Saturday, November 1, 2008

DuPont Fabros Halts Santa Clara Project

from Data Center Knowledge:

>>DuPont Fabros Technology (DFT) has halted development of a major data center in Santa Clara, CFalif, citing capital constraints after it was able to borrow less than it hoped to fund the project, the company said today.

...

DuPont Fabros said it will use the $100 million to continue developing a data center project in Piscataway, New Jersey and its ACC5 facility in Ashburn, suggesting that it sees stronger demand in those markets than in Santa Clara, where Digital Realty Trust (DLR), Equinix (EQIX) and Terremark (TMRK) also are developing new data center space. A wave of layoffs at Silicon Valley startups reflects a belt-tightening in the market, which has been among the most active in the country.

Cyberknife - From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

CyberKnife is the name of a frameless robotic radiosurgery system invented by John R. Adler, a Stanford University Professor of Neurosurgery and Radiation Oncology. The two main elements of the CyberKnife are (1) the radiation produced from a small linear particle accelerator and (2) a robotic arm which allows the energy to be directed at any part of the body from any direction.

link

NAVI - Form 10-K could not be filed within the prescribed period

Navisite's conference call, on Monday, will be quite interesting...

The registrant has substantially completed its Form 10-K
for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2008. The registrant’s Form 10-K could not be filed within the prescribed period as the registrant has just completed an amendment and waiver to its senior secured credit agreement, the completion of which waived violations of certain covenants as of the fiscal year end and modified certain covenants going forward. Such amendment and waiver will affect the financial statements of the registrant that are to be included in the Form 10-K and the registrant needs additional time to incorporate the amendment and waiver into the financial statements of the registrant. The registrant’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2008 will be filed on or before the fifteenth calendar day following the prescribed due date.

Navisite credit facility

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Equinix Chicago Data Center Wins American Institute of Architects Design Award

Foster City, CA – October 27, 2008 –

Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data center services, today announced that the company’s Chicago 3 International Business Exchange (IBX®) data center has won an award in the Distinguished Building category of the Design Excellence Awards presented by the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Chicago). The 2008 winners of the awards, selected from a field of 379 entries by a jury of distinguished architects from around the country, are being honored for outstanding work in the areas of distinguished building, interior architecture, sustainable design, and architectural detail.

The center, located in Elk Grove Village, IL, is one of the largest stand alone data centers in the Chicago area and is the size of four football fields. It serves as a critical hub in the infrastructure of the Internet, providing a high-performance, high-security location where Internet and corporate networks interconnect with each other.

The architect for the project was Sheehan Partners, Ltd. a Chicago based architecture firm that specializes in technically challenging projects such as data centers, trading floors and other mission critical facilities. Blair Kamin, the architecture critic at the Chicago Tribune, said of the design, “It elevates that usually anonymous building type with an artful contrast of blunt concrete walls and inviting protrusions of glass. In picking it, the jurors were sending the right message: Good design can happen where you least expect it.”

This is the 53rd year in which AIA Chicago has recognized the achievements of architecture professionals with the Design Excellence Awards. Founded in 1869, AIA Chicago represents over 3,000 licensed architects, architectural interns and allied professionals in northeastern Illinois. AIA Chicago is the second largest AIA chapter in the nation.

Internap is expanding and seeking peers.

Company Information
Company Name Internap
Also Known As Internap Network Services
Company Website http://www.internap.com/
Primary ASN 22212
IRR Record AS-INTERNAP
Network Type NSP
Approx Prefixes 3500
Traffic Levels 50-100 Gbps
Traffic Ratios Balanced
Geographic Scope North America
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes Internap, AS 22212, is expanding and seeking peers. Please contact us to discuss peering if our locations overlap.
Protocols Supported Unicast IPv4 Multicast IPv6
Date Last Updated 2008-10-29 18:15:10 UTC

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
Any2 LAX and SJC 22212 206.223.143.88 1000
Equinix Ashburn 22212 206.223.115.129 10000
Equinix Chicago 22212 206.223.119.103 1000
Equinix Los Angeles 22212 206.223.123.29 1000
Equinix Newark 22212 206.223.131.52 1000
Equinix San Jose 22212 206.223.116.134 10000
NOTA 22212 198.32.124.129 1000
NYIIX 22212 198.32.160.185 1000
SIX 22212 198.32.180.41 1000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name ASN City Country SONET Ethr ATM
Equinix Ashburn (DC1-DC4) 22212 Ashburn US
Equinix Chicago (CH1/CH2) 22212 Chicago US
Equinix Los Angeles (LA1) 22212 Los Angeles US
Equinix San Jose (SV1) 22212 San Jose US
Telx/NYCC (111 8th MMR) 22212 New York US
Terremark Miami 22212 Miami US
Westin Building Seattle 22212 Seattle US

