Saturday, August 9, 2008

Spanish cancer treatment was a success

>>A woman who has advanced cancer and was forced to travel to Spain for treatment has returned home after undergoing successful therapy.

The treatment, called CyberKnife, involves a high dose of radiotherapy applied to a small area and it has a very high success rate but costs up to £30,000.

There are currently 35 CyberKnife treatment areas in the United States and 26 internationally and discussions are now underway as to whether it should be bought to the UK.

Liam Hyland of Penkhull near Stoke on Trent had two intensive CyberKnife sessions in Turkey last month. The 63 year old was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July last year but the NHS could not offer him anything so he paid for the treatment himself.

The State of the Content Delivery Market

A must read from Dan Rayburn.

Just quoting here a few highlights, while we raccomend that your read the full article:

>>To those who are new to the online video industry, it may seem like the content delivery market has been around for only a few years. But amazingly, 2008 marks the 13th year since some of the first content delivery networks (CDNs)...

There are more than 50 video delivery networks now in the industry (see www.cdnlist.com), including those that are P2P-based, and the vast majority of them are competing for the same business in a market that is still small in the U.S.

Based on my calculations of vendors’ revenue, the market size for outsourced video delivery services in the U.S. was $450 million to $500 million last year and has the potential to grow to about $800 million this year (see www.cdnmarket.com)

At the same time, in the past 18 months, more than 15 video delivery vendors, including P2P-based providers, have raised almost $300 million in capital. CDNetworks, EdgeCast Networks, Panther Express, GridNetworks, Highwinds Network Group, Velocix, ITIVA, Move Networks, Pando Networks, Conviva (formerly Rinera), BitTorrent, ChinaCache, RawFlow, and Oversi Networks combined raised $282.85 million in 2007 and 2008, and that number does not take into account other CDNs that have already raised money but have not yet made it public or those that are out in the market raising another round. When all is said and done, I expect close to another $100 million will be raised in the next 12 months. Combine this much money being raised with a market that’s not as big as some think and one has to worry that, in the next 18 months, the number of video delivery networks in the industry will fall considerably. The market can’t support 50 providers, and not every company will be acquired and make back their investors’ money.

History has a way of repeating itself, and we have gone through this before. In 2000, before the bubble burst, we had nearly 50 CDN providers in the market. Two years later, we had less than 10. Five years later, we’re back to 50, but for how long? At some point, investors are going to want to see some return on their money, and with fewer video delivery networks focusing on doing more than just delivering bits, it’s going to be hard to get acquired unless they can show a lot of revenue, which most don’t have.

Back in December, AT&T announced that it would spend $70 million to $80 million this year to build out its CDN offering and focus on the video delivery business. But while financial analysts have been quick to downgrade Akamai every time a telco says it is going to enter the CDN market, even AT&T won’t make a big dent any time soon. You can’t build a CDN overnight, even if you are a telco and own the pipes, and while placing servers and turning up capacity is not hard, it’s all the other pieces around the CDN offering you need to have in place that make it difficult. Without reporting, content management, transcoding, etc., no CDN offering can get very big, and AT&T is aiming to have only 400Gbps of capacity for all of its CDN services by year’s end, which is only 20% or less of the capacity that some larger players have in the market.

While many don’t give telcos a shot at being real competitors in the CDN market, most are underestimating Level 3. I expect that by the end of this year, the company will be the No. 3 provider in the U.S., based on CDN revenue, and it will quickly become the No. 2 provider behind Akamai next year.

While AT&T and Level 3 are the only telcos in the market today, additional telcos have confirmed that they will be entering the market shortly. The real question is whether they will have the mentality of wanting to build everything themselves, like most telcos do, or of acquiring smaller players in the industry to get to market faster. Either way, one thing is for sure: The CDN market has yet to peak, and new providers will continue to enter the market in the second half of this year.

Some say HD is going to be the biggest factor for CDN growth, but HD viewing adoption in large numbers is years off. HD will have some impact this year, but most content owners are not encoding content in this format and are focusing on a bitrate around 700Kbps. But even with HD having a small impact this year, it still adds to the growth that CDNs are going to see in the next few quarters. Content owners are putting up more content in more platforms and at higher bitrates, and much of that content is longer in length. This all amounts to a huge increase in the number of bits being delivered via the CDNs.

In the next 12 months, we should see a clear indication of who the top five or six providers are going to be based on revenue. The market for CDN services shows no signs of slowing down, and the demand for video delivery services will only continue to grow as longer form, higher quality content is played back more often and on more devices. Once online video advertising gets its act together and content owners truly are able to make money from their content, more content will be produced for the web and will be delivered by the CDNs.

While I expect the number of CDN providers to drop dramatically in the next 18 months, that’s not a sign of a downturn. The reality is that there are more providers today than the market can bear, and the market will not grow fast enough in the next 18 months to support them all. When this happens, some will try to take it as a sign that the CDN market is slowing down, that customers are going to build out CDNs themselves, or that it’s too hard for the CDNs to operate profitability. This is not the case.

Level 3 - 6 CDN nodes in Asia, including mainland China

Rob Powell, at Telecom rumblings, is underlining that Level 3 will be expanding its CDN reach in Asia with 3 additional nodes in China, a very interesting selling tool for multinational customers, IMHO.

Here is the link to the full article:

>>According to the Level 3 CDN Newsletter for Q3 2008, the company will have at least 6 CDN nodes in the region:

In Asia alone, Level 3 plans to expand its caching capacity tenfold. In Singapore, Tokyo and Hong Kong, capacity will be increased exponentially. In Mainland China, Level 3 will add three locations in order to serve the most populous areas and optimize content delivery within China.


DuPont Fabros Technology, Inc. Q2 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

Just highlighting one section of the Q&A, about demand in different locations and the customer mix. Transcripts from Seeking Alpha.

>>Operator

Sri Anantha with Oppenheimer has our next question.

Sri Anantha - Oppenheimer

Good morning. Hey Hossein, I just had a quick question, as you look at the demand outlook for there for data center space. Could you just give us like some sense today, if you look at your sales pipeline what percentage of that pipeline comprises about and comprises as suppose to internet-centric businesses? And also if you could just give us a little bit of color on how your customer mix has evolved over the years, I know the initial demand for data center space was driven by the internet-centric businesses, but I would imagine that your customer mix is lot more diversified today then it what it was like three or four years ago?

Hossein Fateh

I think you are absolutely right on that, but however, it is more market centric and each market is different. Virginia is a round number its perhaps 60% to 80% internet based. Santa Clara, I would put at the same percentages perhaps even higher. Chicago is lower because Chicago being in the middle of country that’s tenants required data centric space and they want one data center. Chicago is the perfect location for that, and they want it in the middle of the country due to license fee issues. And it's a perfect market for that. Chicago will be non-internet based.

