Carrier hotels are primarily used by the network providers but also serve nicely as backup datacenters for enterprises and companies providing services like hosting, backup and cloud services. For enterprises, using carrier hotels as a secondary data center provides a “just in case” place to ensure business continuity during temporary or long-term disaster recovery situations. IT professionals choosing to work with carrier hotels for colocation understand that the facilities are bare-boned – no cushy chairs or cold drinks in the kitchen – but they also know that eliminating the bells and whistles also reduces costs considerably.

The most important things to remember when working with a carrier hotel is that this location is used for backup; it doesn’t require the same extensive offerings of a primary data center. No need for retinal scans or armed security; just solid infrastructure and service to help businesses continue operations in case of emergency. To see if a carrier hotel is a viable option, each function of the data center should be reviewed carefully to determine if it is absolutely mandatory or merely “nice to have.” By cutting out all truly unnecessary items, the cost savings quickly become significant.

Traditionally carrier hotels offer excellent facilities with tremendous heating and cooling systems, a wide range of carrier choices, highly flexible space including cages and suites, competitive power rates and generous terms. Carrier hotels may or may not offer extensive managed services, remote hands service, or security.

Is a carrier hotel right for your collocation needs? Only you can answer that question for sure, but if cost savings is high on your requirements checklist, don’t dismiss carrier hotels as an option just because of their lack of creature comforts.

Search for available space in carrier hotels near your locations free at FindADataCenter.com You can compare features and request quotes on data center colocation, managed services and wholesale data center options.

This business continuance/disaster response facility offers all of the excellent features necessary for a secondary data center or mirror facility, including:

• Abundance of carriers
• Flexible layout configurations
• Convenient, centralized location
• Additional services
• Affordable pricing
• Flexible terms

Located at 8200 Boone Boulevard in Vienna, this location offers quick access to I-495 via exit 47.

The building has been awarded LEED Gold status by the U.S. Green Building Council for its outstanding design involving energy and atmosphere performance, water performance management, indoor air quality, green cleaning policy, and waste disposal methods.

For a tour of this location, or to see a FiberLocator Map indicating the fiber routes in the area, simply contact NEF.  They can also assist in identifying other primary or secondary data center locations within the DC Metro area, including the specific strengths and weaknesses of each facility based on your criteria. NEF offers preliminary data center and network searches at no cost or can provide more extensive maps, reports and feasibility studies upon request.

Before you make that decision, download the new free whitepaper from NEF entitled “BC/DR Data Selection Criteria.” It highlights many of the important factors involved in selecting a datacenter facility, including:

• System requirements
• Layout Configurations
• Connectivity & Carrier Diversity
• Latency

The guide also includes a series of questions to ask during the selection process to ensure that the most significant items are taken into consideration.

In case you didn’t know, NEF and FindADataCenter.com offer a free data center search service. Just give them the specifics of what type of center you’re looking for, the geographic parameters, and they’ll prepare a list of possible candidates. One of the best things about working with NEF is that, since they work with over a thousand datacenters across the country, they know the locations and details about all the new centers coming online, as well as which ones are offering special deals or pricing based on your criteria. It’s an easy way to get the best deal, especially since it doesn’t cost a cent.

To download this free whitepaper on selecting a backup data center or choosing a BC/DR backup location, visit the NEF website.

Facility owners took full advantage of the remodeling opportunity to transform the data center to a state-of-the-art facility fully equipped to handle the needs of almost any client. As part of the remodel, this NEF featured datacenter features heavy floor loading and high ceilings to accommodate virtually any type of equipment or hardware. Because of the extensive build-out, this is literally a turn-key space.

Power is derived from two substations, ensuring an uninterrupted supply. In addition, the location is also equipped with multiple risers and roof dunnage to eliminate moisture concerns. Numerous fiber providers are connected to this location. Additional services are also available should clients require them from a secondary facility.

Even with all of these features, this facility offers excellent pricing and special deals can be negotiated. NEF can help you negotiate an agreement with this datacenter at no cost to you. Contact NEF now to request a FiberLocator Map of the location, or to schedule a tour.

“The addition of AFS’s markets significantly increases the geographic scope of the bandwidth infrastructure services that Zayo offers to its customers,” said Dan Caruso, President and CEO of Zayo Group. AFS will be the 15th acquisition by Zayo Group since its inception in 2007.

American Fiber Systems brings over 800 route miles of fiber-rich network in 6 primary metropolitan markets – Salt Lake City, Nashville, Reno, Boise, Kansas City and Las Vegas. AFS also adds 400 additional route miles in Atlanta, Cleveland and Minnesota to the Zayo network.

AFS’ product set is concentrated on fiber and transport services, with a customer base leaning toward the carrier, wireless and wholesale segments, which is very similar to the Zayo Bandwidth business unit.

Zayo Group has over 20,000 route miles of regional fiber, metro fiber and fiber to tower networks spanning 141 markets in 23 states. The company is organized into three business units: Zayo Bandwidth, focusing on the carrier and wholesale segment, Zayo Enterprise Networks, and zColo.

American Fiber Systems, based in Rochester, NY, provides dark fiber and lit bandwidth servides to carrier and large enterprise customers across 1200+ miles of metropolitan fiber networks across nine markets and regionally through the state of Georgia.

This completely new route has been in development for the last three years. The new private network enables Spread Networks customers to achieve “clean speed”, with data running as close as possible to the true speed of light through fiber, since there is no drag from traditional telecommunications offerings.

“Spread Networks has established the competitive standard for trading latency between these two important financial centers,” said Spread Networks CEO David Barksdale. “Financial firms looking for increased bandwidth to move large volumes of data with maximum efficiency will turn to Spread Networks to provide the most efficient, private dark fiber network available today.”