SoftLayer Technologies, Inc. peering

Company Information
Company Name SoftLayer Technologies, Inc.
Also Known As
Company Website http://www.softlayer.com
Primary ASN 36351
IRR Record MAINT-AS36351
Network Type Content
Approx Prefixes 25
Traffic Levels 20-50 Gbps
Traffic Ratios Heavy Outbound
Geographic Scope North America
Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name ASN IP Address Mbit/sec
Equinix Ashburn 36351 10000
Equinix Dallas 36351 10000
SIX 36351 10000

Private Peering Facilities
Facility Name ASN City Country SONET Ethr ATM
Equinix Ashburn (DC1-DC4) 36351 Ashburn US
Equinix Dallas (DA1) 36351 Dallas US
Westin Building Seattle 36351 Seattle US

Monday, October 27, 2008

AboveNet Completes IP Backbone Upgrade Across Europe

LONDON, October 27 /PRNewswire/ --

AboveNet Communications UK Ltd., a leading provider of fibre optic and IP transit connectivity solutions, today announced its customers will now be able to enjoy a faster, higher performance IP network connection in key European cities, with AboveNet's recently upgraded network routers. To meet demands for high bandwidth IP transit and VPN services, AboveNet has recently deployed Juniper MX960s in its European network in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.

Placing its routers in Equinix and Telehouse2 in Paris, Equinix2 and Interxion5 in Frankfurt and adding devices in NIKHEF and Telecity1 in Amsterdam, AboveNet has ensured its European backbone offers a fully resilient network for customers to take IP transit and IP or Ethernet VPN services. As one of most advanced routing hardware platforms available today, the Juniper's MX960s are 40G ready with each device capable of supporting 960 Gbps of capacity. As a result, customers have access to a robust, high performance platform which has the capacity to satisfy bandwidth needs now and well into the future.

AboveNet's European IP transit network upgrade coincides with the deployment of the new Juniper MX960 and core T640 routers in the U.S. earlier this year. These efforts, combined with last year's London T640 core router upgrade, mean AboveNet customers can now benefit from an all-Juniper backbone network, comprising one of the industry's largest capacity Ethernet platforms. This technology, coupled with AboveNet's proven experience and expertise in building and operating its best-in-class IP network, allow AboveNet to deliver its customers premium quality services.

"With the world's growing demand for quality IP connectivity and the increasing uptake of Ethernet VPN services, we have made this investment for the long term benefit of our customers. Simultaneously, this demonstrates AboveNet's commitment to the ongoing development and evolution of our core network infrastructure," said Steve Potts, AboveNet's sales engineering and networks director.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Equinix 3Q 2008 results: Vade Retro, Recession

Equinix reported 3Q 2008 results on October 22 (see Seeking Alpha conference call transcript)

Numbers were, once more, very solid, and the Company also introduced revenue guidance for 2009, forecasted between $870 and $892 million, an approximately 25% increase, at midpoint, on 2008 (giving for granted the Company will achieve its 2008 target).

Going through some of Equinix 3Q metrics:

  • Net cabinet increase (in the USA and Asia) in the quarter was 1,250, compared with 1,600 and 1,500 in the 2Q and 1Q 2008, respectively;

  • Cash gross margins remained at 62%, ahead of expectations. Examining the numbers by geographic region, cash gross margins improved in Europe (49%) and Asia (59%), while the USA number decreased to a still very healthy 67%;

  • Churn (excluding the European region, whose metrics are still not included in many data used by the Company) remained at 2%, in line with expectations;

  • 10 Gigabytes per second Ethernet ports jumped to 155, a 41 unit increase, compared with 12 and 15 ports added in the 2Q and 1Q, respectively (more comments later, on this interesting datum);

  • MMR per salable cabinet increased to $ 1,654, compared with 1,650 and $ 1,603 in the 2Q and 1Q 2008, respectively (also these numbers exclude the European operations, and are impacted by the exchange rate as to the Asian contribution);

  • 178 new customers in the quarter, compared with 144 and 160 in the 2Q and 1Q 2008, respectively (bringing total customers to 2,228, excluding some smaller accounts inherited with the Virtu acquisition in Holland);

  • Completed on-schedule the forecasted expansions in Amsterdam (new presence in that key European market), Frankfurt and Hong Kong;

  • Announced new expansions in London and Singapore, that add up to the previously announced expansion in Paris (see Equinix press release dated October 6)

The first comments to the conference call were mostly positive. For example, Tier 1 Research, in their daily newsletter, reported: “ Equinix's earnings call this week was a breath of fresh air for those of us who know that the Internet infrastructure sector is fundamentally strong”, and Rob Powel, in his Telecom Rumblings blog post added: “the results were as muscular as past quarters”.

