Google powers data centre with wind. Datasource. gvaconnect.com. GVA Connect. Issue 122. The news that drives the data centre economy

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1 GVA Connect Datasource Issue 122 The news that drives the data centre economy News Key news from around the world Results Events Global Conferences May 2014 Google powers data centre with wind gvaconnect.com

2 Contents 03 World 06 EMEA 13 Americas 20 Asia/Pacific 24 Company Results 27 Forthcoming Events Who we are GVA Connect is the data centre division of GVA an international real estate firm headquartered in London with 120 affiliated offices in 24 countries. We have transacted nearly 4 million sq ft in the UK of data centre buildings and with our partners over 12 million sq ft around the world. GVA is a top five commercial property adviser in the UK with 12 regional offices and 1,200 staff. GVA provides a wide range of property services to data centre clients from global locations strategy and benchmarking, construction project management, investment advice, site finding, market analysis as well as property planning, business rates, environmental and lease consultancy. For further information or to receive a monthly copy of Datasource, contact us at: newsfeed@gvaconnect.com 2

3 World CenturyLink expands global data centre presence CenturyLink has announced further investment in its hosting capabilities with plans to expand its global data centre presence in eight markets during This includes the opening of three new data centres in North America, and expansions programmes on five existing CenturyLink data centres, responds to global demand for secure cloud, colocation and managed services, reported Datacentres.com. These plans follow recent news that the company will also invest in expanding its CenturyLink Cloud network of public cloud data centres. The new builds and expansions will offer more than 180,000 sq ft of additional space to CenturyLink's global presence: Phoenix (new data centre sites, in partnership with IO, opened in January 2014) Weehawken, N.J. (expansion completed in March 2014) Minneapolis (new data centre site opening in May 2014) Sterling, Va. (expansion completing in May 2014) Irvine, Calif. (expansion completing in June 2014) Toronto (new data centre site opening in Q3 2014) Reading, England (expansion completing in Q3 2014) Chicago (expansion completing in Q3 2014) These expansions will bring more than 20 megawatts of additional power to CenturyLink's total data centre footprint, enabling businesses like the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to add points of presence in locations most strategic for their operations. Mar 26th Worldwide IT spending to grow 3.2% in 2014 With the global economy showing signs of a gradual recovery, worldwide IT spending is on pace to total US$3.8 trillion in 2014, a 3.2% increase from 2013 spending, according to the latest forecast by Research house, Gartner, reported CIOL. "Globally, businesses are shaking off their malaise and returning to spending on IT to support the growth of their business," said Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner. "Consumers will be purchasing many new devices in 2014; however, there is a greater substitution toward lower cost and more basic devices than we have seen in prior years." Amongst the forecasts spending on data centre systems is projected to reach US$143 billion in 2014, a 2.3% increase from In terms of enterprise network equipment trends, cloud and mobility are the biggest demand drivers. Virtualization and cloud adoption are generating significant market traction for data centre Ethernet switches, and the proliferation of mobile endpoints is continuing to drive significant demand for the wireless LAN equipment market. Apr 3rd Tata Communications expands its global data centre footprint The Indian telecommunication services provider, Tata Communications, has further expanded its global data centre footprint by entering strategic partnerships with NEXTDC in Australia, Interxion in Germany and Austria, as well as Pacific Link Telecom (PLT) in Malaysia, reported IIFL. These partnerships will enable Tata Communications to extend its current data centre offerings in these regions and to deliver a uniform customer experience across geographies. As businesses go global, the addition of new geographies means customers can now have a single vendor operation and contract for a secure, robust and scalable data centre network. Tata Communications has one million sq ft of colocation space across the globe and these new state-of-the-art partner sites in Malaysia, Australia, Austria and Germany will act as extensions to further expand its global data centre footprint. Tata Communications data centres are fully integrated into the company s global IP network, offering maximum traffic capacity into and out of its facilities. Srinivasan CR, Vice President, Data Centre Services, Tata Communications says, As technologies evolve and newer trends like BYOD and video streaming become a central part of enterprise business needs, it is important to have these applications hosted on a global data centre network to provide a uniform experience to the end-user. Additionally, hosting applications in interconnected data centre enables the user to access the data from anywhere, anytime and on any device. Expanding our data centre footprint forms part of our strategy to enable businesses with the most robust backbone for their organisations digital infrastructure. Apr 17th 3 Click here to go back to contents page

4 World Yahoo now encrypting information transmitted between its data centres Search engine giant, Yahoo has responded to last years revelations that the US spy agency, the NSA had been spying on people's online lives, by adding more layers of security. The company has outlined a series of measures including the completion of a system that encrypts all information being transmitted from one Yahoo data centre to another. The technology is designed to make the s and other digital information flowing through data centres indecipherable to outsiders, reported NDTV. Search requests made from Yahoo's home page are also now automatically encrypted, and the Sunnyvale, California, company is promising to make it more difficult for unauthorized intruders to hack into other services, including video chats, within the next few months. Yahoo strengthened the security of its in January. "Whether or not our users understand it, I feel it's our responsibility to keep them safe," Alex Stamos, Yahoo's recently hired chief information of security, told a group of reporters. Apr 3rd Equinix to make Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute available through 16 data centres Equinix, the global data centre company, has announced a partnership to bring Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute to 16 global markets inside Equinix International Business Exchange data centres. As the first data centre provider to deliver this global offering, Equinix will enable customers to directly connect to Azure in Equinix IBX data centres across five continents including: North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Additionally, customers interested in previewing the solution can now connect to ExpressRoute via the Equinix London data centre (LD5),a Company press release reported. "Businesses are demanding private and secure connections to the cloud to ensure optimal performance and scalability, said Melanie Posey, research vice president at IDC. On-site applications such as virtual desktops and customer relationship management (CRM) are migrating to the cloud, alongside born-on-the-cloud Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) business processes. As a result, companies are looking for cloud connectivity alternatives which offer more consistent performance than the public Internet can provide. Businesses require low-latency and highly reliable connectivity for distributed applications that are increasingly being delivered via the hybrid cloud model. A dedicated private network also returns control to the internal teams responsible for the applications. With Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, Equinix and Microsoft are enabling high-performance hybrid cloud on a global basis." ExpressRoute provides private, high throughput, more reliable and lowerlatency connections between customer data centres and Microsoft Azure. As a result, Equinix is enabling enterprise customers to seamlessly deploy hybrid cloud environments that extend their networks and enhance on-premises investments. Because ExpressRoute connections do not go over the public Internet, they also offer higher security than typical connections, with access to a multitude of network service providers that are part of Equinix s business ecosystems. Microsoft s physical infrastructure for Azure ExpressRoute resides in Equinix data centres and is available via an Equinix switching fabric that provides secure connectivity and real-time provisioning. By connecting to ExpressRoute across Platform Equinix, companies are able to bridge their cloud and data centre strategies and benefit from full integration between cloud services and internal applications. Azure is commonly leveraged for key workloads that include Big Data, storage, backup and recovery, hybrid applications, productivity applications and media. Apr 22nd Dimension Data set to quadruple its data centre business Dimension Data, the US$5.8 billion global ICT solutions and services provider, is set to quadruple the size of its data centre business to US$4 billion in the next five years, according to Steve Joubert, Group Executive for the Data Centre Business Unit, reported MIS. The company is looking to aggressively grow and scale these businesses both organically and through acquisition. In addition, Dimension Data believes its access to a significant set of data centre assets across its parent company, the NTT Group, differentiates the business, the company has said, reported MIS. "In all regions and with all clients, large and small, there is an urgent need to undergo the transformation process needed to not only achieve better data centre performance and manage disruptive technologies but also to become progressively greener, in terms of environmental custodianship," says Steve Joubert, Joubert says that the cloud, virtualisation 3.0, and software-defined everything have changed the data centre landscape forever. "New workloads, users, connected devices, and locations are compounding the pressure on the data centre and our clients are asking for help in dealing with all of this in a way that helps their data centre become a true 'business response centre', capable of being agile and speedy when the business needs it to be." Currently Dimension Data operates 12 public cloud locations around the world and further locations are coming online in the next few quarters. Apr 24th 4 Click here to go back to contents page