The company made the announcement during the SIFMA conference in New York City. Spread Networks, LLC is a privately owned telecommunications provider based in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The company's management team includes Jim Barksdale, Chairman and President of Barksdale Management Corporation and former CEO of Netscape and AT&T Wireless as Chairman; Dan Spivey, former trader and market maker at CBOE as President and Founder; and Murray White, former Head of Strategy and Business Development for NYSE Technologies, as Executive Vice President, Market Development.

"With energy consumption on the rise—and expected to keep growing—data center managers are continually on the lookout for ways to increase efficiency and cut down on power and cooling costs. Although alternative energy strategies such as solar and wind aren’t widespread yet, the move toward green technology could boost adoption rates in the coming years.

“Basically, anything that can offset the use of commercial power and its associated costs is being looked at,” notes Kris Domich, principal consultant at Dimension Data. “The cost to get (to cleaner, greener centers) might be too high for most data centers right now, but it’s likely to come down as the interest keeps growing.”

Research Initiatives

New partnerships, such as the recent agreement between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory signed with Siemens Energy to provide high-resolution atmospheric modeling capabilities, a strategy that can improve the efficiency of wind farm operations, offers great possibilities.

The laboratory’s modeling will allow for better weather forecasting, which is vital for boosting wind performance, according to Julie Lundquist, a Livermore scientist who heads the project. She notes that the methods they’ve developed for simulating turbulent properties of the lower atmosphere will result in a predictive advantage for wind energy farms.

Hydro power, fuel cells, biomass, and geothermal power sources are also being actively explored. Each has its challenges but also potential. For example, in some smaller-scale applications, fuel cells can be used to replace the traditional battery plant for long-runtime applications. The power density of fuel cell stacks, coupled with very low maintenance and potential tax incentives, have made this power source one worth watching.

Going Alternative

Some medium-sized and larger data centers and colocation facilities have been exploring the use of alternative power. Emerson Network Power opened a new energy-efficient center last year in Missouri, using the state’s largest solar array. When the 35,000-square-foot center went live, it was 31% more efficient than traditional data centers, thanks to the solar technology, precision cooling products, and other efficiency strategies.

When Emerson first decided to build the center, it set out to achieve silver-level certification in LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) but ended up garnering gold-level instead, according to Jack Pouchet, director of energy initiatives at Emerson.

“We also knew the 7,800-square-foot rooftop solar array would contribute a portion of the energy needed to run the data center,” he says. “We purposely oriented the building in such a way and put the array at an angle to the building structure so that we could capture the most amount of sun in the process.” The result, he notes, is that the solar array covers up to 15% of the data center’s load.

The solar array is anchored by a purpose-built super structure that’s on a permanent tilt, with no penetration of the roof over the data center. Pouchet says, “As we were laying this out, we also made certain that we could get to the back side of the panels to wire them.” He added that the building sits back far enough to minimize issues with trees, pollen and leaves, and the amount of rain and slope of the array also work to keep the modules clean.

Looking Ahead

For most data centers, using alternative power doesn’t mean making a clean break with the power company. Instead, this type of power is now being used to increase efficiency and lower consumption costs, and most likely, it will take some time for smaller data centers to implement technologies that harness solar, wind, biomass, and other strategies in a way that’s cost effective.

“Right now, the cost to get in is pretty high,” says Domich. “But most likely, it won’t be like that forever. As more data centers start putting systems in place, and demand increases, hopefully the costs will start coming down.”

The company said the deal gives it properties in California, Arizona and Virginia, totaling about 919,000 square feet. Digital Realty expects to fund the purchase price with available cash, loans and the sale of debt or equity securities. The acquisition is expected to close on or about July 2.

The properties include 365 Main Street in San Francisco, Calif.; 2260 East El Segundo Boulevard in El Segundo, Calif.; 720 2nd Street in Oakland, Calif.; 2121 South Price Road in Chandler, Ariz.; and 4030-4050 Lafayette Center Drive in Chantilly, Va.

Optical fiber provider American Fiber Systems (AFS) announced its proposed community broadband project was among the top 10 recommended by the Governors of the State of Kansas and the State of Missouri as a priority project for Round 2 Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) consideration.

The only proposal chosen by both states, AFS's proposed infrastructure spans across both states in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The $10 million proposed project is classified as "comprehensive community infrastructure" and would establish a broadband network in Platte, Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Clay and Jackson counties in both Missouri and Kansas. AFS's community project provides for fiber connectivity to key government locations, public safety facilities, medical campuses, educational (K through 12) locations and libraries in Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, the proposal includes connectivity to Missouri state colleges.

Both states chose their top projects to recommend based on varied criteria, including relevance and effect on telemedicine, distance learning, economic development, e-government and the needs of underserved residents of Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, special emphasis was attached to projects slated for counties in greater need of assistance.

"With 15,264 fiber miles and firsthand knowledge of the Kansas City metropolitan market, AFS is well-positioned to plan and execute this ambitious project," said Rich Coyle, Senior Vice President, Operations, AFS. "This project is so much more than acquiring funding to expand our network. It is about bringing broadband to areas where it hasn't yet been available and enhancing the lives of community members by giving them a more reliable connection to the rest of the world."

RCN Metro Optical Networks is offering its Ethernet services to local, national, and international service providers via Ethernet Exchange Carriers in New York City and Chicago at bandwidths from 1 Mbps to 10 Gbps. Additional regions will be announced throughout the year.

In order to interconnect with carriers today, one-off interconnection agreements need to be negotiated with each carrier. Since Ethernet service delivery standards are not ubiquitously adhered to, carriers are challenged to interconnect without compromising services quality or support. RCN Metro's participation in Ethernet exchanges represents the company's commitment to expanding the distribution of its Ethernet services through these exchanges designed to facilitate these types of interconnections.