Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

Time	Event
1:06a	NTT’s RagingWire to Build a Third Ashburn Data Center Colossus In an astonishing signal of how much commitment is required for a data center operator to remain competitive in a hot market, Reno, Nevada-based RagingWire ­­– a unit of Japan telco giant NTT Communications – announced Monday at the Gartner Data Center Summit in Las Vegas that it will be building a third massive data center complex in the Ashburn, Virginia area. If data had its own preference on where to reside, then the first pictures of RagingWire’s VA3 complex look like a veritable country club.  Some 245,000 square feet of space will be allocated over six buildings on a 76.5-acre campus, nearly doubling the provider’s real estate in the region centered just 30 miles northwest of the nation’s capital. Indeed, a golf course is located in the vicinity of the building site, which lies at the corner of highways 640 and 625 in Loudoun County, Virginia. RagingWire says it plans to invest some $160 million into the complex, which is expected to be completed before the end of the next calendar year. The provider’s aggressive growth plan began three years ago, when NTT purchased 80 percent of the firm.  It was only earning $85 million annually at the time.  Just after the purchase, RagingWire announced its intent to build VA1 in Ashburn.  Starting at 150,000 square feet, the firm publicly announced its intent to build out to 10 times that space.  So even with VA3 completed next year, RagingWire will be only one-third of the way through its 2013 plans for the region. A 451 Research report released just last week by analysts Lisa Stauffer and Kelly Morgan found that the Ashburn area has effectively become the United States’ largest single data center market, outpacing even California.  Even at the pace that providers including RagingWire are building there, they report, demand continues to outpace supply, especially for the near-term. While forecasters had projected that major cloud service providers would be able to tamp down some of that growing demand, Morgan and Stauffer say that these dire predictions don’t appear to be playing out.  One advantage that builders seem to be having is by leveraging their existing scale to produce powered shells faster than other firms can, and even faster than the major cloud players. One of Amazon’s largest server farms is based around Ashburn, extended over some 20 separate facilities in the area.  Meanwhile, Equinix operates about a half-million square feet of space in the Loudoun County area, and Digital Realty about 1.5 million.  Microsoft operates plenty of facilities in the area, although its hyperscale operations on the east coast are based around Boydton, southwest of Richmond. (Comment on this)
1:58p	Nine Steps Your Organization Can Take to Mitigate Downtime Greg Ross is Vice President of Product Management for FairPoint Communications. An unplanned outage is one of the worst things that can happen to a data center – and to your business  According to a 2016 Ponemon Institute study, a data center outage costs businesses an average of $8,851 per minute. The report also found that since 2010, the average total cost of a data center outage is up 38 percent – to $740,357. Although it’s impossible to completely eliminate outages, you can take steps to mitigate the consequences of downtime and ensure business continuity. Here are nine ways to mitigate the risk of an extended data center outage and help ensure business continuity: Develop a Comprehensive Plan. Your data center and IT teams must ensure battery and generator backup systems are in place, and everyone’s roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. Many businesses should consider a secondary data center site for disaster recovery. If the primary site goes down, the secondary site should be able to keep the operation running. Maintain Systems Regularly. Regular testing of data center infrastructure is essential to ensuring high availability. This includes frequent inspections, scheduled testing of primary and backup power systems under full electrical loads, adhering to equipment manufacturer guidelines, and benchmarking performance over time. If you test your infrastructure quarterly or even annually, you can identify and address potential problems, and be better prepared to maintain business continuity. Update Maintenance Procedures. Data centers are dynamic environments with new systems and infrastructure components being added all the time. Comprehensive maintenance documentation is essential to all data center operations. Train On-Site Staff. Access to trained personnel is a core requirement if you want to avoid outages due to human error. Your staff should be well versed in their day-to-day responsibilities, but also trained to respond quickly in worst-case scenarios. This is especially critical if you contract with a third-party for data center maintenance. You want trained, knowledgeable personnel available before, during and after an outage. Automate Routine Tasks. Performing tasks, such as configuring and managing systems, should be automated whenever possible. Eliminating manual operations reduces outages caused by human error. Locate Systems in Physically Secure Locations. To prevent unauthorized access, you should locate your primary and backup power systems in secure areas. Your facility must also include sophisticated, multi-factor access control systems to ensure that only authorized personnel gain entry. Using a secure, hardened data center environment to store your servers will help keep your core operational programs up and running. Build Redundant Systems. In addition to housing important resources in multiple locations, business continuity requires high levels of redundancy