5 World Lufthansa's IT infrastructure business attracting major interest The German airline Lufthansa is looking to sell its IT infrastructure business and reports are suggesting that global IT brands including IBM, HP and Atos are considering pursuing a bid. Reuters claim that a source familiar with the matter has confirmed the interest from the named parties and that Lufthansa has already held some early talks with interested parties. Indeed a report in German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung FAZ quoted the company s Chief Financial Officer Simone Menne as saying "We are in talks with several sector heavyweights about a takeover of the IT infrastructure, and we want to secure most of the jobs following a sale," The infrastructure business, which provides data centres, networks and telephony, requires a high level of investment and economies of scale are critical, Lufthansa said then, explaining its decision to exit. According to the plans, Lufthansa Systems will be divided into three parts - Infrastructure, Airline Solutions and Industry Solutions. The infrastructure division, which employs 1,400 people, will be sold, while the other two will remain within the Lufthansa group. While the infrastructure business accounted for 40% of Systems' total turnover of 640 million it made up only 25% of the unit's profit. IBM and HP declined to comment, while Atos was not immediately available for comment. Apr 23rd Sungard Availability Services now an independent company Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS), a provider of information availability through managed IT, cloud and recovery services, has announced that it is now a standalone company, following its split-off from SunGard Data Systems Inc. The new company, with annual revenues of approximately $1.4 billion and operations in 11 countries, will remain headquartered in Wayne, a Company press release reported. As a result of the split-off, Sungard AS now has its own Board of Directors and brand. Now that we are an independent firm, we have the flexibility to evolve our culture, our industry relationships and our investments to maximize our business and best serve customers, said CEO Andrew A. Stern. Today s announcement is the next step towards creating a highly-focused IT services business that s dedicated to providing world-class managed / availability services to our customer base, Stern noted. All of us here at Sungard AS are very excited about the prospects to accelerate our growth, and we look forward to continue partnering with our customers to deliver the business outcomes they need. Apr 2nd 5 Click here to go back to contents page

6 EMEA GVA marketing Nottingham data centre GVA Connect, has taken new instruction to market an existing 1.6 MVA data centre Nottingham Portal with the potential for expansion to 18 MVA and 70,000 sq ft of space - all of which is fully consented, a company press release reported. Director Charles Carden said Nottingham Portal data centre is just one mile from Nottingham city centre and nine miles from J24 of the M1 motorway. The site is centrally located in the UK and, having been originally developed by British Rail in the 1980s for its own IT needs, is alongside what was the British Rail National Fibre Network and as a result is extremely well connected. Phase 1 of the data centre is partly operational with customers occupying around 3,000 sq. ft. and producing an existing income stream. Three further data halls have already been created meaning that some 8,775 sq. ft. of additional technical space can be delivered with 1.6 MVA of reserved power via the site s dedicated 2MVA, 11 kv transformer. Planning consent exists to allow the existing facility to be extended to some 70,000 sq. ft. of gross space with Phase 1 having been altered to facilitate this work to go ahead with ease. Phase 2 of Nottingham Portal data centre has been designed as a high density Tier 3 facility providing an additional 35,000 sq. ft. of technical space and allowing power and cooling in N1, NN or 2N configurations to suit customer requirements. Dual 18 MVA diverse power feeds have already been surveyed and would be available within 18 months. Additional land can also be made available adjacent to the data centre site if required. Mar 27th Ghanaian government to build Accra data centre Alhassan Umar, The Director for IT Enabled Services at the Ghanaian Ministry of Communications, has confirmed to Biztechafrica that the government with support from the Rockefeller Foundation will be setting a up a massive data centre in Accra to offer technological skills to unemployed youths in the capital. This follows the Communications Ministry s receipt of financial assistance from the World Bank and most recently the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation and the World Bank announced a US$3.8 million grant to the Ghanaian government to support the establishment of world class facilities that will attract IT and IT enabled firms, including Business Process Outsourcing firms to Ghana and creates jobs for Ghanaian youth. Mr. Umar said in an interview that the project is expected to complete in the next six months. He also indicated that the facility which would be located in Accra will have the potential of accommodating corporate organizations and also offer them quality and reliable internet services. Mar 31st Johannesburg Stock Exchange launch colocation centre The Johannesburg Stock Exchange 's Colocation centre which will allow JSE clients to place their trading equipment in the JSE data centre and enable faster access to all JSE markets, is set to launch in May this year, reported Automated Trader. The JSE's Colocation centre, which will be located on the JSE premises, will provide clients with low latency connectivity for trading and the receipt of real-time data. "Clients demand faster execution speeds and exchanges need to offer these in order to compete. Aside from faster trading speeds and updates to market data which will allow for enhanced response to market movements and deployment of new trading strategies, Colocation also reduces network bandwidth requirements for clients and reduces clients' dependence on network providers thus improving trading platform resilience. Apart from the benefits to clients, colocation will open up a new revenue stream for the JSE," says Nicola Comninos, Head: Equity Market Development at the JSE. Apr 10th 6 Click here to go back to contents page

7 EMEA G.H. Financials colocates at Interxion s City of London campus European data centre and colocation provider Interxion has announced that G. H. Financials has joined Interxion s thriving financial community at its City of London data centre campus reported a Company press release. With offices in Chicago, London and Hong Kong, G. H. Financials offers market access, execution and clearing services on the major derivatives Exchanges globally. The company is one of the largest clearing members on the NYSE Liffe and ICE Europe markets. Its decision to move its European infrastructure to Interxion s data centre in London was driven by the desire to colocate next to key derivatives, ISVs and Exchange PoPs thereby providing the best possible end-to-end solution to its global customer base. By housing their infrastructure with Interxion, G. H. Financials will benefit by having access to the main derivatives Exchanges globally, as well as a complete ecosystem of market participants and providers accessing those Exchanges. Tim Hudson, CTO of G. H. Financials Ltd, commented We re excited about moving to Interxion s London campus, where we ll not only gain the agility and capacity we need to continue to expand the business, but where we ll also be able to continue to offer a secure and reliable service to our customers. Mar 26th European Commission selects HP to drive security for data sharing in the cloud HP has announced it has been selected by the European Commission to coordinate the Coco (confidential and compliant) Cloud project, which aims to ensure that users can share data in the cloud securely and privately, reported a Company press release. Aligned with the EC s latest strategy to make Europe a single market for cloud computing, Coco Cloud will provide a flexible, legally compliant framework for secure data exchange between end users and the cloud. The goal of Coco Cloud is to create a foundation for the cloud security model, said Jakub Boratynski, head of the Trust and Security Unit within DG CONNECT for the European Commission. It will help overcome regulatory and legal issues among EU countries to ensure that sensitive data is carefully controlled and always protected by context-adaptive solutions. As trust in cloud increases, so will the trust of users in cloud services, ultimately benefitting the digital economy and society in general. Led by HP, the Coco Cloud project consortium will deliver a secure, end-to-end solution that bridges data repository and user device mobile or fixed with user-defined rules for storing, sharing and accessing data. It also will enable negotiation between cloud service providers and end users to meet their needs in exploiting cloud capabilities. With HP as coordinator and integration leader, the Coco Cloud project consortium includes academic partners such as the Italian National Research Council, the University of Oslo and Imperial College London, and industrial partners such as Atos, working together to deliver complete solutions for the end users Agenzia per l Italia Digitale (AGID) and Grupo Hospitalario Quirón. Legal investigation and comparison of international policies will be conducted by University of Oslo and Bird&Bird. To simplify service delivery, lower operational risk and optimise workload across cloud providers, the Coco Cloud framework will be hosted on a secure, open, flexible HP CloudOS platform based on OpenStack technology. Coco Cloud will contribute to meeting the pervasive need for data usage protection in cloud services by overcoming the limitations of currently available technology offerings, said Xavier Poisson Gouyou Beauchamps, vice president, HP Cloud EMEA. Of the 75 research proposals submitted to the EC in the trust and security domain, this was one of only 12 to be adopted. Mar 28th Global Switch launches Amsterdam data centre expansion International data centre owner and operator, Global Switch, has launched the first phase of a planned expansion to its existing data centre in Amsterdam, which it claims is already the largest carrier neutral, multi-tenant data centre in the Netherlands. This first phase was pre-let to a leading international telecommunications services provider who is now in occupation, reported Datacentres. com. The design of the first phase, which has achieved a BREEAM-NL Data centres Very Good Design Stage certificate, provides an average power density of 1,500 watts per sq m and is built with flexibility to deliver much higher densities if required. It is supported by the latest high efficiency hybrid dry coolers which use adiabatic cooling to ensure maximum utilisation of the ambient conditions prevalent in Northern Europe with an annualised design PUE of around The extension has full access to the existing network dense low latency environment that Global Switch Amsterdam benefits from including 35 carriers, over 50 other network service providers and the AMS-IX who are all located in the data centre. The 240 million expansion will provide a total of 25,400 sq m and once all the planned phases have been completed, the campus will provide 64,000 sq m of space and lead to a planned capacity of circa 100MW of power from diverse supplies. Apr 1st 7 Click here to go back to contents page