New York will be mostly around the banking sector and we actually feel very good about the banking outsource data center business and that perhaps a year ago or 18 months ago significant bank may not outsource data centers due to perhaps one thing to build their own data centers now many of the banks they are under stress and we feel outsourcing will be a fabulous option for them. So, we feel very good about our demand in New Jersey. I think to answer your question it depends on each market -- each market will be different.

Sri Anantha - Oppenheimer

Okay, but just if you look at your sales pipeline today where do you think the incremental demand is coming from, do you think it's still skewed towards internet businesses or it's now more a logic portion is coming from big traditional enterprise companies?

Hossein Fateh

Well I think Virginia and Santa Clara will be more skewed towards internet businesses in fact the large portion which we feel that Chicago when you look at our sales pipeline is probably 60%, 65% non-internet and 30%, 35% internet business. New Jersey will probably we guess is going to be probably in the same as Chicago 60%, 65% non-internet but we feel good about New Jersey in that many of the banks -- we want to expand there and have data center presence that’s outsourced and also the size of the tenants in New Jersey will be significantly larger than in Chicago.

Sri Anantha - Oppenheimer

Well the last question I have is, could you talk about demand from your existing customers they have existing customer base, do you think that the demand from them is still increasing at a pace --?

Hossein Fateh

In a [hysteretic] way, in a very good way we trench power loads of our tenants and we would not want to disclose them publicly but we see the loads increasing and that’s the very big way and we are tracking many of our existing customers and we believe not only they will expand in Virginia but they will expand with us in other markets.

the likes of Equinix, Savvis and Switch & Data

just a brief reminder from Tier 1 Research...

>>T1R has been closely watching the run of Q208 earnings for the Internet infrastructure sector and the results have been encouraging as the likes of Equinix, Savvis and Switch & Data have already turned in solid quarters.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Equinix becomes a default choice

Investor's Business Daily
Satisfying A Need For Speed
Friday August 8, 6:04 pm ET
Pete Barlas

Internet networking solutions firms serve as the tech industry's information backbone, helping the customers push data across the ever-expanding Internet.

The group comprises a hodgepodge of 20 public companies. Most don't compete with each other. But all are working to solve various bottlenecks in the Internet infrastructure.

Akamai Technologies (NasdaqGS:AKAM - News) sells a content and application delivery service for pushing video and other Web content online. AsiaInfo Holdings (NasdaqGM:ASIA - News) sells back-office software support services while Equinix (NasdaqGS:EQIX - News) provides data center and interconnection services.

The emergence of social network sites such as Facebook and of Internet-based "cloud computing" services from Amazon and others should help generate more revenue for companies like Equinix that sell interconnection data services, says Trip Chowdhry, an analyst for Global Equities Research.

"They need to put their data centers somewhere, so Equinix becomes a default choice," he said.

Outsourcing data center services to a company such as Equinix reduces headaches and costs, Chowdhry said.

"People don't want to be worried about hiring and firing various administrators," he said. "The costs of operating a data center is dramatically reduced if they put it in Equinix."

Upside: Network solutions providers should benefit as more companies grow to rely on the Internet.

Slide, Inc.

Company Information
Company Name Slide, Inc.
Also Known As
Company Website http://www.slide.com
Primary ASN 13949
IRR Record MAINT-AS13949
Network Type Content
Approx Prefixes 2
Traffic Levels 5-10Gbps
Traffic Ratios Mostly Outbound
Geographic Scope Global

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
Equinix Ashburn 13949 206.223.115.190 1000
Equinix Los Angeles 13949 206.223.123.38 1000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name ASN City Country SONET Ethr ATM
Equinix Ashburn 13949 Ashburn US

Gayle Guyardo explores breakthrough cancer fighting technology

For_Immediate_Release:

United States of America (Press Release) August 7, 2008 -- It's a revolutionary cancer treatment and Tampa is one of about 40 places in the U.S. to have this new technology. News Channel 8's Gayle Guyardo tells you about the CyberKnife.

CyberKnife technology involves no cuts or incisions. It works by targeting tissue with multiple beams of high-energy radiation on the tumor site. It is specifically designed for treating the most complex and difficult tumors – cancers of the lung, spine, pancreas or brain.

News Channel 8's Gayle Guyardo talks to patients undergoing the treatment - they tell her it's painless. There are no incisions, no blood, no anesthesia, and most deal with now recovery time.

Tune in to News Channel 8's Morning Edition and look for Gayle Guyardo's reports on the latest technology now available in the Tampa Bay area.

DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT)

DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) reported a slow down in its leasing activity.

A nice summary at Data Center Knowledge:

>>DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) said today that leasing at its data centers has slowed slightly due to a longer sales cycle for enterprise companies, who are the primary customers for the company's newly-opened Chicago data center. DuPont Fabros executives said they remain highly confident about demand for the company's facilities, and expect to have no trouble meeting their revenue projections.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Cyberknife Less Invasive, More Responsive Cancer Treatment, Doctors Say

an article by NBC10.com:

>>
Doctors said a new option for treating cancer can destroy tumors without invasive surgery and many patients said recovery is immediate.Reports are that actor Patrick Swayze had it to treat his pancreatic cancer. Cher claims in published reports that her good friend Farrah Fawcett had the treatment as well.

...

NBC 10 asked Lamond if Cyberknife has helped Patrick Swayze's cancer. Lamond said he has not seen him as a patient and doesn't know about his personal case but said the Cyberknife has not had the same success with pancreatic cancer as with other cancers.But he said Cyberknife is very good at reducing the side effects of pancreatic cancer by reducing tumor size and giving patients a better quality of life.

Internap, acquisition target?

this post on the Yahoo MB seems to report part of Tier1 Research comments.

Internap - Akam reseller agreement

Just for fun, going through some old files...

>>Internap Network Services Corporation and VitalStream Holdings, Inc Conference
Jim DeBlasio - Internap - President, CEO

We at Internap are very familiar with VitalStream's CDN technology and business
offering as we are the second largest reseller of Akamai product, and Akamai
offers a strong set of complementary products in this area.

Eric Vancoff - Morgan Joseph - Analyst

Good afternoon and congratulations on both sides. A couple of quick questions. First of all, mechanics of the transaction. Are there any collars in place to sort of ensure the outcome and the value on the VitalStream side? Number two is kind of a multiple-part question in terms of -- what percentage of Internap's revenues today are generated from reselling Akamai, and how much of that can potentially be migrated over to, say, the VitalStream platform?

Jim DeBlasio - Internap - President, CEO

I will answer that second first, Eric, and then I will turn over to Jack and to Dave Buckel to respond
as well to the first part about the collars and the mathematics of the deal.

