While the rain keeps falling in Northern California, the state’s water supply is nowhere near bouncing back from a shortage caused by years of severe drought, and data center cooling technology that doesn’t use water is one way data center operators in the state can be part of the solution. Emerson Network Power claims data center operators that installed its pumped refrigerant-based cooling system in North America have saved more than 1.4 billion gallons of water in the last three years. A traditional chilled water-based system uses about 1 million gallons of water to cool 1 MW of IT capacity in a data center for one year, John Peter Valiulis, VP of marketing at Emerson, said. The savings estimate comes from a process the company recently went through with the California Energy Commission to get pumped refrigerant-based systems approved as accepted form of economization, or free cooling, under the state’s Building Standards Code, known as Title 24. The code requires new data centers to use economizers but until recently only specified air-side and water-side economization systems as appropriate ways to satisfy the requirement. Read more: California Officials Greenlight Water-Saving Data Center Cooling Tech Emerson, together with at least one of its customers, Digital Realty Trust, successfully lobbied the Commission to include pumped refrigerant systems in Title 24, opening data center markets in California for the product. The estimate that the technology helps avoid using 1 million gallons per 1 MW per year came from the Commission’s review process and were reviewed and validated by the Commission staff and an outside consultant, Valiulis said. Before pumped refrigerant, Direct Expansion cooling was the water-saving alternative to chilled water, but while DX systems use very little water, they are not as energy efficient as pumped refrigerant systems, he said. “We found that, in addition to energy savings, the system delivered another benefit that has since come to be highly valued in California because of the current drought conditions – it saves millions of gallons of water,” Aaron Binkley, director of sustainability at Digital Realty, said in a statement. |
| 8:00p | Data Center Documentary Explores Places Where Cloud Lives As bigger and bigger parts of our lives get converted to digital formats, people get increasingly curious about the infrastructure that makes the internet, or the cloud (whatever you want to call it), possible. A lot of the things that may seem obvious to those working in the data center industry are mysteries to people outside of it. Matt Parker, a UK composer and visual artist, has spent the last several years exploring these mysteries through art. His latest work is a documentary that examines in-depth the infrastructure of the cloud, including data centers, networks, energy, and people behind it all. “The People’s Cloud is a documentary film that gets to the bottom of the internet, investigating the ecology and impact of cloud computing on the lives of those who use it, the places it is physically located in, and the people who work to maintain it,” the film’s website says. Parker said he interviewed numerous major European and global data center industry players for the film. Here’s the trailer for The People’s Cloud: See and hear more of Parker’s work: LEDs, Air Flow, Claustrophobia: an Artist’s Take on Data Centers |
| 10:23p | How East Coast Data Centers are Preparing for the Storm As East Coast residents stock up on supplies in preparation for what is expected to be one of the biggest winter storms in the region’s history, data center providers, whose job is to make sure some of the most critical infrastructure remains online, have been making preparations of their own. We asked some of the biggest service providers that have data centers in the affected areas to share their preparation steps. Based on their responses, here’s a list of steps data center operators are taking to prepare for severe weather: Test and Top off Backup Generators Utility power outages are common in severe weather, and your data center resiliency is only as good as your backup power systems are. In preparation for the storm, data center providers go to great lengths to make sure their generators work as they should. “We verify full operability of emergency generators,” Liam Rose, spokesman for Equinix, said. “The most important precautionary measure is to make sure the generator fuel tanks are full, since utility interruptions are a likely possibility,” said Asa Donohugh, director of property operations at Digital Realty Trust. Stock Up on Supplies Make sure data center staff have enough supplies to stay comfortably in the facility for the duration of the storm. Enough food, water, cots, and first-aid kits are a must. “We’ve brought in extra food and provisions,” Bill Dougherty, senior VP and CTO at RagingWire, said. “We have food, showers, and cots, and some portion of our staff will likely stay onsite for the duration.” Have More Staff Onsite than Usual You have to prepare for the worst, and that means all hands on deck. “We have staffing contingency plans in place for facilities, data center operations, and security staff at these facilities,” Jim Reinhart, COO, QTS Realty Trust, said. Keep Customers in the Loop Keeping customers informed about what the data center provider has done to prepare as well as providing regular updates throughout the storm is crucial. It is times like these that truly test the level of service you’re providing to them. “We’ve communicated our plans to our customers and encouraged those who have staff onsite to make similar arrangements and coordinate with us,” RagingWire’s Dougherty said. “Communicating with our customers during preparations and throughout an event is equally important,” said Scott Davis, executive VP and CTO at DuPont Fabros Technology. Review Emergency Action Plans You’ve created emergency action plans and trained your staff to properly implement them. As the storm approaches, it’s a good time for review. “Leading up to an event, we review our preparation checklists, emergency action plan, and contingency plans with all data center essential personnel,” Davis said. Put Vendors on Standby More than one company is usually involved in keeping a data center running, and operators have to make sure all their vendors are on standby in anticipation of a storm. Frank Tutalo, spokesman for CenturyLink, said these include not only companies that service infrastructure but also snow and ice removal vendors, who are “engaged to clear all customer parking and access into the data center.” Ensure Nearby Lodging for Staff Nobody wants to sleep in a data center if they don’t have to, so, in addition to having cots for personnel onsite, many operators also secure rooms in nearby hotels for employees who either have to be onsite for work or who cannot leave due to poor travel conditions. Inspect Roofs, Manage Snow, Ice, and Water CyrusOne closely monitors thawing and freezing effects and snow loads on data center roofs. “Leak diverters and water containment systems are maintained on site for any event,” a spokesman for CyrusOne said. “Roof drains are continually monitored and cleaned regularly to prevent ‘ice dams’ from forming.” Data center staff also stage extra snow shovels at roof areas, mezzanines, and entrances. “All roofs have been inspected over and above normally scheduled inspections,” CenturyLink’s Tutalo said. Do Scheduled Maintenance Early If you have scheduled maintenance to do, do it before you find yourself having to do unscheduled maintenance. “We’ve completed scheduled maintenance early,” RagingWire’s Dougherty said. Ride Out the Storm Inside While RagingWire has rented extra all-wheel-drive trucks to transport staff if necessary, Dougherty said it’s best to encourage staff to ride out the storm inside the facility rather than trying to go home. “They’ve made arrangements with their families so their homes are safe and prepared too,” he said. Post-Storm Inspection When the storm is over, it’s not time to relax. It’s time to see if it has done any damage. “After an event, we have a comprehensive cross-check of all systems to ensure no damage was caused by the storm,” DuPont Fabros’s Davis said. |
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