8 EMEA South African data centre operators are expanding their portfolio Data centres in South Africa are riding a wave of opportunity as the increased availability of bandwidth, proliferation of connected devices, and regulatory compliance requirements have caused explosive growth in data loads. In particular, the need for enterprises to improve efficiency, agility and cost effectiveness in order to maintain near-100% uptime, is triggering demand for hosted, as-a-service type, solutions, PR Newswire reported. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, South African Data Centre Market, finds that the market earned revenues of US$305.8 million in 2013 and estimates this to reach US$521.7 million in It covers data centre services such as co-location, managed hosting, hosted security, Web and application hosting as well as cloud-based services. Enterprises are realising that it is critical to change their approach to conducting business and adopt new elements such as on-demand bandwidth, storage facilities, high-speed Internet and network security. However, South Africa lacks skilled manpower that can manage and maintain advanced data centre technology. Highly skilled personnel come at a premium, and some of the human resources needed has to be brought in from other countries. Therefore, companies are using third-party providers to manage specific data centre activities and achieve lower total cost of ownership. In data centres, the cloud computing segment is one of the biggest beneficiaries of growth in the corporate sector and the burgeoning of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, the uptake of cloud computing services is restrained to some extent due to issues regarding data security and control. These concerns are especially pertinent in sectors such as banking and financial services as well as the government. "Companies are increasingly segmenting their business, and consequently, view certain areas as strategic and missioncritical. They will be reluctant to transfer control of such functions to third-parties," says Frost & Sullivan ICT Industry Analyst Ishe Zingoni. "When drawing out their cloud strategies, enterprises will choose cloud models based on the sensitivity levels of their different operations." Apr 1st SSE Telecoms lights up 30 new PoPs across the UK SSE Telecoms - the UK's based provider of network infrastructure and data centre services, and part of the SSE Group - has announced that an additional 30 points of presence (PoPs), which offer up to 10Gb capacity per customer connection, are now live. Predominantly located in and around central London, but also in Birmingham, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Leeds, Slough and Windsor, these PoPs will help meet the growing demand for SSE Telecoms' high performance networking services, reported Datacentres.com. This is the latest phase of SSE Telecoms' major network expansion, dubbed Project Edge, and adds to the 24 new PoPs that went live in November All 54 PoPs are located in central business districts and provide an ever deeper presence into the UK's busiest towns and cities, bringing high performance yet affordable connectivity solutions right to the doorsteps of the UK's largest and most demanding organisations. The Project Edge investment also saw SSE Telecoms launch its LIGHTNOW service - a new high-capacity, ultra-resilient optical networking service connecting 21 of London's busiest data centres with 10Gb Ethernet wavelengths that can be provisioned within seven days. The additional PoPs that are now live as part of the latest stage of Project Edge are: London Bishopsgate, London Covent Garden, London Faraday, London Poplar, London Mayfair, London Southbank, London Bloomsbury, London Whitehall, London Soho, London South Kensington, London Euston, London Pimlico, London Fulham, London Kings Cross, London Marylebone, London North Paddington, London Hammersmith, London Chiswick, London Shoreditch, London Westminster, London Kensington Gardens, Slough, Windsor, Birmingham, Cambridge (x2), Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Leeds. Apr 4th 8 Click here to go back to contents page

9 EMEA Cambridge data centre powers up A new data centre campus in Cambridgeshire has been given the go-ahead for construction, following approval from planners for a new on-site primary electricity substation and 4,020 sq m of technical (white) space, reported Datacentres.com. The development, by Lasercharm, has been specifically designed to utilize the new generation of highly efficient ambient air-cooled modular data centres. With planning consent secured these centres are capable of being rapidly deployed in this discreet and secure campus location, which is close to Cambridge and just an hour from London and the UK s major economic centres. The plans form the first phase of the 65,000 sq m 40 acre campus with the ability to implement flexible and scalable solutions, supported by significant renewable power sources, for a range of major enterprise and tech giants in Cambridge s Silicon Fen technology hotspot. The on-site substation will initially energize Camro with a 33kv 6MVA supply dedicated to support the first phase of development, out of a total 25MVA contracted provision agreed with UK Power Networks. Options also exist for more than 50MW of direct renewable and low carbon power, delivered through an adjacent 50 acre site suitable for a solar array or fuel cells and an on-site Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Energy Centre with outline planning consent or from a major Biomass Power Station at Ely. Located in Sutton to the north of Cambridge, the scheme offers the advantage of major fibre networks to link the US and mainland Europe without routing via London as well as the usual diverse routes to the UK Capital. Apr 8th New Northern Ireland data centre planned The main economic development agency charged with growing the Northern Ireland economy, Invest NI ha said that it is trying to develop a proposal for a 50 million private sector data centre promoted by the Londonderry One Plan. The agency has said that it will work with local stakeholders to try to develop a proposal for such a facility, according to the Londonderry Sentinel. Foyle SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood asked the Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster for her views on the proposal by way of an Assembly Question. She replied: As detailed in the One Plan itself, the opportunity and challenge is over a timeframe of 2-3 years with a funding requirement of around 50 million coming from the private sector. She said that Northern Ireland currently does not have a significant or large scale colocation data centre. Foster also said that all major websites of Northern Ireland organisations are hosted via larger data centres in Dublin or Great Britain. The Investment Minister continued: Invest NI will continue to work with stakeholders to develop the local proposition and strengthen the ICT sector opportunity and encourage private sector Data Centre providers to consider suitable locations across Northern Ireland. Apr 8th UK Cabinet Office outlines Crown Hosting Service An information notice published in the Official Journal of the European Union has outlined how the UK Cabinet Office has started the procurement for the new Crown Hosting Service, which is intended to consolidate much of the data centre hosting currently in use across central government. According to the notice, the Government Digital Service (GDS) will aggregate government demand and source IT facilities and infrastructure services from suppliers,. The CHS will access smaller, pragmatic solutions and leverage the market to allow government to use more agile, efficient and better value-for-money commodity services, it said. The notice describes the requirements for a contract worth up to 70 million to support multiple data centres, initially with sufficient rack space to host up to 550 1U-sized servers, using suitable physical facilities with appropriate energy sources, cooling, connectivity and security, reported Computer Weekly. The notice does not yet invite suppliers to bid, but instead starts a process of discussion with the market to establish the most appropriate commercial models and contracting terms to deliver best value. The notice said The scale of the proposed services is being determined through ongoing discussions with Departments and Executive Agencies. However, scalability will be a prerequisite of future demand and all suppliers should be able to provide capability above and beyond the initial requirements. The initial scope of the service will be to cover non-cloud requirements, relating to the creation of a non-cloud hosting services capability including the provision, installation, maintenance and operation of IT systems; data centre LAN services; data centre interconnectivity and the provision of data centre facilities and equipment from at least two separate locations and available in multiple regions. Future requirements include provision of at least four regional data centres with capacity for 3,750 1U servers, and further support for cloud-ready services. GDS remains committed to HM government's cloud-first policy. All new applications are expected to be cloudready. CHS will service existing HM government estate that cannot or has yet to migrate to the cloud, said the notice. Apr 10th 9