Other analysts, like Oppenheimer's Srinivas Anantha, called the Company “a Safe Port in the Storm”.

In his opening remarks, Stephen M. Smith talked about the reasons for this outstanding result and the positive 2009 outlook (from the Seeking Alpha 3Q 2008 conference call transcript):

  • “Other leading indicators such as pricing, churn, receivables and customer satisfaction continue to point in the right direction. As we talk to customers about their own planning for 2009, responses range from a strong view that they will need to continue to grow with us to some level of uncertainty in their budget process as next year unfolds. In all cases it is very clear that our services are not considered to be discretionary spending but are actually essential to their operations.”

Just a few notes as further comment to Equinix results:

the strong increase in 10 Gigabytes per second Ethernet ports confirms that Equinix has become THE hub, especially in the USA, for content providers and networks exchanging a strong flow of data (and the recent increase in video usage on the Internet is a strong driver for these numbers). Several new customers do join the Equinix GigE Exchange for their peering needs and often choose a 10 Giga port as a start (I may mention The Planet as an interesting customer added recently, and remind that this interconnection business is a high margin operation for the Company, with up to 90% margins);

during the call, the Company has further clarified its position related to the interconnection business in Europe (that accounts for a thin 3,8% of its revenues, right now, while the same service represents 9,5% and 18,9% in Asia and USA, respectively):

Stephen M. Smith

I think as we develop and position the total interconnection offering and bring Equinix in to full fold in Europe, we’re going to see the opportunity – we’re charging for cross connect now, we’ve got ourselves set up with our arrangements with LINX and AMS-IX and DE-CIX.

...

We are now starting to charge, I think we’re charging the equivalent of I want to say $100 for cross connects kind of US dollar kind of range, when that market wasn’t even doing that before. We’ve got activity in the pipeline today across all the regions in Europe so we’re starting to see it show up in the pipeline. We’ve got a couple markets as I mentioned in London where we’re actually harnessing off space just to aim at getting the interconnection business going.

Rodney Ratliff - Stanford Group Company

Well, you yourself said that that was a paradigm shift for Europe.

Stephen M. Smith

Yes. [IXEurope] didn’t spend a lot of time and didn’t focus. They were selling medium and large side suites. Now most of the centers in Europe have that and shared colo space set ups. So the model’s in place. We’ve got a leader in region now that’s very familiar with the model. The team is very excited about it and it’s starting to take hold. It’s going to take a while to get meaningful margin improvement but we are going to start seeing it. Eric Schwartz is held accountable to go figure that out.

Equinix forecasted expansion for 2009 and 2010 has been fine-tuned for most markets, and it is important to underline that it is fully funded, so that, while the Company might benefit from picking up distressed assets from other competitors who might find it hard, in this economic climate, to finance their activity, Equinix will not necessarily need to tap the capital markets for its growth initiatives (and the forecasted 2009 expansion Capex includes a $ 50 million allowance for further investments).

Here is a short summary of the next openings:

  • 4Q 2008: + 1,100 cabinets (450 in Singapore and 650 in Sydney)
  • 1Q 2009 + 900 cabinets (300 in New York and 600 in Amsterdam)
  • 2Q 2009 + 2,900 cabinets (800 in L.A., 800 in New York and 1,300 in Paris)
  • 3Q 2009 + 700 cabinets in Singapore
  • 4Q 2009
  • 1Q 2010 + 1,400 cabinets in London

(the new L.A. Data center has shifted the availability of 900 cabinets for future needs).

While every new opening will impact Equinix results in the short term (the costs of staffing and running the new centers do come ahead of the benefits from their revenues), Equinix has always been careful in shifting any possible cost as close to the opening as possible, as shown by this recent agreement with Digital Realty for the Paris data center:

No rent shall be payable before the end of sixth (6th) month of the term of the Lease, or March 31, 2009. “

In a few words, another solid quarter and a positive outlook for 2009, while the Company is continuing in its consistent execution.

As a curiousity, if you visit the Equinix site you'll notice the new logo and corporate image.


A NEW EQUINIX EXPERIENCE
Equinix launches new brand identity.





Interconnect Exchange Europe Srl

it looks like Interconnect Exchange Europe Srl - Italy (the Italian subsidiary of IXEurope) has been closed, as it is not mentioned in the latest 10Q.

I feel better, no expansion foreseen here... ;-)