But with regard to the Akamai revenue that we currently have in the Internet
business, it's relatively small, and less than 5% of our revenue stream. We are,
in fact, the second-largest reseller of Akamai equipment and have a very good
relationship with Akamai. We resell for them, they resell for us, and it works
very well. And, I do believe that that relationship can, and I expect it to
continue to work very well because of the relationship we have and what we offer
each other. I also think that the VitalStream acquisition offers a set of
products that are complementary to the Akamai suite of products, and it does
nothing but builds out our solution that we can offer customers, and -- which is
another one of the exciting things about this acquisition and where it positions
us, Eric, in the future. Jack, I'd like to turn it over to you, if you can add
something to that.

Jennifer Adams - Cowen & Company - Analyst

This is Jennifer Adams on behalf of Tom Watts. Congratulations on the deal. You
touched on this earlier, Jim, but if you could give us a little bit more flavor
what your relationship with Akamai will be like going forward. And specifically,
now that you are potentially competing with them directly, do you see any threat
of them withdrawing business from Internap? And if so, what kind of an impact
could that have on you in the short term?

Jim DeBlasio - Internap - President, CEO

As I mentioned before, the Akamai revenue in the Internap business model is relatively small. Aside from that, we are enjoying a very good relationship with Akamai. As I mentioned before, we resell their products, we are the second-largest reseller of their CDM products. They resell our product. They give us leads with their customers, we provide the same to that, and the relationship is working very well. And they have a very good product and a very strong product that is complementary to many of the products that we have acquired through the VitalStream acquisition.

Rod Ratliff - Stanford Group - Analyst

Okay. Jack, how big is the VitalStream physical footprint, in terms of the number of servers?

Jack Waterman - VitalStream Holdings Inc. - Chairman, CEO

We don't actually quote that number publicly. Clearly, Akamai is the largest in the world and they don't quote their number publicly.

Rod Ratliff - Stanford Group - Analyst

Actually, they do.


SHAPIRO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT CO INC filed this Form SC 13G on 08/06/08

a filing from SHAPIRO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT CO and a comment by pauvrepapillon on the Yahoo MB:

Schedule 13G Additional Information

Item #
1. (a) Name of Issuer: ACCURAY, INC.

(b) Address of Issuer's Principal Executive Offices:
1310 CHESAPEAKE TERRACE
SUNNYVALE, CA 94089

2. (a) Name of Person Filing:
SAMUEL R. SHAPIRO, SHAPIRO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC

(b) Address of Principal Business Office for Each of the Above:
3060 PEACHTREE ROAD, SUITE 1555 N.W., ATLANTA, GEORGIA 30305

(c) Citizenship:
SAMUEL R. SHAPIRO -- U.S. CITIZEN
SHAPIRO CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC -- Delaware Limited Liability Company

(d) Title of Class of Securities:
COMMON STOCK, $0.01 PAR VALUE

(e) CUSIP Number:
004397105

3. If this statement is filed pursuant to Rule 13d-1(b), or 13d-2(b). The
person filing is a:
IA


4. Ownership:
(a) Amount Beneficially Owned: 6,204,064

(b) Percent of Class: 11.40%

Accuray popped up on Shapiro’s radar screen back in September 2007 when Director Robert Weiss bought 100,000 shares at $13.82 a share. Insider buying is not their only parameter but it is one they consider very important. Shapiro is very familiar with the health care space and is well known to be meticulous in their due diligence. You can be sure that they didn’t pull the trigger on Accuray until they were confident that they understood the technology, the space, the competition and were convinced that CyberKnife really is all that we keep saying it is.

Shapiro started buying in Q1 of 2008 and had accumulated about three million shares or so by the time I contacted them in April. My pitch to them was the same as with all the large shareholders which was to ask them to take a more active role in terms of getting some leadership out of our Board of Directors. I don’t know what sort of conversations they have been having with Accuray, but I do know they have been talking and now we know that they have more or less doubled their position.

Shapiro’s general modus operandi is that of a long-term value investor. They are probably not looking to either initiate or participate in a buy out of Accuray nor is it likely that they would mount a charge, at least not as the leader, of an activist shareholder revolt. But they do now hold a large block of shares and my take is that they are well aware of what is going on at Accuray both the good as well as the not so good.

I see their involvement as nothing but positive. It’s a good indicator that our research and analysis of this company is on track. It’s a good stabilizing force for the share price and it does tend to put the right sort of pressure on management. If we do have issues coming up for a shareholder vote, like last year’s management compensation bonanza, I see Shapiro as a natural ally of the shareholders. And if we find that we do we need to round up a majority, at least we now know where to find better than a fifth of the votes required.

As far as the specifics of what I was trying to get across back in April, most of you already know my agenda but for anyone new to the conversation, I’ll recap it for you below exactly as I communicated it to the Accuray Board of Directors and large investors:

1. Take a more aggressive and effective approach to technology explanation and differentiation.

We're in the SRS business. Most analysts still don't even know that. They think we're in the radiotherapy business. Verbal explanations are not getting it done. We need a compelling animated video now followed up with Dr. Thomson’s presence and participation at any and all credible investor conferences that will have us. Sending in the CFO without the CEO sends the wrong message. We need our best spokesperson to work this problem aggressively and persistently until the market gets the difference between CyberKnife SRS and gantry-mounted SRS pretenders. As CEO, Dr. Thomson needs to take personal responsibility to get this done now.

2. Take a more transparent approach to financial disclosures.

We need to disclose all orders and their status. We need to answer any and all questions concerning revenues, margins, orders, etc. We have nothing to hide. We gain nothing by acting like we do. Wall Street needs to know exactly what is going on with orders and backlog. Management’s antagonistic approach to working with the analyst community has not produced a positive result. We need to clear the air and get off to a fresh start. And in order to do that, we must also address the following…

3. Take a hard look at and have a come-to-Jesus talk with your CFO Robert McNamara.

He may (or may not) be the greatest boardroom CFO in history but if he can’t handle an earnings call without shuffling through his notes, sounding evasive and irresponsive and in general doing everything humanly possible to scare off every analyst in attendance, he’s not getting the job done.


Sentiment : Strong Buy

Tier 1 Research comment on Internap

from their Daily newsletter highlights:

>>Internap continues to struggle with flat Q2

Internap had a tough second quarter, which followed a tough first quarter. At the same time, it downwardly revised revenue and EBITDA guidance for the rest of the year. Internap's stock price took an unsurprising stumble, and now the top questions on T1R's lips are – is an acquisition in .....

DLR conference call

from Seeking Alpha transcripts, the highlights of DLR conference call:

>>The sales team currently is engaged with well over 4 million square feet of new customer prospects, representing over 420 megawatts of data center demand. We continue to see a significant lack of supply necessary to meet this demand and DLR is one of the few data center provider to actively billing speculative Turn-Key space across our major markets. The depth and experience of our technical team makes DLR a preferred infrastructure solution provider for many large corporations and system integrators.

On last quarter's call, I discussed results of a study we commissioned that focused on the current drivers demand for datacenters in the U.S., including immediate and longer term growth prospects. Consistent with these results, and despite the challenging economic environment, Fortune 1000 companies, Internet enterprises, and the system integrators continue to make significant investments in IT infrastructure. And this reflects the critical nature of these assets to today's corporations. Our teams are experiencing strong demand in the major markets in the U.S. and Europe especially for our Turn-key product.