10 EMEA C4L signs threeyear deal with Pulsant Pulsant, the cloud computing, managed hosting and colocation expert, has announced long-term client C4L has renewed its contract with the company by signing a three-year deal. C4L is a provider of colocation, connectivity, cloud and communications and currently has a large footprint within Pulsant's Maidenhead data facility, a Company press release reported. The company has been a client for four years and in that time has added to the services that Pulsant provides, initially making use of the Maidenhead campus before expanding to Pulsant's Milton Keynes facility. These services include colocation, power supply and connectivity along three wavelengths between sites in Maidenhead, Milton Keynes and London. "We have a significant presence in Maidenhead with a number of racks there, and we host several of our clients at this campus," says Simon Mewett, CEO, C4L. "By committing to a new three-year deal we are, in effect, committing to the Maidenhead site. It offers us a cost-effective destination outside of London, with excellent connectivity between the site and the city with low latency. It is also an excellent disaster recovery facility to support our other sites. "The recent multi-million pound investment that Pulsant has put into the Maidenhead upgrade has made the latest technology available to us and enables us to pass those benefits onto our clients." Upgrades to the Maidenhead campus include electrical and mechanical improvements, enhanced connectivity into and out of the facility, and an expansion of the company's risk management framework. A new UPS - uninterruptible power supplies - architecture, new plant rooms for the devices, separate LV and UPS switch rooms, and a new area to house the UPS batteries have been built. This ensures that Pulsant is providing an N+1 redundant power supply to all racks with single and dual fed supplies from new distribution points up to 6kw. Apr 3rd London Gateway data centre claims high levels of connectivity Unknown to the majority of the data centre community, London s new Gateway Data Centre in London s West Thurrock sits on top of a massive level of Internet connectivity, a Company press release reported. The Thurrock area is thought by many in the industry to be provided only by four carriers: BT, KPN, Cable & Wireless (now Vodafone) and Colt Telecom. However, the new 50MVA Gateway data centre sits a mere 20 metres from Fujitsu s data centre and their 6,000 km UK national fibre backbone. The network gives direct connectivity through a diverse routed figure of 8 diverse network through Birmingham and Leicester to Manchester, Southport and Leeds. This ensures that direct low-latency access can be immediately available (subject to contracts) to some 400 Tier-1 and Tier-2 Carriers via London s Telecity (Harbour Exchange), Telecity (London East) plus Global Switch (London East). The network also gives direct access to peering exchanges LINX and LoNAP plus easy connection to AMSIX and NLix. High levels of network security are also available with all Fujitsu routes being classified for either IL3 or IL2 and suitable for a variety of financial, government and military uses. Announcing the connectivity research Charles Carden, a director of GVA Connect (the data centre specialist division of property agents GVA), said: Not only are the connectivity options for the new Gateway data centre superb, we believe from our research that a number of further carriers are considering fibre digs into the area, which is earmarked to become the London East data centre hub, over the coming years. Diverse dark fibre routes are possible to The City of London, London s financial centre, and estimated to have round-trip latency of just 0.19 to 0.2 milliseconds. The availability of BT, Colt, KPN and Cable & Wireless plus Fujitsu s IL-3 and IL-2 secure IP transit network gives access to some 400 possible carriers and High Density Computing capabilities (thanks to the 50MVA power potential) mean that The Gateway Data Centre is now demonstrated to be one of the most capable sites currently available. The Gateway facility is located close to the M25 London Orbital motorway and with easy physical and electronic access to the UK s financial centres in The City and London Docklands. Gateway Data Centre consists of a 2.3 hectare site designed to have 8,000 sq m (86,000 sq. ft.) of white space with a gross internal floor area of 19,500 sq m (210,000 sq ft). With up to 50MVA of power potentially available, the Gateway Data Centre is ideal for high density as well as normal density computing uses and is only a few kilometres away from the New York Stock Exchange s disaster recovery and European Hub data centre in Basildon. Apr 8th 10

11 EMEA Fastweb invests in new Milan and Rome data centres The Italian ICT provider, Italian operator Fastweb has announced that it plans to invest 25 million in two new data centres, in Milan and near Rome, reported Telecom Paper. The facilities will host ICT and cloud services for Fastweb enterprise customers. Work on the facility in Milan is already underway with completion set for later this year whilst the Rome data centre should be completed in Apr 10th Six Degrees Group pops into Volta data centre Volta Data Centres, the specialist provider of data centres to the financial, media and content industries, has announced that 6DG, a provider of integrated data managed services, has added a Central London PoP at Volta s Great Sutton Street data centre, to expand the coverage of its 6DG Datahop network, reported Company press release. The 6DG core network of data centre locations, virtualised servers and major network operators offers its clients a fully integrated and resilient range of cloud hosting, managed data services, data centre, connectivity and voice services. The addition of a PoP at Volta s facility, which is one of the most resilient and well-connected data centres in Central London, will provide 6DG customers with further choice when building their business architecture. Campbell Williams, Group Strategy & Marketing Director, 6DG, said: "Our partnership with Volta, London s first major carrier neutral data centre in a decade, marks a significant step in managed services. Our unique network infrastructure will enable Volta to offer the capacity, bandwidth resilience and reach of the 6DG network to its customers and will be a welcome addition to our PoPs network in London. It is our ability to link people, places and clouds that drives this relationship with Volta and we are confident that the flexibility and capabilities we can offer together will match their needs in the market. Apr 16th Claranet acquires NovaData Managed services providers Claranet, has acquired Dutch cloud services provider NovaData, as part of its continued expansion across Western Europe, creating the largest cloud services provider to the mid-market in the region. The acquisition of NovaData, which has annual revenues of 7 million ( 5.7 million), strengthens Claranet s position as the leading provider of managed hosting and application management services in The Netherlands, reported Datacentres.com. Founded in 2008 and located in Eindhoven, NovaData is an IT services firm focused on mid-sized and large businesses and institutions. With a range of services that broaden and complement Claranet s existing portfolio, NovaData is a natural partner for Claranet. It means that ccustomers in the region will benefit from the expertise of both companies and from a combined and expanded services portfolio. NovaData s customer base comes from a wide range of industry sectors such as healthcare, business services and manufacturing. Recently, Clarnet has seen an intense period of rapid growth, with NovaData the latest in a wave of acquisitions made by the company over the last 18 months with Star in the UK, Typhon in France, Echiron in Portugal and Grita in France. Charles Nasser, CEO of the Claranet Group, commented The acquisition is part of Claranet s overall growth strategy, allowing us to expand our teams and our service offerings rapidly. NovaData is the third acquisition we ve made in 2014 which confirms our ambition to become the leading independent provider of managed services in Europe. Already a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for European Managed Hosting, the acquisition of Novadata strengthens now positions Claranet as one of the leading providers our for managed hosting and managed applications portfolio in The Netherlands. As a result of this latest acquisition, the Claranet Group will have annual revenues in excess of 160 million ( 135 million), circa 800 employees, over 4,500 customers and operations in 6 European countries (France, UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal). Apr 22nd 11

