Megapath Inc

Company Name	Megapath Inc
Also Known As	DSL.NET, Netifice Communications,Epoch Internet
Company Website	http://www.megapath.com
Primary ASN	4565
IRR Record	AS-EPOCH
Network Type	NSP
Approx Prefixes	200
Traffic Levels	Not Disclosed
Traffic Ratios	Mostly Inbound
Geographic Scope	North America
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes	We have recently upgraded PAIX NY, as well as both Dallas and Chicago Equinix and are evaluating new peers.

Internap's colocation expansion - better late than never

Internap reported 4Q and full year results last night, on March 12.

Both IP and CDN services were down sequentially, and colocation was the only sector to show Q/Q growth (up 31% in 2008).

Internap CEO, Jim De Blasio, hosted his last conference call with the Company, as Eric Cooney will step in officially on March 16. This transition might also explain the reason why few analysts were on the call, and the Q&A section was quite brief - as Jim said, opening the call, this was not the appropriate time to discuss Internap's future business strategies, given the change in leadership.

Internap 4Q 2008 conference call transcripts are available at Seeking Alpha.

While we are not going to dig into 4Q results, the purpose of this brief article is simply to review Internap's strategy, and execution, in the colocation side of its business, looking beyond the strong growth achieved (in line, however, with that specific market). We believe that Internap did lose, during 2008, the opportunity to bring on line more colocation space, and increase its results and market share in this business segment.

On June 12, 2007 Internap announced its intention to invest in expanded colocation facilities:

• 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.

The implementation of this strategy took, in our opinion, slightly longer than originally planned.

First of all, it has to be remembered that Internap utilizes both partner and own data centers, and this expansion was meant to increase the footprint in its own locations, where margins are much higher - this is taken from Internap's 3Q conference call, available at Seeking Alpha:

• George Kilguss (Internap's CFO)

• Data center gross margins should increase as utilization rates increase in our company-controlled occupied space contributes to revenue.

• Jim DeBlasio (Internap CEO)

• Yes. I think the business model that would be preferred would be to build our own and fill our own due to the higher margins we would get on that. And where it’s driven by our customers, that’s the margins are strong in partner size, we would take down space in partner sites as well. But the first preference would be to build and sell our own.

We already noticed in a previous article back in August 2008 that the lack of space available in Internap's own centers did penalize the Company form a margin point of view - these quotes are taken from Internap's 10Q:

• The increased use of partner sites is one reason for the higher percentage of direct costs for the three-month period ended June 30, 2008 compared to the same period in 2007. We continue to expand the sites operated by us and expect to have more of this space available to be used in the future as part of our data center growth initiative.
• We seek to optimize the most profitable mix of available data center space operated by us and our partners.
• We expect our recent data center expansion will provide us lower costs per occupied square foot in future periods, enabling us to increase revenues compared to relatively lower direct costs of data center services.
• The initial operating costs, especially for rent, of sites operated by us causes us to recognize some costs ahead of revenues but overall is more profitable at minimum levels of utilization than the use of partner sites.

This picture is taken from an Internap's presentation, and we had added, in red, a few comments related to the expansion plans back in August 2008:


We had already noticed that these expansions would mainly impact results at the end of 2008 and in 2009, however, the opening of the last centers (Boston and New York) was slightly delayed from this updated plan, too, and we should probably say that the majority of room has only become available in 2009 - here is a short summary of the openings:

Seattle opened in the 2Q 2008 - 3 full quarters after the initial announcement;

Houston in the mid of 3Q 2008 - 4 full quarters and a half after the June 2007 P/R;

Boston opened in the 1Q 2009 (officially on February 5) - 6 full quarters after the June 2007 P/R;

New York is now said to be ready for opening next week, at the end of the 1Q 2009 - almost 7 full quarters after the June 2007 P/R - this quote is from the 4Q 2008 conference call (emphasis added):

• George Kilguss

• In our datacenter business, we opened 22,000 square feet of partner sites and 17,000 square feet of owned properties in 2008. In early January of this year, we completed construction of the expansion in our company-controlled Boston and New York datacenters. In our 15,000 square feet Boston expansion to begin turning up customers in early January and we are seeing consistent demand there. In New York, the 8,000 square feet expansion will open for customers next week. With the turn up of New York, the Company completed 3,000 square feet expansion of enterprise tier company-controlled datacenter space in four cities.