I would now like to return to our – like to turn to our revised guidance for 2008. With better visibility towards our full year 2008 results, we are raising FFO guidance by $0.05 to a range of $2.40 to $2.50 per diluted share in unit. The new guidance reflects a shift in our leasing mix towards our Turn-Key Datacenter solution

Will Marks – JMP Securities

Great. Okay. And then, general thoughts, Will, on the rate side of things. Are rates continuing to go up for datacenter space in general and along the same lines, I've heard that in Silicon Valley there's basically – or San Francisco south, there's very little, if any, datacenter space available. Can you comment on that?

Bill Stein

Sure. We're seeing – we really sell out pricing in almost all of our markets today. It varies – our rates that we're quoting on our per square foot basis vary by quarter-by-quarter, especially for the Turn-Key because of different utilizations and the way the spaces are laid out. On a kilowatt – per kilowatt basis, rates have gone up for us over the last four quarters. On an accumulative basis, about 30%. Now we don't see that trend continuing quite that same pace, but what we're seeing good trending and pricing on a kilowatt basis, and we think we'll continue to see good returns.

On Silicon Valley, going to your question there, right now there's not much space at all available and we're actually working on a couple of buildings on our Space Park Drive site that will be coming on online here in the next nine months – six to nine months or so. – So, we're hoping to get ahead of the market there for that. There are some large projects that are on the planning side that I will be coming online second-half of '09 and 2010, but right now there's definitely a lack of supply.

Jordan Sadler – KeyBanc Capital Markets

Okay. And then, could you talk about markets and where you're seeing the most significant dislocations in terms of demand outweighing supply? Just give maybe your – give it a rank currently.

Michael Foust

I mean this isn't exactly in exact rank order but we're seeing Silicon Valley and these are all kind of favorable from our perspective in terms of high demand and lack of supply right now. Chicago certainly. We're seeing it in – well, even more in Dallas now is starting to turn. But even more so, Northern Virginia, a very strong market for us. New Jersey and Northern New Jersey, and then Paris and London. So, those markets are probably the ones that have kind of the strongest supply-demand imbalance in our favor.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

DeGheest Anne - Immersion

Director

Table I - Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned
1.Title of Security
(Instr. 3)
2. Trans. Date 2A. Deemed Execution Date, if any 3. Trans. Code
(Instr. 8)
4. Securities Acquired (A) or Disposed of (D)
(Instr. 3, 4 and 5)
5. Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned Following Reported Transaction(s)
(Instr. 3 and 4)
6. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 4) 7. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 4)
Code V Amount (A) or (D) Price
Common Stock 8/5/2008 P 10000 A $6.0579 10000 D

Stereotactic body radiation therapy w. CyberKnife is an effective treatment for patients with medically inoperable recurrent or metastatic lung cancer

thanks to a post by pauvrepapillon on the Yahoo board:


TitleFractionated stereotactic body radiation therapy in the treatment of primary, recurrent, and metastatic lung tumors: the role of positron emission tomography/computed tomography-based treatment planning.
Author(s)Coon D, Gokhale AS, Burton SA, Heron DE, Ozhasoglu C, Christie N
InstitutionDepartment of Radiation Oncology, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA.
SourceClin Lung Cancer 2008 Jul; 9(4):217-21.
AbstractPurpose: The aim of this study was to assess the outcomes of patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in patients with primary, recurrent, or metastatic lung lesions, with a focus on positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT)-based management. Patients and
Methods: Fifty-one patients with primary stage I non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC; n = 26), recurrent lung cancer after definitive treatment (n = 12), or solitary lung metastases (n = 13) were treated with SBRT between 2005 and 2007. Patients were treated with the CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System with Synchronytrade mark respiratory tracking. A dose of 60 Gy was delivered in 3 fractions. All patients had CT or PET/CT performed at approximately 3-month intervals after treatment.

Results: The median follow-up was 12 months. Local control at median follow-up was 85% in patients with stage I NSCLC, 92% in patients with recurrent lung cancer, and 62% in the patients with solitary lung metastasis. Analysis of the 28 patients with pre- and post-treatment PET/CT scans demonstrated that those with stable disease (n = 4) had a mean standardized uptake value (SUV) decrease of 28%, partial responders (n = 11) had a decrease of 48%, and patients with a complete response (n = 11) had a decrease of 94%. Patients with progressive disease (n = 2) had an SUV decrease of only 0.4%. Only 2 patients (7%) who had reduced fluorodeoxyglucose avidity later progressed locally. No correlations were found between pretreatment SUV and tumor response, disease progression, or survival. Overall 1-year survival rates were 81%, 67%, and 85% among the patients with primary NSCLC, recurrent lung cancer, and solitary lung metastases, respectively.

Conclusion: Stereotactic body radiation therapy with CyberKnife(R) is an effective treatment for patients with medically inoperable recurrent or metastatic lung cancer. Positron emission tomography/CT is valuable in staging, planning, and evaluating treatment response and might predict long-term outcome.

Richardson Clent, CEO, buying shares

Immersion CEO buying a few shares in the open market:

General Transaction Codes

  • P – Open market or private purchase of securities



Table I - Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned
1.Title of Security
(Instr. 3)
2. Trans. Date 2A. Deemed Execution Date, if any 3. Trans. Code
(Instr. 8)
4. Securities Acquired (A) or Disposed of (D)
(Instr. 3, 4 and 5)
5. Amount of Securities Beneficially Owned Following Reported Transaction(s)
(Instr. 3 and 4)
6. Ownership Form: Direct (D) or Indirect (I) (Instr. 4) 7. Nature of Indirect Beneficial Ownership (Instr. 4)
Code V Amount (A) or (D) Price
Common Stock 8/5/2008 P 2500 A $5.93 2500 D

Secret servers: Where is our digital data stored?

an article from: independent.co.uk

>>Sean McAvan is one such person. As managing director of NaviSite Europe, he's responsible for storing data for a wide range of customers – from internet start-ups running cutting-edge web applications, to mid-size corporates backing up their data, to e-commerce sites processing thousands of our credit card transactions each day. NaviSite is just one of around 40 such companies within this one facility in the heart of London's Docklands – a building that used to house the Financial Times's printing presses – and whether you're a geek or not, it's an awesome spectacle. "If you consider the amount of electromechanical engineering in here," says McAvan, "and the number of machines, the amount of software they hold, and then extrapolate that across thousands of facilities like this one, it makes your head spin."

Internap 2Q 2008 results

There is very little to add that hasn't already been said.

Lack of execution, as usual (blaming the economic climate: couldn't you see it coming?)