12 EMEA Equinix, Vancis and Nikhef boost Amsterdam network connectivity Global data centre provider, Equinix, Vancis, a Dutch provider of ICT services, and Nikhef, the National Institute for Subatomic Physics, have announced they have joined infrastructure to deliver enhanced network connectivity to businesses in the Amsterdam Science Park, a Company press release reported. The collaboration provides new opportunities for customers to expand their data centre footprint, and access to cloud providers such as Cloudsigma, Virtustream, Carrenza and Redbee and networks including Box, Joyent, Syniverse, FireHost and AMS-IX already present in Equinix s business ecosystems in Amsterdam. Access to Nikhef and Vancis is immediately available for Equinix customers in AM3 Science Park. Equinix has established direct connections to the Nikhef and Vancis (SURFsara) carrier hotels from its AM3 data centre which will allow clients to directly connect to more than 250 international networks, reinforcing the Amsterdam campus as one of the most network-dense locations worldwide. Vancis and Nikhef have had a historic presence in Amsterdam, having established the first internet connectivity point in the Netherlands. Today, businesses throughout the region continue to utilize this infrastructure and network connectivity. The new partnership follows a series of acquisitions and investments by Equinix in 2013 that added over 75 new carriers including many in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Platform Equinix now provides access to more than 975 network service providers globally that allow customers to exchange traffic cost-efficiently, securely and with superior performance. The enhanced network density within Europe will also form the future base for the Equinix Performance Hub, which uniquely combines elements of data centres, networking infrastructure and connectivity, and cloud computing access to improve application performance and deliver a globally consistent quality experience to end-users that will be available in the region later this year. Apr 11th Zen Internet increases data centre capacity The UK independent Internet Service Provider, Zen Internet, has completed the next phase of its North West Data Centre - which is located off the M62 - due to increasing customer demand for its hosting services, reported Datacentres.com. Zen s Data Centre has gone from strength to strength since its opening 18 months ago and capacity is such that the first phase is now full. The data centre now comprises of 8 halls. Planning for further expansion is already underway and will eventually deliver a further two halls. This expansion forms part of Zen s 4 million investment in its data centre. Other investments have included two state of the art Diesel Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supplies (DRUPS) that provide a greener standby power solution. The Data Centre expansion forms part of Zen s continuous infrastructure development which also includes significant investment in major developments of its next generation network. Over 3.5m has been made in Zen s core infrastructure to build a network of local exchange Points of Presence (PoPs). Zen s 200 PoPs plus another 270 exchange locations will enable it to provide services to at least 6 million UK premises. A survey conducted by Zen of North West businesses reported that more than a quarter of respondents aim to increase the capacity they take in a third-party data centre in the next six months, which is why Zen is continuing to invest in its Data Centre. As the cloud computing trend continues to gather momentum and businesses are increasingly reliant on IT systems to function, it has never been more important to ensure that a company s mission critical applications are hosted in a dedicated, energy efficient data centre, said Richard Tang, Managing Director. Zen s mission is to provide the best ISP service in the UK and translating our mission into action requires us to continually improve every aspect of what we do. Demand for hosting services is growing, and we believe our customers deserve the best. This investment allows us to provide exactly that, added Richard. Apr 23rd Naglotech chooses City Lifeline data centre for secure operations Information technology consultancy, Naglotech, has chosen central London data centre, City Lifeline to operate its high security managed IT operations within an ISO27001 environment, SYS CON reported. As a company that specialises in providing fast, reliable internet solutions, outsourcing and bespoke IT developments for highprofile brands, physical and information security are of the utmost importance to Naglotech. Naglotech researched and visited several facilities but City Lifeline's data centre in central London emerged as the company's first choice. "It's important for our customers to have diverse operations, with only a part of those being in Docklands" explains Andy Booth at Naglotech. "We work with some of the country's most well-known and prestigious brands and our security arrangements, both physical and for data, are frequently put to the test. Information security is now a central part of every tender process when we pitch for new business. A resilient data centre with good security and ISO27001 certification really is key and, for us, that means the City Lifeline data centre. Apr 17th 12

13 Americas Interxion speeds up data centre delivery The European data centre provider, Interxion has announced that in response to customer orders; it is accelerating the completion of 7,200 sq m of equipped space in its AMS 7 data centre in Amsterdam and expanding customer available power to 15 MW. Interxion also announced that it is accelerating completion of FRA 8, its 3,600 sq m data centre in Frankfurt, reported Datacentres.com. As a result of customer orders, Interxion is increasing its 2014 annual capital expenditure guidance to 175 million million. Approximately 70% of Interxion s capital expenditure for 2014 will be dedicated to satisfying signed customer contracts. In order to support its updated capital expenditure plan, Interxion also announced it has entered into a new 100 million senior secured credit facility. The new credit facility has an initial maturity date of April 14, 2015 with options to extend for 12 additional months. The strong bookings momentum that we experienced in the fourth quarter of 2013 has continued into 2014, as cloud infrastructure providers continue to commit resources to prepare for European enterprise cloud migration. The increased financial flexibility gained from our newly signed credit facility positions Interxion to capture additional growth opportunities as a result of these positive industry trends. Consistent with our strategy to prudently align investment with customer demand, we are accelerating and expanding construction of AMS 7 and FRA 8 in response to committed customer orders, said David Ruberg, Interxion Chief Executive Officer. In Amsterdam, Interxion will accelerate completion of the AMS 7 construction by adding two phases totalling approximately 2,600 sq m of equipped space and approximately 6 MW of customer available power to the four previously announced phases. The first phase of AMS 7 (AMS 7.1), with approximately 1,000 sq m and 1.5 MW of customer available power, opened in the first quarter of The remaining five phases are scheduled to open from 3Q 2014 through 2Q The capital expenditure associated with the complete build out of all six phases of AMS 7 is expected to be approximately 115 million. In Frankfurt, Interxion will accelerate the completion of the two remaining phases of FRA 8 (four phases in total), with the two remaining phases expected to provide a total of approximately 1,800 sq m. Both remaining phases are scheduled to open in the first half of The schedule for the first two 900 sq m phases is unchanged, with openings scheduled to take place in the second and fourth quarters of 2014, respectively. FRA 8 will provide approximately 6 MW of customer available power when fully constructed. The capital expenditure associated with constructing all four phases of FRA 8 is expected to be approximately 67 million. Apr 23rd Strong demand for MigSolv s new Hybrid Data Centre MigSolv, the specialist data centre consultancy and data centre operator, has revealed that there has been strong demand for their new Hybrid Data Centre or HDC which offers on demand, scalable, data centre space. The new offering was developed for customers that can no longer fit into the traditional colocation model where a single rack offers a set amount of power or the wholesale model where everything is built to a specification but takes 6-9 months to deliver. The number of enquiries has risen steeply as customers have become aware of the HDC. The HDC allows organisations to decide on the model, space and power required then have this delivered in days or just weeks; providing the flexibility of wholesale data centres with the service levels of colocation, a company press release reported. Alex Rabbetts, CEO MigSolv said: In this past recession prudent businesses explored ways to retain a streamlined and cost efficient approach. As a result, outsourcing to managed data centre services has been one of the few areas that have been bringing business benefit through colocation, connectivity and continuity. However, wholesale customers have lost out due to long lead times and a requirement to commit large sums of capital up front. The MigSolv Hybrid Data Centre delivers a wholesale data centre with shorter lead times, lower capital cost and a service normally only offered through colocation. The HDC offers a speed of delivery and flexibility that is simply not achievable with a traditional wholesale model and is delivered with lower costs, continued Rabbetts. What we are offering is fast and flexible facilities for customers that have a short term need for wholesale space. Apr 17th 13