within each location. You want backup sources for power, environmental systems and network connectivity, as well as the technical expertise to manage it. Because equipment failure is inevitable and the costs of an outage are substantial, organizations need to invest in redundancy. Comprehensive Power Plan. Sophisticated IT equipment requires consistently clean power. However, power from commercial sources often needs to be conditioned and filtered. Data centers must have equipment that minimizes power anomalies such as voltage and frequency fluctuations, sags, spikes, surges, brownouts, and blackouts. You can reduce your risk of a data center power outage by drawing commercial power from different paths. However, this can be costly, which leads many companies to use third-party data centers that can offer that kind of essential power redundancy. Strike the Right Balance between Efficiency and Availability. Because data centers consume huge amounts of electricity, companies have been under constant pressure to adopt greener solutions. But higher efficiency often comes at the expense of availability and reliability. In mission-critical data centers, managers need to find the ideal operating environment – one that delivers the highest levels of efficiency with the lowest risk of downtime. IT outages can be devastating. Many companies never fully recover an extended outage, which makes planning and preparedness imperative. With the right plan, procedures, and systems in place, businesses can mitigate the risks of downtime and help ensure that they stay connected to customers, business partners, and employees.   Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
8:02p	Why Equinix is Buying Verizon Data Centers for $3.6B Wrapping 2016 up with another blockbuster deal for the data center industry, Equinix has agreed to acquire a portion of the data center portfolio Verizon Communications has been attempting to sell since at least last year. The Redwood City, California-based data center services giant said Tuesday it will pay $3.6 billion in cash for 24 of the telco’s data center sites, including most of the sites Verizon got its hands on in 2011, when it acquired Terremark Worldwide. There are 29 data center buildings on those sites altogether located across 15 metro areas in the US and Latin America. The deal, expected to close by mid-2017, will add about 2.4 million gross square feet to Equinix’s global footprint, bringing its asset base to a total of 175 data centers and 17 million square feet across 43 markets. Reports that a big Verizon data center portfolio was on the market started emerging last year, and Verizon confirmed it was considering a sale earlier this year. In recent months Equinix emerged as the most likely buyer, as we reported in October. Verizon is the second major telco to offload data centers this year. Last month, CenturyLink announced a deal to sell its entire 57-data center colocation business to a joint venture between private equity companies BC Partners and Medina Capital. Equinix didn’t buy all data centers Verizon was hoping to sell, cherry-picking sites that were a good strategic fit. The telco has been looking to divest more than 50 facilities, including assets in Europe and Asia, but Equinix was only interested in North and South American markets. The two most important sites that will be changing hands if and when the deal closes are the massive NAP of the Americas facility in Miami and the four-building NAP of the Capital Region campus in Culpeper, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. The Miami data center is a key nerve center for network traffic between the US and Latin America, while Culpeper reportedly houses a lot of IT infrastructure for the US government. Not only are they important strategically, the two sites together are responsible for more than half of the $450 million in revenue the 24-site portfolio generates annually, Equinix executives said on a conference call Tuesday. A Gateway to South America NAP of the Americas is a “gateway to South America,” Karl Strohmeyer, Equinix president for the Americas, told Data Center Knowledge in an interview. “It’s certainly one of the key strategic prizes.” The former Terremark facility functions in a similar way Equinix has designed most of its data centers to function. It is an interconnection hub for carriers and other types of service providers, who link their networks there to expand their reach and optimize traffic routes for their customers. The 90 or so global networks that interconnect at the site provide access to more than 150 countries, Strohmeyer said. The deal significantly expands Equinix’s ability to attract North American companies that want to serve Latin American markets, Jabez Tan, research director at Structure Research, said in an interview. Latin America was a $445 million retail colocation market in 2015, projected to more than double by 2020, according to Structure Research, which expects a nearly 17 percent annual growth rate there. For comparison, the US market was $8.2 billion last year, projected to reach $14.3 billion in 2020. While the US market grew 15 percent between 2015 and 2016, Structure expects growth to slow down to 12 percent for the next four years. In addition to the network gateway in Miami Equinix acquired Verizon’s data centers in São Paulo and Bogotá. The São Paulo facility, called NAP do Brasil, adds to its two existing data centers in that market and a third that’s under construction. The company also has data centers in Rio de Janeiro, while Verizon’s Bogotá site gives it an entry into a whole new market. Both São Paulo and Bogotá are also important from the standpoint of intercontinental connectivity. Most submarine cables linking South America to other parts of the world