>>George E. Kilguss, III

The other challenge is the economy. We are seeing sales cycles elongate. We are seeing customers taking longer decision timelines to close these transactions and those are also giving us some pause in putting our forecast together. <<

(transcripts from Seeking Alpha, as usual)

One small and stupid question: why isn't colo effacted from this slow down? Do people still buy new colo space for their servers while they stop using bandwidth and CDN? Isn't leadership about recognizing where you have a better opportuny?

Lack of strategic vision. The missed completely the priorities. While other competitors were doing the right moves (SVVS, NAVI. Selling or de-enphasizing CDN. Building or adding colo).

I'll just quote a few things, for fun:

>>Thomas Watts – Cowen and Company

So the additional operating costs, pre-opening that you talked about, what are those primarily and what sort of fill do you need to offset those?

George E. Kilguss, III

As we take possession of the facility, as we’re building it out, we have to incur and record the rent costs. <<

From the Equinix 10Q:

>>In addition, the Company has negotiated rent expense abatement periods for certain properties to better match the phased build-out of its centers.

By the way:

>>George E. Kilguss, III

With regard to your question on margins data center really has two components to the margin. One is the new facilities coming on line. For example Boston, our expansion in New York, those facilities while we’re building them out we’ve taken possession of those and we have to include that rental expense in our cost of goods sold line.<<

I don't believe that's true for New York, you are already in that facility, and paying the rent. I can accept Boston... that's a brand new center, although something could have been done to mitigate the effect (like paying next to nothing now and more after the opening. we're talking very long term contracts... there's room for some negotiation).

>>James P. DeBlasio

In the area of CDN it’s a much easier sale to leave the way the CDN is more discretionary and someone can have CDN service with us for several months, a month or two and then decide to leave and switch off to someone else.

Wow, what a surprise... you've decided to invest in a very sticky business... ;-)

>>James P. DeBlasio

The strength of the market in the data center business is very strong, it’s very strong, very robust. We’re seeing some real good growth, no delay in the sales cycles there. The sales are difficult sales because they’re very complex with the attach that we have for IP and CDN but nothing out of the ordinary.<<

Let me get it: the bundle is making the sale more difficult? ;-)

I will just end with a note on colo margins:

>>George E. Kilguss, III

At the present time while we’re waiting for some of those factories to come on line we have continued to expand in our partner sites. As I think you know our partner sites’ gross margin is less than our company controlled sites so as we are continuing to sell under the partner sites that also has a natural downward pressure on our gross margins.<<

Take it easy, don't rush up investing in colo... it's not about right timing...

Internap to Invest in Expanded Colocation Facilities

Business Wire, June 12, 2007

Internap Meets Increasing Customer Demand for Premier Data Center Services

ATLANTA -- Internap Network Services Corporation (NASDAQ: INAP), a global provider of optimized, reliable end-to-end Internet business solutions, today announced that it has approved an investment of up to 40 million dollars to fund the expansion of its colocation facilities in several key markets. The company anticipates implementing the expansion over the next three to four calendar quarters, with any potential funding to be provided under standard commercial financing arrangements.

Six quarters later...

>>James P. DeBlasio

In Boston we’re planning on a fourth quarter 08 build and opening and in New York mid-fourth quarter 08. 8,000 square feet in New York, 15,000 square feet in Boston. As you know our plans are that as we are building out the facilities we are pre-selling into those facilities along the way and the demand has been strong, Tom. It’s too early to say at this point how much of it gets filled up and when but we’re seeing some very positive signs in our data center business driven by the market.

Even Terremark gave a number (20% filled) for their new Virginia facility...

The more Reliance waits, the cheaper a potential acquisition might be. If there's any value left, I'm just afraid to think what they can do with their strategy of opening new pnaps. Watch for Flag getting in the bandwidth mix?

Linkedin grows with Equinix in Chicago

The headline from Tier 1 Research:

>>Linkedin has expanded its relationship with Equinix, taking down an undisclosed amount of space at a Chicago-area Equinix facility. Although Linkedin was keeping a low profile on the precise location, T1R believes it to be Equinix's newer Chicago 3 (CH3) facility in Elk Grove, which is rapidly becoming a hotbed .....

World’s only next-gen CyberKnife installed in Tulsa medical facility

from:

TULSA – The next-generation CyberKnife can be found in only one place.

Diane Heaton, medical director of the Oklahoma CyberKnife Center, chats with a patient prior to using the CyberKnife on Tuesday in Tulsa.  (Photo by Rip Stell)


“This is the first installation in the world – this is a big deal,” said Diane Heaton, medical director of Oklahoma CyberKnife Center in Tulsa. “It’s already exceeding expectations and we have calls from all over the world about it coming in.”

Mark Arnold, senior director of product marketing for Accuray, said the Tulsa center was the first site to obtain the full package of the new model.

The CyberKnife has been around five years and to date about 130 systems have been installed treating more than 40,000 patients. Other hospitals in the Tulsa area have a CyberKnife system, but Heaton said other hospitals have the older model.

Three months ago the doctors moved into their 5,000-square-foot facility and have seen about 20 patients since opening in early July.
Heaton said she hopes eventually about 30 to 40 patients will be treated each month.
“Hillcrest has put a lot of energy in this and so far the response has been excellent,” she said.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Better for typists

Better for typists
Apple made every smart phone on the planet look like a wonky old typewriter when the iPhone transcended buttons and introduced its swanky multi-touch screen, but Blackberry is making the same leap and using an even more advanced interface. It’ll use both an on-screen QWERTY in landscape mode, as well as BlackBerry’s own SureType keyboard for text entry when held vertically, and that’s on top of its next-generation hepatic feedback, which will make each virtual key vibrate individually. It’s set to seriously improve text entry.

Five hundred patients later, CyberKnife is more effective than ever

from: mycentraljersey.com

>>
Overlook Hospital in Summit has been a pioneer in the field.

In 2004, Overlook became the first facility in the Northeast to offer CyberKnife treatment, a noninvasive robotic radiosurgical device that treats inoperable brain tumors. In the past four years, CyberKnife has grown by leaps and bounds to include treatments for spine, lung, liver, pancreas and prostate tumors.

Five hundred patients later, CyberKnife is more effective than ever.


">photo

The CyberKnife machine at Overlook Hospital in Summit has treated more than 500 patients since its inception in 2004.

AT&T’s Cloud Offering Is Foggy

a comment on GigaOM, the most interesting part is about AT&T owning the network:

>The key advantage to AT&T’s service is that it controls not just the servers and the cloud, but it also owns the network that those bits of data must traverse to get from the cloud to your computer. That’s a powerful proposition because it gives AT&T one more potential point of failure that it can guarantee and control. It also could lead the way for some interesting pricing options given that AT&T will know exactly how much it costs for each byte of storage and each compute cycle, but it also has the wholesale costs of bandwidth.