14 Americas Study finds most organisations have an outdated data centre With the rise of mobile and cloud computing, most organizations lack the IT infrastructure needed to respond quickly to front office and customer needs, according to a new study by Softchoice, a North American technology solution and services provider, and VMware, the virtualization software company. The study also reveals a significant competitive gap between organizations with an agile, efficient IT infrastructure and those without, reported a Company press release. "With cloud and mobile's enterprise footprint expanding, more front office workers are empowered to choose their own technology and apps," says Doug Sekus, Softchoice's Director of Business Development, Datacenter. "We've found most organizations' outdated data centres are struggling to keep up with employees' and clients' growing demands." In The Virtual Space Race: How IT with 'The Right Stuff' creates a competitive advantage, Softchoice and VMware surveyed IT managers and line-of-business managers in the U.S. to examine their expectations around IT department responsiveness and IT infrastructure agility. Some highlights include: IT departments with the right infrastructure are 4x more likely to deploy new applications within one business week compared to those that don't 58% of organizations take over a month to deploy new applications 61% of organizations still virtualize less than half of their IT environments 46% of organizations still have no hybrid cloud capabilities The study confirms that IT departments with sufficient infrastructure are far more likely to be viewed as strategic partners by the rest of their organization. Their ability to quickly deploy and manage apps, on and off premises, gives them a competitive advantage and gets them to market quicker. "Organizations with IT infrastructure that is highly virtualized, highly automated, and that supports software-defined solutions can implement new processes faster, respond to employee needs quicker, and focus more time on growth and innovation," Sekus says. "Leveraging new technology to go to market faster is the new, virtual space race and organizations with the right IT infrastructure are winning the race." Mar 28th Underground Montgomery data centre set for expansion A data centre which was formerly a nuclear bomb shelter in Montgomery Alabama is set to triple in size. The Westland Bunker has partnered with Houston-based Evolve Data Center Solutions to undertake the work. The companies will break ground on the expansion shortly on the facility which is located at 550 Club Drive in Montgomery, near ighway 105 west of Conroe, the Houston Business Journal reported. Evolve designed and will build the facility. The expansion will be 105,000 sq ft with 12 megawatts of power, bringing the Westland campus to a total of 143,000 sq ft of data centre space. Completion is expected by early next year. Apr 11th QTS plans major Atlanta expansion The Kansas based data centre developer Quality Technology Services has been outlining its ambitious plans for future expansion within the Atlanta market. The company s Vice President and General Manager Butch Goldi told the Atlanta Business Chronicle that QTS is planning to develop a new data centre near downtown Atlanta in the next couple of years. The server farm could include up to 100,000 sq ft of raised floor space. Prior to that however, QTS will invest about US$150 million to add about 235,000 sq ft of raised floor space at its current Atlanta server farm near downtown, referred to as Atlanta-Metro. The nearly 1 million sq ft building, was a former Sears warehouse, is considered to be among the world s largest data centres. QTS downtown data centre expansion is fuelled by customer demand and the power infrastructure already built at the site, QTS Vice President and General Manager Butch Goldi said. Demand for data centre space in Atlanta is growing 20% to 30% a year, QTS, meanwhile, also says it wants to expand its footprint in the northeast Atlanta suburb of Suwanee. The company has acquired about 21-acres adjacent to its 200,000 sq ft Suwanee data centre. The Atlanta-Metro data centre will be expanded in multiple phases. Plans call for building out about 100,000 sq ft of raised floor space. Further down the road, an additional 134,000 sq ft of raised floor would be added. The proposed new data centres would be built on six acres of undeveloped land, owned by QTS, adjacent to Atlanta-Metro. That expansion would not happen until at least 2016, Goldi said. Just before last Christmas, QTS has announced that one of the world's largest Internet-based companies had expanded its presence in their Atlanta-Metro data centre adding five megawatts of power and additional space in excess of 25,000 sq ft starting in Mar 28th 14

15 Americas Equinix opens fifth Dallas data centre Equinix, the global interconnection and data centre company, has announced that its fifth International Business Exchange in Dallas is fully operational. The newest data centre, called DA6, will support growing demand for Platform Equinix in the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area, one of Equinix's most network-dense locations, reported Datacentres.com. Equinix invested over US$34 million in the first phase of the DA6 data centre which includes space, power, and cooling for 450 cabinets. Future expansion phases of DA6 will accommodate 900 additional cabinets for a total of over 82,000 sq ft of usable colocation space. With the addition of DA6 at full build, Equinix's total Dallas footprint will exceed 230,000 sq ft dispersed over five data centres. Four of Equinix's five Dallas data centres are located within the Dallas Infomart, a 1.6 million sq ft building with multiple diverse fibre entry points into the building. Equinix, the largest colocation tenant in the Infomart, has the only private freight elevator in Infomart, greatly easing customer equipment moves. Equinix is now comprised of 100 data centres globally in 32 markets across 15 countries in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific. By locating in an Equinix IBX data centre, companies gain access to business ecosystems for the cloud, content, financial, mobile, and networking industries. Customers significantly lower costs, improve application performance and simplify their data centre deployments. Apr 1st Primary Integration wins Continuum Data Centers contract Chicago colocation solutions provider Continuum Data Centers has selected Primary Integration to commission Phase 1 of its new 80,000 sq ft colocation data centres. When fully complete, the purpose built, high density Tier III+ facility will offer fully redundant A/B critical load power with future plans of up to 48 MW of total power capacity on approximately 20 acres. The hardened facility includes Kevlar and steel mesh lined concrete walls able to withstand winds in excess of 100 mph. Cooling is provided using highly efficient, high density cooling solutions. The facility has applied for Open-IX Data Center Certification, providing an open and cost-effective Internet Exchange and Interconnection platform, reported PR Web. The facility is located far from urban environments and traditional threat zones. Situated 5 miles from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange s Aurora colocation facility and neighbouring Fermilab, the U.S. Department of Energy advanced research institution, the region has been vetted for disaster and risk mitigation. When completed in mid-2014, the facility will offer private suites, custom private cages as well full cabinet colocation. Apr 3rd Digital Realty partners with Nimbix on cloudbased solution for Oil & Gas Digital Realty Trust, the global data centre and colocation company, has announced that its Dallas and Houston facilities are housing and enabling an enterprise high-performance computing cloud solution from Nimbix. The two companies have established this alliance to offer specialized HPC solutions to clients in the oil and gas industry, reported PR Newswire. HPC cloud solutions are an alternative to legacy IT infrastructures because they are faster to deploy, easily scale to uses and business cycles, and require less capital and operating investment. The enterprise HPC-as-a-Service solution from Nimbix, powered by its innovative JARVICE cloud platform, frees companies from having to manage HPC environments and resources. Oil and gas companies use HPC to more rapidly analyze large amounts of geological data, thereby enabling these organizations to make more efficient and effective operational decisions. Digital Realty has an extensive global footprint of data centres, including facilities in Houston, Austin, and Dallas, Texas. The HPC Cloud solution from Nimbix can support any industry requiring complex computing, including energy, finance, and healthcare. Apr 9th 15