While Internap is now positioned to benefit from the strong data center demand in the market, and increase margins in this segment, we believe that execution hasn't been stellar and the Company has missed an opportunity to benefit from the positive colocation momentum in 2008.

Tier 1 Research on Internap

Tier 1 Research Daily Newsletter headlines:

>>T1R Insight: Turning around Internap CDN business doesn't get easier in '09

Internap has struggled with its CDN business since acquiring it from VitalStream in 2007. Having already written down the value of its acquisition earlier this year, there was optimism that the CDN line of business would show some signs of improvement since other CDNs were doing well during the fourth .....

>>Internap tumbles in Q4 with revenue slide

-Internap quarterly revenue fell 1.8% to $64.2m, driven by lower CDN and Internet transit revenue. -Datacenter services remain a bright spot for the firm with an increase in revenue from $28.7m to $29.2m. -Outgoing CEO Jim DeBlasio gave a heartfelt defense of his own performance, which saw some early successes, but was .....

Touch screen devices press the right button for Nissha Printing

from The Financial Times Limited:

>>Nissha's resilience demonstrates that, despite the depth of the downturn, technology companies that are riding strong consumer trends can still prosper.

The company supplies touch panels for Nintendo's DS portable game console, which has sold more than 96m units worldwide, and Nissha is also supplying touch panels for new applications such as digital cameras.

...

Nissha's plans include force feedback, where the screen will vibrate in response to the user's touch; clearer screens; a more scratch resistant surface; and panels, such as that of the iPhone, that can respond to being touched in several places at once.

Joint research in radiosurgery likely

from The Hindu:

>>Joint research in radiosurgery likely

Special Correspondent

Apollo Hospitals group may join a team of scientists at Stanford varsity, says Dr. Adler

— Photo: S.S. Kumar

Pratap C. Reddy (left), Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group, and John R. Adler, Jr. Professor of Radiation Oncology and Neurosurgery, Stanford University, U.S., with the ‘CyberKnife’, at Apollo Speciality Cancer Hospital in Chennai on Thursday.

CHENNAI: The Apollo Hospitals group might well join a team of scientists at Stanford University conducting research into the cutting edge tool in radiosurgery, John R. Adler, inventor of the Cyberknife, said on Thursday.

“We are still in the early stages of understanding what the CyberKnife can do,” Dr. Adler, a professor of Neurology and Radiation Oncology at Stanford University Medical Centre, said.

AYKsolutions Expands Operations with New Denver Datacenter Facility

Newly added Denver facility boosts network coverage and adds multiple new server configurations and options

March 4, 2009; 05:38 AM

Schenectady, NY – March 3, 2009 – AYKsolutions, a provider of Shared, Reseller and Dedicated hosting solutions, announced today it has added a Denver Datacenter facility. Offering six other locations, the Denver facility boosts its dedicated server offerings and wider geographic diversity in its network coverage.

We are very excited to be adding this new location as one of our data center choices. We can effectively cater to users who need faster ping times to the west coast as well as Asia and Australia all the while keeping the bandwidth prices down,” said Artyom Khmelnitsky, President of AYKsolutions. We are hoping that with the addition of Denver, we will take the top spot in the “All-in-one Server Shop” category.

The new facility, located at 1500 Champa St., Denver, CO boasts state of the art security and infrastructure. With 6000 sq. ft. of space to start with, expandable to 30,000 sq. ft., we will be able to hit the ground running and accommodate almost any server need. We will start with a 10Gige connection to Internap and 2 x 10Gige connections each to Comcast and TATA Communications. More carriers will be added in months to come.

For more information about AYKsolutions and its new Denver Datacenter visit www.ayksolutions.com.