My life was saved by the same knife-wielding robot that treated Patrick Swayze

from Daily Mail Online:

>>Just over a year ago Alan Bowley was a dying man. Diagnosed with an inoperable tumour on his pancreas, Alan's only option was palliative radiotherapy to buy him a few more months of life.

But after Alan's wife stumbled across a treatment on the internet - just a few weeks after this fateful diagnosis - he was soon in a hospital in Washington DC having Cyberknife therapy.

Dr Gregory Gagnon, of the Department of Radiation Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital, who treated Alan, says: 'This has opened up a whole new wave of cancers for treatment which were previously considered inoperable. For example, we have been collating data on treatment of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer over the past three years.

'Usually this condition has a survival rate of 30 per cent over three years. Patients who have undergone Cyberknife have a survival rate of around 90 per cent over the same period.

'We have treated spinal cancers without damaging the spinal cord and the vital nerves that surround the spine, and can even use it to treat multiple secondary tumours.'

In other aggressive cancers, such as pancreatic, Dr Gagnon claims it has a 100 per cent success rate of holding the treated tumour at the same size.

There are Cyberknife centres in France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey, with at least eight in the U.S. - including, incredibly, one in a pet hospital in New York. But currently none in the UK. 'Janet came across an American website run by people who had used Cyberknife while we were still waiting to see if my surgeon could remove the tumour here in the UK,' says Alan.

The NHS has so far baulked at introducing this facility, but in January 2009 the private Harley Street Clinic will open its £15 million Cyberknife centre, the first in the UK. It estimates that the cost of treatment will be upwards of £12,000, although those with private health insurance should be covered.

Touchscreen-Equipped Mobile Handset Shipments to Exceed 230 Mn by 2012, Says IMS Research

from: Nikkei Electronics Asia

>>Touchscreen-equipped mobile handsets sales have been building steadily for over a year now. A report from IMS Research forecasts that growth will become even stronger. Although there were fewer than 30 million touchscreen phones sold in 2007, the research firm expects that number to increase to over 230 million by 2012.

In July, LG revealed that it had sold 7 million touchscreen handsets. This announcement came just five quarters after LG launched its very first touchscreen mobile phone. Showing similar success, Samsung recently released the Instinct, a full touchscreen handset, through Sprint. Just one week after the launch, Sprint announced that the Instinct had already become the best selling EV-DO device in Sprint's history.

The research firm predicts that the growth will not simply driven by the smartphone segment. Rather, touchscreens will increasingly penetrate the much larger feature phone segment. In fact, Nokia just announced that its initial foray into the touchscreen market will be targeted at the "volume market" because that segment of the population is the largest consumer of mobile phones.

Revenue per employee metric - colo arena

Although some of these Companies can not be compared (different business model), an interesting exercise... (obviously inspired by Ike's post...)

link to Google spreadsheet

Revenue per employee metric

Ike Elliot runs a very interesting comparison among Companies in the Telecom arena as far as revenues per employee. I suggest you read the whole article on his Telecosm blog, but as a summary, the winner is:

Equinix


Employees

Quarterly
Communications Revenue (millions)

Quarterly Revenue Per Employee
Equinix 911 $ 172 $188,804
Level 3 5,965 $ 1,072 $179,715
Global Crossing, Limited 4,936 $ 630 $127,634
Cogent 431 $ 52 $120,650
Time Warner Telecom 2,859 $ 318 $111,228
Paetec 3,900 $ 404 $103,590
Verizon 235,000 $ 24,124 $102,655
ATT 310,000 $ 30,866 $ 99,568
XO 4,416 $ 361 $ 81,748

Note: For companies on this list other than Level 3, AT&T, Verizon, Paetec and Equinix, revenue is from the first quarter because the companies had not yet announced actual second quarter earnings yet. I did use Paetec's estimated 2nd quarter revenue range from their announcement last week to estimate revenue per employee for Paetec.

AT&T to Be Provider Of 'Cloud Computing'

from: THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

>>AT&T Inc. is unveiling a service that provides computer networking and storage services for business customers, making the telecommunications giant the latest company to invest in what is known as "cloud computing."

One of AT&T's first customers is the U.S. Olympic Committee. The organization, which runs teamusa.org and other Olympics Web sites, knows traffic will leap this month as fans watch videos and look up event results and then drop sharply as soon as the games are over. It plans to use the AT&T service to increase its network bandwidth temporarily.

Jim Paterson, a vice president of product development at AT&T, said another type of business that could benefit from cloud computing would be an e-commerce retailer that sees a spike in activity on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Mr. Paterson said companies can cut networking and storage costs by as much as 30% with a cloud-based service.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Mercedes-Benz, others nibbling at haptic lure

a post by cellodude on the IV MB:

>>IMMR partner SMK has a fantastic looking automotive haptic touch screen. The demo screen shows the implementation for dual climate control. The article claims Daimler AG, makers of Mercedes-Benz, and others, are interested.

[SMK Exhibits Force Feedback Touch Panel
Jul 25, 2008 19:00
Motohiko Hamada, Nikkei Automotive Technology

SMK Corp showcased the "Force Feedback Panel," a touch panel that vibrates in response to a touch on the screen to give the user a sensation of clicking a button.

The panel was exhibited at AT International 2008, which took place from July 23 to 25, 2008, at Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. A number of auto makers, including Daimler AG of Germany, are considering employing this panel.

As the number of operation items is increasing, many switch functions must be mounted in a limited area on displays and touch panels. However, when operating a touch panel, drivers have to direct their eyes to the panel, because buttons can't be located by touch. Touch panels are not convenient for drivers, because they have to take their eyes off the road for operation.

The newly developed panel vibrates responding to the operation, allowing the drivers to confirm that the buttons are correctly pushed without looking at the panel. However, users still have to look at the panel to locate the buttons.

It is driven by a piezo element mounted on the back of the long side of the panel. When the switch is pushed, actually the "entire panel" vibrates. However, because the user only touches the button he/she presses, he/she thinks only the pressed button is vibrating. The vibration feeling can be selected from "trembling," "ticking," etc.

It is compatible to sizes between 2.5-15 inches. The operating load is 0.05-2N, while the driving voltage is 5V DC. The power consumption during vibration is 300mA, while that of idling is 300μA.]

Beautiful picture, button functions very clear (click pic to enlarge). Also, you can see a tiny Immersion logo in the upper right of the picture!
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080725/155450/

pdf file from SMK's website which shows the simplified design for their "Force Feedback Touch Panel."
Text line 3 reads: "Development with lmmersion co. Ltd, able to make user expected touch feelings in a short time."
http://www.smk.co.jp/product_e/pdf/touchpnl/ESF431207.pdf

Demonstration of the


CyberKnife® Patient Support Group

CyberKnife Patient Support Group

Welcome to the CyberKnife® Patient Support Group forum!
Please post your medical questions into the "Ask the Doctors" section to communicate with doctors whom are skilled users of CyberKnife. CPSG claims no liability for nor endorses any medical opinions or advice given by doctors on this site. Doctors participating on this board are all volunteers and are not financially compensated in any way.
For more information visit About the Doctors.