16 Americas KKR buys into Brazilian data centre market The US based investment firm KKR has annocued its first direct investment in Brazil via the acquisition of Brazilian data centre company Aceco TI from General Atlantic and other shareholders. Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed, reported Datacentres.com. KKR is making its investment in partnership with Chief Executive Officer Jorge Nitzan who will hold a significant minority stake in the company and continue to run the business as CEO. Founded in 1972, Aceco provides customised data centre solutions. Aceco s clients include a large variety of private sector and public sector clients who trust Aceco to support them for mission-critical projects. The Company has built more than 750 data centres in Brazil and Latin America and more than 400 integrated command and control centers throughout its history and today has 90 data centres under construction. With a dedicated team working 24 hours a day / 7 days a week, Aceco currently maintains approximately 220 data centres. One of its many current projects includes the installation of data centers and command and control centers for the 12 cities hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup BrazilTM. Aceco TI Chief Executive Officer Jorge Nitzan said, "Our clients depend on secure, reliable data centers and we have a demonstrated track record of being able to provide high performance and customized end to end' solutions. With the increased number of internet users, digital information and the use of cloud computing, the demand for data centers has and will continue to increase. Together with KKR as a longterm partner, we will continue to meet this demand for more customers throughout Latin America. Apr 2nd CyrusOne begins construction on new data centre in Northern Virginia Global data centre services provider CyrusOne is set to break ground shortly on a new enterprise-class multi-tenant data centre it recently purchased in the Loudoun Tech Center in Sterling, Virginia, reported Datacentres.com. We re very excited to expand our footprint to Northern Virginia in order to meet existing customer demand for space in the region. In addition, this new data centre will enable us to more effectively serve our growing customer base on the East Coast. We look forward to providing our enterprise colocation solutions to Fortune 1000 customers in this sizeable market, said Tesh Durvasula, Chief Commercial Officer of CyrusOne. Northern Virginia is home to one of the world s largest clusters of data centre real estate, and an estimated 70% of Internet traffic passes through Loudoun County. The 14 acres that CyrusOne has purchased is expected to accommodate a shell of approximately 400,000 sq ft at full build, with up to 240,000 sq ft of raised floor space, 36,000 sq ft of Class A office space, and up to 48 megawatts of critical load. CyrusOne plans to use its Massively Modular design engineering approach to optimize materials sourcing and enable delivery of industry-leading energy optimization and just-in-time data hall inventory to meet customer demand. The first phase of construction includes a 124,000-sq ft shell with 60,000 sq ft of raised floor space, 15,000 sq ft of office space, and 12 megawatts of critical load. CyrusOne expects the first phase of the new site to be completed in October. Apr 9th CNT builds data centres in Ecuador Two new data centres are under construction in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador. The state owned National Telecommunications Corporation (CNT) are building the facilities which when completed will have involved a reported investment of some US$ 36 million, reported Telecom Paper. CNT are building the facilities to expand their portfolio of services that they want to offer to customers as well as ensuring the availability of existing services The Quito data centre should be operational in August, while the facility in Guayaquil is set to be ready in September. Apr 15th Alog invests in expanding its Brazilian operation The Brazilian data centre company, Alog which is largely owned by Equinix, is set to invest approximately U.S. $ 1 million in São Paulo and in the South and Northeast regions of Brazil, reported Computerworld. The investment will be focused on hiring of employees, training and signing new partnerships. The company is looking to attract new customers as well as providing improved proximity to current customers of these regions. Apr 16th 16

17 Americas T5 Data Centers filling up Dallas campus US data centre developer, T5 Data Centers has announced that three of the four independent data centres housed in its facility have already been leased, indicating the high demand for data centres in the Dallas market. To meet data centre demand, T5 has commenced interior build-out of the 70,000 sq ft Texas4 facility within the wholesale data centre campus. Demand also will drive further expansion with future phases, reported PR Web. The facility currently houses four independent data centres named Texas1, Texas2, Texas3, and Texas4, with plans for additional expansion. There is no shared infrastructure between the four data centres, so T5 clients have complete control of their data environment, including redundant, dedicated primary utility feeds, and dedicated electrical and mechanical plants for each data centre. Texas4 is housed inside the wholesale data centre facility, a purpose-built, 315,000 sq ft building on a 20-acre site located in Legacy Business Park in Plano,. Texas4 is the remaining data centre, available soon with 40,000 sq ft of raised floor space and 4.5 MW of critical power available, expandable to 6.0 MW. T5@Dallas is one of seven T5 Data Center locations situated at strategic locations across the United States. Each data centre is purpose-built and customers have total control of their dedicated data hall. Apr 9th Data Foundry starts new Houston data centre Austin-based Data Foundry a provider of global colocation, disaster recovery and managed service, is set to break ground shortly on it second Houston area data centre facility, reported Datacentres.com. The company announced last September that it has purchased 18 acres of land for its Houston data centre campus. The campus which is located at Greens Crossing Boulevard, near Interstate 45 and the Beltway - will feature 350,000 sq ft of data centre space with 60 megawatts of power capability. The flexible design of Houston 2 will support customers from a single cabinet up to multimegawatt deployments. Houston 2 offers customers access to 60,000 sq ft of dedicated office space for disaster recovery or other onsite needs for their mission critical personnel. Data Foundry also owns and operates two data centres in Austin and offers a suite of global colocation and managed services in data centres located in Ashburn, Virginia., Los Angeles, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Texas 1, Data Foundry's flagship data centre in Austin, was the first purpose-built, carrier-neutral data centre ever constructed in the Central Texas region. Central Texas' strength as a technology hub and the demand for premium data centre services available in Texas 1 have resulted in strong business growth and momentum for the company. Apr 9th Microsoft teams with UTSA on data centre sustainability research The Redmond, Washington headquartered technology giant, Microsoft has teamed up with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) on a three-year agreement to research and develop sustainable technologies to make data centres more energy efficient and economically viable, onwindows.com reported. In addition to the research agreement, Microsoft made a US$1 million gift to UTSA to support the university's research and technology programs. "Our objective is to bring together technology, economics and commercialization to create a smart intelligent energy system," said C. Mauli Agrawal, UTSA vice president for research. "We want to identify economically viable technologies that will reduce the environmental footprint of data centres." The multi-disciplinary research will focus on expanding business opportunities for new distributed energy technology that reduces energy consumption and emissions, improves reliability and contributes to a sustainable energy future. Microsoft is investing US$250 million in a new 256,000 sq ft data centre next door to its existing 427,000 sq ft facility in San Antonio. To have more control over the needed energy supply for the data centre, the tech giant is working to address not only how electricity is used and distributed inside data centres but also how consumption of electricity impacts the broader grid. Working with UTSA on energy solutions will enable the company to expand its commitment to optimizing for efficiency inside the facility, as well as its global data centre portfolio. Additional benefits will be realized in integrating and investing in driving greater sustainability and scalable efficiencies in the broader energy supply chain. "Distributed generation represents a major shift in the energy sector that will dramatically change how data centres operate," said Brian Janous, director of energy strategy at Microsoft. "The leadership of the Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute at UTSA and the city of San Antonio were instrumental in bringing this research to a community like San Antonio." Apr 22nd 17