Capital Concerns Boost Interest in Colocation

from Data Center Knowledge:

>>But the economics of building data centers has changed because of the credit crunch, according to Jim Simonelli, senior vice president of APC by Schneider Electric. “In colocation, the funding model has changed,” said Simonelli. “It used to be ‘build it and find customers.’ Now it’s ‘find a customer and then build.’”

“The colo folks have capex issues as well,” said Tad Davies, executive vice president of The Bick Group. “I think you have a really interesting dynamic. What we see is the strongest players getting stronger because they can build, and the weaker players working harder to manage their existing assets.” That effort to generate additional revenue from existing facilities will likely mean higher colocation prices in some markets, he said.

Data Centers Give a Positive Jolt to Moribund CRE Market

from CoStar Realty Information:

>>Practically alone among commercial real estate asset types, the data center property market still elicits glowing superlatives like "rosy outlook" and "healthy growth" from investors and Wall Street analysts

....

That opens a wide door for wholesale data space providers such as real estate investment trusts Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR) and DuPont Fabros Technology Inc. (NYSE: DFT), along with outsourcing operators (and DLR and DFT tenants)Savvis Inc., which provides IT and managed computing, including virtualization and "cloud" computing; Equinix, Inc., which provides colocation and IT support, among others. Colocation centers, also called telecom or carrier hotels, usually involve multiple enterprise, Internet and telecommunications tenants.

"We believe we’ll see an increase in outsourcing as data center space gets tighter and capital spending drains up," AFCOM said. "This being said, data center managers will have to work more efficiently through projects such as consolidation and outsourcing, and begin to look more seriously at technologies such as utility and cloud computing."

Data Center REITs Weather Storm

Wall Street seems to agree. In a Jan. 29 report, UBS Investment Research analysts Omotayo Okusanya and Jeffrey Spector said the global outlook for data center property is "attractive" for 2009. The analysts, citing a recent report by Tier 1 Research, said rental rates and occupancies are expected to remain healthy. Tier 1 Research forecasts that while overall spending by corporate IT departments will decline this year, demand for data center space will grow at 13% while supply will grow only about 5.25%.

"A primary driver of demand growth has been an uptick in demand from enterprises as they forego their construction plans and outsource given capex [capital expenditure] constraints due to the credit crunch," the UBS analysts said. "The global [supply] imbalance is expected to continue into 2012, creating ‘pricing insanity’ in key markets by 2010/2011."

NTELOS

Company Name	NTELOS
Also Known As
Company Website	http://www.ntelos.com
Primary ASN	7795
IRR Record	AS-NTELOS
Network Type	Cable/DSL/ISP
Approx Prefixes	90
Traffic Levels	1-5Gbps
Traffic Ratios	Mostly Inbound
Geographic Scope	Regional
Looking Glass URL
Route Server URL
Notes	We have just turned up public peering in Equinix Chicago and are seeking public peers there and in Equinix Ashburn.

Equinix signs peering deal with ALP-IX

Mar 11, 2009 (DMEUROPE via COMTEX) --

Global data centre operator Equinix signed peering deal with German internet exchange ALP-IX. The ALP-IX in Munich is a new Internet Exchange that offers direct and settlement-free IP interconnection (peering) to other IP networks which operate a Point-of-Presence in the city of Munich. ALP-IX is owned and operated by DE-CIX Management.

Equinix Shortlisted for Inside Market Data Award

Data Centre Services Specialist Nominated as Best Supporting Services Provider 2009

LONDON, UK – March, 11, 2009 -- Equinix, Inc (Nasdaq: EQIX), a provider of global data centre services, has announced that it has been shortlisted in the category of Best Supporting Services Provider at the 2009 Inside Market Data (IMD) Awards.

The IMD Awards recognise industry excellence within market data, reference data and enterprise data management. Equinix was nominated for its 2009 customer acquisitions, proven growth and exceptional service. The eventual category winner will be voted for by the readership of Inside Market Data and votes can be cast at http://www.insidemarketdata.com/awards.