Click here to read a welcome message from John R. Adler, Jr., MD

Sunday, August 3, 2008

St. Ansgar man has new kind of cancer surgery

An article from last July, which also gives more details on the practical use of Cyber Knife:

>>
A robotic arm delivers a high dose of radiation that will kill or control cancerous cells without harming surrounding healthy tissue. Previously unreachable tumors can now be treated with the new method.

Patients for the surgery lie on a table with a soft pad. Generally no sedation or anesthesia is required because the procedure is painless. Radiation sessions last from 1 to 2 hours.

If all goes well, patients undergo the treatment and can immediately resume their normal activities.

On Aug. 8, he had his first radiation surgery treatment which lasted 2½ hours. Separate treatments the next two days lasted about two hours each.

“After my last two-hour sessions, I could have gotten up off the table and driven home,” said Libersky. “It was truly that painless.”

Libersky has been back to Des Moines for check-ups several times.

“They showed me my CT scan and it shows nothing but scar tissue where the cancerous spot was,” he said. “I went back at three months, then another four months, then it will be six months, then a year,” he said.

“So far the prognosis has been excellent. The results look good and I’m feeling good and gaining weight.”

Reliance Globalcom, Internap forge Strategic Alliance

Time for a few thoughts about this agreement.

If we look at the P/R issued by Reliance, it sounds like Internap will be establishing a CDN PoP in a Reliance data center, that will be then run by Reliance - something like the professional services sold to QTS recently? Hopefully (if this is the case...) the accounting of this installation service will be considered non-recurring, to avoid a jump in CDN revenues (followed by a decline the next quarter). How will the two Companies share revenues? There are more questions than answers, as no economic term has really been disclosed.

As long as no further detail is given about the agreement, all the above is pure speculation on our side.

>>Under the alliance, Internap would set up a new Point-of-Presence in India which would be integrated with its Global Delivery Infrastructure spanning 7 countries(Australia, China, Singapore, Japan, US, UK and Netherlands).
The Point-of-Presence in India would be established and managed by Reliance Globalcom.

The alliance provides Reliance Globalcom the required expertise to integrate media servers, enhance storage, accelerate its network and optimize routes to deliver, manage, and monetize media content. The global infrastructure includes Internap’s patented MIRO (Managed Internet Routing Optimizer) and ADN technologies. MIRO monitors the performance of Internet backbones and automatically selects the best path to global destinations, thus providing faster content delivery.

Let's see what Tier 1 Research said about the deal back on July 28:

>>Internap delivering from Atlanta to Mumbai with help of Reliance

Internap will expand into India's telecom market with CDN services through a new alliance with Reliance Communications' Reliance Telecom. Rather than implement a standard reseller partnership, Internap is going to help Reliance build and operate CDN services in selected regions in India. <<

A comment to the deal, from Telecom rumblings:

>>I’ve been a skeptic about carriers entering the CDN market directly, but partnerships like this make a great deal of sense. Internap and Reliance Globalcom are not competitors. Reliance did buy Yipes which used to sell IP Transit, but they have since de-emphasized the product almost completely in favor of ethernet and VPLS. Internap doesn’t sell ethernet or VPLS. So if an aggressive carrier like Reliance wants to enter the CDN space but doesn’t really have the assets to do it directly, a partnership with Internap’s CDN in which India gets hooked up is a case where nobody loses and everyone stands to gain.<<

and a comment to the article:

>>By the way, the ‘partnering’ deal with Internap smells a lot more like someone is gearing up to go steady, given RG’s growth strategy and its recent history of acquisitions.

Frank A. Coluccio

A few months ago, Bit Gravity and Tata had signed a similar agreement:

>>MUMBAI, India and BURLINGAME, Calif., March 5, 2008

Tata Communications, (NYSE: TCL) a leading provider of the new world of communications, and BitGravity, Inc., the pioneer in Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) for interactive broadcasting, announced today a strategic partnership. Tata Communications will co-brand, resell and jointly market BitGravity’s technology platform worldwide as part of a value-added services offering on top of Tata Global Network. As part of the arrangement, Tata Communications, with a global presence in more than 200 countries across 300 PoPs will provide tight integration with BitGravity’s platform and their carrier-grade infrastructure, including collocation and IP-network capacity, and local sales presence in each region for the CDN offering. BitGravity will provide technology and manage the content delivery operation. The service will be sold in Europe and Asia and branded as Tata Communications’ CDN Powered by BitGravity.

Several Reliance managers have an Internap experience in their C.V., and this might have helped finalize the deal:

John Scanlon, Chief Executive Officer
John Scanlon became CEO of the Company in September 2004 and is a20-year veteran of the telecommunications and data services industry. Before joining the Company he held a variety of senior positions at Internap, a network services provider of high-performance IP solutions. Most recently, he was Internap's Vice President of International and Corporate Development, but also served as Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Service Planning during his five years there. Prior to Internap, Scanlon co-founded international telecommunication services provider Flat Rate Communications. He served as CEO of FlatRate from 1996 to 1998, when he sold the company to European telecom provider Viatel and became General Manager of the new Viatel subsidiary. Scanlon also spent over a decade at MCI in a variety of finance, business development and marketing roles.

Scanlon holds an M.B.A. from St. Mary's College of California and a bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Oregon State University.

Keao Caindec, Chief Marketing Officer
Keao Caindec is responsible for Reliance Globalcom's marketing strategy and operations, including product marketing and management, business development, and marketing communications and programs. Caindec is a seasoned executive with deep marketing and business development experience in data communications, network optimization and acceleration, content distribution, IP route-control, VoIP, ATM, MPLS internetworking and network security. Prior to joining the Company in 2005, Caindec was a Principal and Founder of Farallon TechnologyResources, a solutions provider for advanced network services andtechnologies. Prior, he was Executive Director of Alliance Development at Internap, a network services provider of high performance IP solutions. Caindec has also held senior management positions in marketing at CyberCash (acquired by Verisign), MCI Communications, ATMnet (acquired by Verio) and British Telecom North America (Tymnet), the early pioneer of packet-switched networking.

Caindechas a bachelor's degree in Economics with a Concentration in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Richard Cotton, Vice President, Operations
Richard Cotton is a seasoned executive with over 20 years experience in telecommunications, technology, and law. Prior to joining the Company, Cotton was with Internap Network Services Corporation, a leading provider of managed IP services, from 1999 through 2006 holding several senior positions including Vice President of Carrier Relations, Business Operations and Data Center Services.

Prior to Internap, Cotton was with Winstar Communication as a Senior VicePresident of Operations. He began his career with Winstar in 1996 as Vice President and General Counsel for the telecommunications subsidiaries. From 1993 to 1996 Cotton was in-house counsel for MCI Telecommunications Corporation. As Director, Law and Public Policy, Cotton was Lead Counsel for MCI's National Account/Global Accountmarket segment generating revenues of approximately $2 Billion annually. Prior to MCI, Cotton was in private legal practice from 1985 through 1993 with the New York law firm of Brown, Raysman & Millstein specializing in High Technology and Telecommunications matters.