18 Americas CyrusOne adds data halls at Houston West data centre CyrusOne has recently expanded its Houston West II data centre, adding 42,000 sq ft and 6 megawatts of power capacity. The facility has a total footprint of 160,000 sq ft with the ability to hold up to 18 megawatts of critical capacity at full build. The Houston West data centre campus is the largest and first geophysical centre of excellence for seismic exploration computing, a Company press release reported. Our decision to add 42,000 sq ft and 6MW of critical power was driven by strong customer demand for data centre space in a campus capable of delivering superior performance and the ability to support high density compute environments," said John Hatem, senior vice president, design and construction, CyrusOne. CyrusOne's Houston West II data centre is located 20 minutes west of downtown Houston. It is strategically positioned with access to significant and redundant utility power feeds, and access to one of the fastest and most reliable telecommunications networks, as it is located along a major fibre corridor in Houston. In addition to the Houston West II facility, CyrusOne broke ground in March for its Houston West III data centre which, upon completion, will include 428,000 sq ft of raised floor capacity, 86,000 sq ft of class A office space, and up to 96 megawatts (MW) of critical load. This third facility serves to increase data centre capacity available at the Houston West campus to more than 1 million sq ft. Apr 17th CyrusOne expands Carrollton data centre Global colocation solutions provider CyrusOne has recently expanded its Carrollton data centre, starting construction on the addition of 60,000 sq ft and 6 megawatts of power capacity. The largest facility of its kind in the state and one of the most energy-efficient in the United States, at full capacity, the Carrollton data centre is expected to have 400,000 sq ft of raised-floor data centre space, approximately 60,000 sq ft of Class A office space, and up to 80 megawatts of power capacity at full build, a Company press release reported. Due to strong customer demand for our data centre product offering, we made the decision to add 60,000 sq ft of colocation space with 6MW of critical capacity to this facility, said John Hatem, senior vice president, design and construction, CyrusOne. As one of our largest facilities, the Carrollton location illustrates our Massively Modular engineering and design philosophy. We can quickly scale our data centre footprint to meet the requirements of our customers to handle their growing mission-critical production and disaster recovery needs. The Carrollton expansion follows the news that CyrusOne recently expanded its Houston West II data centre, adding 42,000 sq ft and 6 megawatts of power capacity. Apr 22nd Microsoft confirms US1.3 billion data centre The Redmond, Washington headquartered technology giant, Microsoft has confirmed that it is the company behind Project Alluvion, a major new data centre in Iowa. The company announced on Friday that it intends to phase in a US$1.13 billion regional data centre over the next four to five years, reported Datacentres.com. Microsoft will receive local and state incentives totalling some US$87 million to locate the facility in West Des Moines, with the creation of up to 94 jobs. This is a huge day for all of us, said West Des Moines Mayor Steve Gaer, who noted the project will generate US$8.2 million in yearly property taxes for the city, Polk County and local schools and attract spin-off companies and suppliers that will mean more jobs and tax revenue in the future. It really sets up central Iowa as the leading technology centre in the United States, he said. Apr 22nd Apple taking over Central Oregon hydro project Apple, the global technology giant, has reportedly bought a renewable energy power plant in Oregon near the company s new data centre in Prineville - as it continues to drive forward its commitment to make all its data centres powered entirely with renewable energy. Local media sources say that Apple has taken over a small hydroelectric project at a Central Oregon site. Company spokesman Chris Gaither tells The Bulletin newspaper that Apple will not comment specifically on the deal, but it has made running its facilities on renewable power a priority. The 45-Mile Hydroelectric Project was first proposed in 2010 by EBD Hydro of Bend. EBD Hydro estimated the project would generate 3 to 3.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 2,100 to 2,450 homes. Apr 14th 18

19 Americas Google powers Council Bluffs Iowa data centre with wind Google and MidAmerican Energy have announced an agreement for MidAmerican Energy to supply Google s Council Bluffs, Iowa data centre with up to 407 megawatts of wind-sourced energy. The wind power will come from several wind projects that are part of MidAmerican Energy s Wind VIII program, an initiative under which MidAmerican Energy will bring 1,050 megawatts of new Iowa wind power online by the end of This agreement fully supplies the first phase of Google s facilities in Council Bluffs with 100% renewable wind energy, bundled with and tracked by renewable energy certificates, and will allow additional phases to be supplied with wind-sourced energy as the company grows in Iowa, reported Datacentres.com. Google has been working with MidAmerican Energy to procure additional renewable resources since the construction of Google s data centre in Iowa in 2007, and when MidAmerican Energy filed for approval for Wind VIII it had companies like Google in mind as customers. At Google, we pursue a variety of approaches to power our operations with renewable energy, said Gary Demasi, Google s Director of Global Infrastructure. One great way to do this is by working with our utility partners like MidAmerican Energy, and we hope this agreement will inspire all of our utilities to work with us in finding ways to increase the supply of clean power. This agreement represents Google s sixth and largest renewable energy purchase to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy Google has contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts). Apr 23rd 19

20 Asia/Pacific SAP to open Sydney data centre The German headquartered software firm, SAP is set to open of its first major Australian data centre later this week. The company has signed a colocation agreement with a "mainstream data centre provider for colocation space at a major Sydney facility. SAP s Australian general manager of platform solutions, Paul Muller declined to name the facility or provider saying it was subject to a non-disclosure agreement. The facility which represents the expansion of SAP s global data centre strategy into the Asia Pacific region will also provide access to SAP s HANA enterprise cloud offering for Australian clients. Muller told ITNews that SAP is already looking to other Australian urban centres for a lease in a second colocated facility, which it expects to announce before the end of the year ideally by September. We know that before long our customers will start to come to us asking about their disaster recovery options, and many will be looking at having these in different locations, Muller said. So we are currently reviewing a second facility. Apr 2nd Coca-Cola Amatil signs IBM cloud deal Coca-Cola Amatil has signed a five-year deal with tech giant IBM for the creation of a socalled private cloud computing environment, to enable it to automate its core technology operations across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. The deal marks a major change to the way CCA manages its core systems, as it looks to bring its significant Indonesian operations on to the same footing as Australia. CCA completed work on a major core systems replacement program known as OAisys (One Amatil Information System) in 2012, migrating over 170 legacy systems to an SAP platform. Under the new plans, this platform will move into IBM s private cloud. IBM will manage CCA s SAP infrastructure in its Sydney data centre, which will eventually become a cloud hub for the rest of CCA s South Pacific operations. CA chief information officer Barry Simpson told the Australian Financial Review that the company had been able to strip out costs, improve inventory visibility and raise customer service levels since the new platform had been implemented in Australia and New Zealand. However, it had been unfeasible to deploy the platform across the company s big Indonesian operations until cloud computing removed significant infrastructure costs and complexity. Apr 8th CoreOne Technologies selects Equinix to support Asia- Pacific expansion CoreOne Technologies, a global provider of financial data aggregation, management and distribution solutions, has announced they have deployed with Equinix, in one of its International Business Exchange data centres in Singapore (SG2). The deployment will enable CoreOne Technologies to offer its VistaOne information management and reporting platforms to its growing international customer base in Asia-Pacific, a Company press release reported. VistaOne, a subsidiary of CoreOne Technologies, delivers a financial platform that securely connects data from complex enterprise systems for the world's leading fund administrators, prime brokers, hedge funds, investment banks, insurers, asset and wealth managers. The deployment in Singapore serves as the second phase of CoreOne Technologies expansion strategy, which follows implementations in Equinix's London, Secaucus and Chicago data centres. Mar 28th SingTel expands data centre in Hong Kong Singapore Telecommunications is expanding its data hosting capabilities in Hong Kong with the launch of the SingTel EXPAN Tseung Kwan O Data Centre at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park in Sai Kung, a Company press release reported. The new centre complements SingTel s existing data centre in Shatin and will cater to the increasing needs from enterprises in the Greater China region. Designed to fulfil the Uptime Institute Tier 3 certification, the Tseung Kwan O Data Centre is replete with robust data centre features which enable enterprises to achieve high service level availability. These include redundant capacity components, independent power distribution paths for servers and IT equipment. The Tseung Kwan O Data Centre is supported by SingTel s extensive fibre and cable networks, which allows customers to enjoy a consistent level of service quality throughout the entire network. Apr 8th 20