land in Brazil and many land in Colombia. A Government and Enterprise Hub in Virginia While Equinix has always been at the core of the enormous Northern Virginia data center market, Culpeper, located further southeast from Washington and Virginia’s largest data center cluster in and around Ashburn, is a new location for the service provider. The former Terremark campus in Culpeper has four data centers and enough space and power to build a fifth one, Strohmeyer said. Such an expansion is very likely, since Verizon has not added capacity at the site in years, and there are currently more than 170 customers using it. “We haven’t heard of any significant expansions in Culpeper,” Tan said. The campus serves both government agencies and private enterprises, but the percentage split between those two customer categories is unclear. Strohmeyer declined to share any details about customer make-up at individual sites. Enterprises are a Key Growth Market Growing its government and enterprise customer numbers has been a recent strategic priority for Equinix, which has traditionally focused on attracting service providers, content, and financial services companies to its interconnection-rich campuses. The Verizon portfolio being acquired ticks both of those boxes. It serves about 900 customers, many of whom are enterprises that are new to Equinix. Another asset in the portfolio that helps that cause is Verizon’s Houston data center. This will be Equinix’s first site in Houston, a major market for service providers looking to tap into the oil and gas industry and one the company has been eyeing for some time. “Houston has been a blue dot on our map for a while,” Strohmeyer said. Here’s a list of all locations included in Equinix’s Verizon data center deal: Atlanta (Atlanta and Norcross) Bogotá, Boston (Billerica) Chicago (Westmont) Culpeper Dallas (Irving, Richardson-Alma, and Richardson-Pkwy) Denver (Englewood) Houston Los Angeles (Torrance) Miami (Miami and Doral) New York (Carteret, Elmsford, and Piscataway) São Paulo Seattle (Kent) Silicon Valley (Santa Clara and San Jose) Washington, D.C. (Ashburn, Manassas, and Herndon) All Set in Europe and Asia Given Equinix’s recent acquisitions in Europe and Asia, it’s not surprising the company did not pursue Verizon’s assets in those regions. European antitrust regulators forced Equinix to sell eight data centers in Europe in exchange for approval of its blockbuster $3.8 billion acquisition of TelecityGroup, which closed earlier this year. It sold those facilities to San Francisco-based Digital Realty Trust, which recently emerged as one of its biggest competitors. “We feel like we’ve got enough to handle there,” Strohmeyer said about Europe. Read more: Why Equinix Data Center Deal is a Huge Win for Digital Realty In Asia-Pacific, Equinix acquired the Japanese provider Bit-isle last year and recently launched a new data center in Sydney. “From a portfolio stand point [Verizon’s] presence in Asia was very limited,” he said. According to Tan, an expert on Asia-Pacific data center markets, Equinix already has a strong position in core Asia-Pacific markets, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Sydney, and does not appear to want to move into emerging markets in the region. REIT Status Fortified Another box Equinix will be able to tick once the acquisition closes is strengthening the case for its status as a Real Estate Investment Trust. The company started operating as a REIT in the beginning of this year. In exchange for substantial corporate tax benefits, a company must meet a list of criteria to qualify for REIT status, which include investing at least 75 percent of its assets in real estate and cash. Equinix leases many of its facilities from wholesale data center providers, such as Digital Realty, but will own the real estate for 21 of the 29 data centers it is buying from Verizon. The company has been wanting to switch from a predominantly leased asset model to a predominantly owned one, and the acquisition will shift it from deriving 33 percent of its revenue from owned assets to 40 percent, which is where it really wants to trend, Tan said. See also: Equinix: the Complicated Math of a Technology REIT (Comment on this)
8:58p	GoDaddy Acquires Host Europe Group for $1.79 Billion Brought to You by The WHIR GoDaddy has made a huge bet in expanding its international presence Tuesday with the acquisition of Host Europe Group for €1.69 billion (US$1.79 billion), which will give it a strong footprint in the U.K. and Germany. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2017, according to GoDaddy. The purchase price represents 11x HEG’s 2016 estimated adjusted EBITDA including “anticipated annual synergies.” HEG, which is currently owned by private equity firm Cinven, started shopping for buyers earlier this year. Within recent weeks GoDaddy emerged as the most likely candidate as other rumored buyers dropped out of the bidding. (United Internet was acquired, and Deutsche Telekom dropped out of the bidding for HEG citing a lack of organic growth prospects and possible integration challenges.) GoDaddy plans to integrate the majority of HEG’s business while it explores strategic alternatives for HEG’s PlusServer managed hosting business,  including a possible sale, GoDaddy said. The acquisition of HEG will help GoDaddy extend its small business focus in the European market. HEG has more than 1.7 million customers across its brands including 123Reg, Domain Factory, Heart Internet and Host Europe. HEG also owns the World Hosting Day and NamesCon brands and conferences. GoDaddy plans to continue to operate those brands independently. “GoDaddy has successfully expanded its international business to 56 global markets over the past four years,” GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving said in a statement. “HEG has built an impressive business that generates strong top-line growth, high margins, and industry-leading customer satisfaction. By joining forces with HEG, we accelerate our expansion into Europe with the delivery of a broader range of cloud-based products, built on a single global technology platform, and supported by unparalleled customer care to help small businesses and web designers succeed online.” GoDaddy’s international revenue grew by 27 percent in Q3 2016, representing a huge opportunity for the SMB-focused hosting and domains provider. HEG Group CEO Patrick Pulvermüller will lead the company’s combined European operations, and report to Andrew Low Ah Kee, GoDaddy’s Executive Vice President of International. “In combining with GoDaddy, we see a remarkable opportunity for our customers, partners and the small business ecosystem in Europe,” Pulvermüller said. “What stands out is the strategic alignment of the companies – we’re both driven to empower people to transform their ideas and bring them to life online. Together GoDaddy and HEG will provide even more value for our customers and introduce new solutions to help their ventures succeed.” HEG has offices in Germany, the U.K., France, Spain, Romania, and Bulgaria. This article was originally posted here at The Whir. (Comment on this)
9:03p	AOL CEO Tim Armstrong ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ Yahoo Acquisition Will Happen (Hollywood Reporter) – Verizon’s $4.8 billion deal to acquire Yahoo and merge it with AOL has stalled following a widespread hack of 500 million Yahoo users. But AOL CEO Tim Armstrong believes the deal will ultimately close. “I’m cautiously optimistic that it will happen,” Armstrong told attendees of Business Insider’s Ignition Conference. “The companies are working well together. There’s been a constructive dialog around things like the data breach that need to get resolved.” SEE ALSO: Cybercriminals, Not State-Sponsored Actors, Likely Behind Yahoo Breach Verizon emerged as the winning bidder for Yahoo after the flagging giant underwent a lengthy auction process. But two months later, Yahoo revealed that it had been subject to a large breach of security in 2014, putting the deal in jeopardy. Armstrong, who has been leading the integration with Yahoo alongside Verizon’s Marni Walden, said the two companies had been setting up a merger strategy when the data breach was made public, a turn of events that “slowed things down a bit.” But he noted that they are proceeding with planning the deal, and expect to begin laying out the structure of the combined company. Armstrong also expects Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to remain with the company. “I’m hopeful that as we go forward that Marissa will play a role in getting Yahoo to the next iteration and next generation of what Yahoo’s going to be,” he said, calling Yahoo’s recent presentation of its 2017 strategy “impressive.” SEE ALSO: Yahoo’s Mayer Suffers New Hit to Privacy Reputation With E-Mails AOL recently announced plans to lay off 500 employees. It’s a move that Armstrong said would have happened regardless of the Yahoo deal and was instead the result of a string of deals that AOL has made to acquire smaller companies since it was bought by Verizon in 2015 for $4.4 billion. He said those cuts should carry AOL through 2017 but added that “we’ve said there will be synergies when we did the deal” for Yahoo. Armstrong spoke at the conference ahead of Arianna Huffington, who just recently left her post at AOL as president of The Huffington Post Media Group to launch wellness startup Thrive Global. When asked about The Huffington Post’s treatment of the 2016 presidential election – the website appended an editor’s note to stories about Donald Trump that included describing him as a “serial liar,” “racist” and “misogynist” – Armstrong called the coverage “differentiated and bold.” (Comment on this)
9:11p	Intel, AT&T Move Forward with 5G Wireless Development By The VAR Guy Intel, which has been using its own 5G wireless devices internally for much of the past year, has teamed up with Ericsson and AT&T to further test the unfinished wireless standard under real world conditions. “This trial is a significant step forward. We’re leaving the lab and heading into the field with a real-world business customer,” said Rick Hubbard, senior vice president of Networking Product Management at AT&T.  Like other chipmakers, Intel is looking for technology to supplement its dwindling PC sales.  Last month, Apple signed on to use one of its 4G modem chips in some iPhone 7 models, but Intel still lags behind some competitors such as Qualcomm. The 5G market has been slow to develop due to technical challenges. Though 5G signals can transmit large quantities of data using high frequency bands called millimeter waves, the signals have difficulty getting through obstructions or traveling longer distances. Official protocols for the technology are expected to be completed in 2020. Still 5G is the future of mobility, and once the kinks are worked out, Intel partners could have a leg up in service offerings to end users, especially as the Internet of Things reaches maturation. The technology should greatly enhance the speed of virtualization and unified communications, as well as enabling low latency workloads. In this new round of testing, AT&T will attempt to send the signals into Intel’s office building in Austin, where employees will stress test the equipment by trying to overload it with mass quantities of data. AT&T says the trial will last about a month, use just one cell site and cover a radius of about 300 meters. This article was originally posted here at The VAR Guy. (Comment on this)

<< Previous Day

2016/12/06 [Calendar]

Next Day >>