Reliance is a great partner for Internap, for their strong presence in India, but also a very interesting Company worldwide.

Let's have a look at their recent Investor Presentation (thanks to VG for the heads up, and the comments in RED have been added to the slides):


They are already claiming to be among the top 3 data center operators...

Equinix mention (for EBIDTA results)

Landing in markets where Internap has data centers

Claiming 1 million sq. ft. of data center space, 260.000 in India, the rest internationally (with a few locations in the East Coast)

Leading position in the Indian market (over 60%...)

A strong Company, financially, pursuing M&A to achieve its goals.

A look at Reliance Flag peering policy and presence:

Company Information
Company Name FLAG Telecom
Also Known As
Company Website http://www.flagtelecom.com
Primary ASN 15412
IRR Record AS-FLAGP
Network Type NSP
Approx Prefixes 8000
Traffic Levels 20-50 Gbps
Traffic Ratios Balanced
Geographic Scope Global
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes
Protocols Supported Unicast IPv4 Multicast IPv6
Date Last Updated 2008-06-03 03:54:38 UTC
Peering Policy Information
Peering Policy URL
General Policy Selective
Multiple Locations Not Required
Ratio Requirement No
Contract Requirement Private Only

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
AMS-IX 15412 195.69.144.72 3000
AMS-IX 15412 2001:7f8:1::a501:5412:1 3000
Any2 LAX and SJC 15412 206.223.143.45 1000
DE-CIX 15412 2001:7f8::3c34:0:1 3000
DE-CIX 15412 80.81.192.64 3000
Equinix Ashburn 15412 206.223.115.141 2000
Equinix Tokyo 15412 203.190.230.7 1000
HKIX 15412 202.40.161.196 2000
JPIX 15412 210.171.224.139 1000
JPNAP Tokyo 15412 2001:7fa:7:1:0:1:5412:1 1000
JPNAP Tokyo 15412 210.173.176.96 1000
KINX 15412 192.145.251.42 1000
LAIIX 15412 198.32.146.52 1000
LAIIX 15412 2001:504:a::a501:5412:1 1000
LINX 15412 2001:7f8:4:1::3c34:2 2000
LINX 15412 195.66.226.146 2000
LINX 15412 2001:7f8:4::3c34:1 2000
LINX 15412 195.66.224.146 2000
NL-IX 15412 193.239.116.139 1000
NYIIX 15412 2001:504:1::a501:5412:1 2000
NYIIX 15412 198.32.160.88 2000
PAIX Palo Alto 15412 2001:504:d::89 2000
PAIX Palo Alto 15412 198.32.176.137 2000
SFINX 15412 194.68.129.170 1000
Terremark NAP de las Madrid 15412 193.227.132.57 1000
XchangePoint 15412 217.79.160.102 1000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name ASN City Country SONET Ethr ATM
Equinix Singapore 15412 Singapore SG
FiberNet Telecom Group - 60 Hudson St 15412 New York US
FiberNet Telecom Group New York (111 Eighth Ave) 15412 New York US
KINX IX Center 15412
KR
MEGA iAdvantage Hong Kong 15412 Hong Kong HK
One Wilshire Los Angeles 15412 Los Angeles US
PAIX Palo Alto 15412 Palo Alto US
SARA Amsterdam 15412 Amsterdam NL
Telehouse London (Docklands East) 15412 London UK
Terremark Madrid 15412 Madrid ES

At first sight, they are peering at Equinix Ashburn and Singapore, where Internap has a pnap, and at 111 8th Avenue, where Internap has one of its own data centers (New York). Plus the main places where you would expect to find them.

Recently, Flag experienced a disruption in services due to same damaged cables (this link is from Network World, Inc) :

>>Breaks last week in the Flag Telecom Europe-Asia cable, owned by India’s Reliance Communications, and on the South East Asia-Middle East-West Europe 4 (SEA-ME-WE 4) cable, owned by a consortium, disrupted Internet and other communications to the Middle East and India.

Indian service providers were able to avoid a major crisis by diverting traffic from the Mediterranean routes to links in the Asia-Pacific region. Increased latency of traffic on account of the new routing however resulted in slower Internet access and poor quality of voice communications, according to the Internet Service Providers' Association of India (ISPAI).

Large Indian outsourcers, who depend on communications and the Internet for their business, said the impact on their business was marginal, as they already have enough of redundancy in their communications infrastructure. Smaller operations were however hit. Some call centers in India have privately reported frequent drops in calls from customers.<<

In spite of these comments, some Indian Companies suffered a serious problem from the outage, and Reliance might now see an added value from the implementation of Internap's IP Technology. No doubt the Internap data center business may also represent an interesting value for Reliance, too.

Akam described the event in its State of the Internet - 1Q 2008 report:

>>Perhaps the most noteworthy Internet outage in the first quarter of 2008 resulted from
several undersea cables in the Mediterranean Sea being severed.
Two cables were severed
in late January, and two more went out of service in early February. These cable cuts
significantly impacted Internet connectivity into and out of countries in the Middle East.
The two cables account for the majority of international communications capacity between
Europe and the Middle East, and the cuts reduced bandwidth between the region and
Europe by 75%, according to TeleGeography.15
According to data collected by Renesys,16 Egypt, Pakistan, Kuwait, and India had the most
networks impacted by the cable cut. Data posted to the Renesys blog showed that over
1,000 customer networks in Egypt were impacted, with over 900 customer networks in
Pakistan seeing problems; nearly 500 in India and almost 300 in Kuwait.
Data collected by Akamai’s measurement systems showed the impact of these cable cuts on
network latency in the region. A visualization available at http://www.akamai.com/mideastoutage
shows the degradation in network latency between measurement points to 1.5x, 2x,
and 3x or more beyond normal average latency. Data collected by in-region measurement
agents showed that delivery of content for Akamai customers was not impacted by the
cable cuts. Akamai’s dynamic mapping system ensured that end-user requests were routed
to available edge servers, which could deliver content from cache, and Akamai’s optimized
routing technology ensured that those Akamai servers chose the fastest, most available path
when it was necessary for them to retrieve content from a customer’s origin server.<<

An interesting interview with Keao Caindec is available at the following link - thanks to Frank A. Coluccio for the link, in a comment to a Telecom Rumbling post about the Inap-Reliance deal (video by Converge!):

Reliance Globalcom Video: Global Reach and Ethernet Scalability

1. About Reliance Globalcom

2. Synergy of recent international acquisitions

3. Market presence and service offering

4. Network architecture

5. Expansion strategy, $2 billion network upgrade and key technology partners

6. Bandwidth pricing trends per region