“Equinix is honoured to have been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious IMD Awards,” said Petrina Steele, vice president, business development, Equinix Europe. “As the award is based on the work we have completed over the course of last year, our nomination is proof that we are truly meeting the demands of our financial services customers by expanding our facilities and providing the best possible service in the data centre services market.”

nice win for Switch and Data on the common switch

Amazon:

Public Peering Exchange Points
Exchange Point Name	ASN	IP Address	Mbit/sec
Equinix Ashburn	16509	206.223.115.68	10000
NOTA	16509	198.32.124.193	10000
PAIX Palo Alto	16509	PAIX-PAO coming March, 2009	10000
PAIX Seattle	16509	PAIX-SEA coming March, 2009	10000
PAIX Virginia	16509	PAIX-VA coming March, 2009	10000
SIX	16509	SIX coming March, 2009	10000

ARAY's hurdles

from the Yahoo MB:

>> 10-Mar-09 10:47 am


I appreciate yyy60's posts, as they illustrate some of the problems ARAY faces as well as opportunuties. The posts can be put in categories - pt pleas/testimonials, business-related, and opening of new centers.

As heart-rending and well-intentioned the pt stories can be, it is often evident even from the sparse clinical information given that CK either wasn't appropriate or was not the only option for a given pt's problem. A recent example was a stage 4 lung cancer where the pt received CK for brain mets but was upset it was not offered to lung tumors - it would be a rare situation where this would be appropriate. Another complained about CK not being offered for her mother's liver mets, though how effective this would be depends of the size and number of mets, the presence of other distant mets, the time from initial diagnosis, among other things. Take these stories with a shaker of salt and don't lose sleep over them.

The post I'm linked to illustrates a political problem for ARAY more complex than just rad oncs indirectly on Varian's payroll. The Univ of Louisville Med Ctr has a CK with an open staffing policy; med staff from competing hospitals could use the CK for their pts and bill for the professional component of the treatment, then bring the pt back to the original hospital for ongoing care. The competing hospitals, fearing loss of prestige or some ancillary services (eg planning scans), either enticed or threatened their doctors against using the CK for their pts. Similarly, my hospital paid for several outside surgeons to be credentialed by ARAY, and gave them limited privileges to use the CK. While they were initially interested, we have not had a single referral from them, even from hospitals within our system. One admitted her hospital's administrators frowned upon sending pts to us for CK.

It is crap like this, not to mention rad oncs owning LINACs, CPT code roadblocks set-up by Varian, the financial crisis and current healthcare climate/uncertainties, that make me think the recognition of CK as a true breakthrough will come, ironically, from outside the US. yyy60's posts on Asian centers are encouraging. Prevalent diseases in Asia such as hepatocellular and nasopharyngeal cancers (and of course lung cancer) are particularly suited for CK. Compared to other cancer therapies, one need not be an Arab shiek or Taiwanese tycoon to afford CK. It is well within range of at least the Indian or Japanese upper middle classes, and it will be clinical results that count. As I have felt since ARAY's stock price plummeted, any recovery if it is to occur will not come because of new suits on the BOD, restructuring, videos, or PR (as important as those things are in any company), but because of clinical results, and this will be a long, long haul.

a nice break, indeed... :-)

NaviSite's hosting solns create value for SMBs

from CyberMedia India Online Ltd:

>>NaviSite's hosting solns create value for SMBs

Provides the scale and expertise that SMBs truly require to run their IT infrastructure in a reliable and scalable hosted model

BANGALORE, INDIA: NaviSite, a leading provider of IT hosting, outsourcing and professional services for mid- to large-sized organizations, has been leveraging upon a proven set of technologies and extensive subject matter expertise to deliver cost-effective and flexible solutions that provide responsive and predictable levels of service for its clients' businesses.

NaviSite has leveraged its Indian operations to provide a consolidated set of services for the small and medium businesses (SMBs), both in India and more broadly across the globe. "By combining a fabric of 16 data centers and 700 employees globally, NaviSite is able to provide the scale and expertise that SMBs truly require to run their IT infrastructure in a reliable and scalable hosted model without having to stretch their wallets," says Sumeet Sabharwal, MD, NaviSite India.