AWS partners with Ningxia Western Cloud Data for 2nd data center region in China

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has formed a strategic partnership with Ningxia Western Cloud Data Technology Co. Ltd. (NWCD).

AWS will use data centers and cloud infrastructure operated by NWCD to launch AWS China (Ningxia) Region, its second cloud region in China. NWCD operates and provides services from the AWS China (Ningxia) Region in full compliance with Chinese regulations.

The AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD, offers two Availability Zones at launch. AWS Regions are comprised of Availability Zones, which refer to technology infrastructure in separate and distinct geographic locations with enough distance to significantly reduce the risk of a single event impacting availability, yet near enough for business continuity applications that require rapid failover. Each Availability Zone has independent power, cooling, and physical security, and is connected to national backbone networks via local telecom carriers’ high-speed fiber-optic networks. AWS customers focused on high availability can architect their applications to run in multiple Availability Zones or across both AWS China Regions to achieve even higher fault-tolerance.

AWS China (Beijing) Region is already in service and operated by Sinnet. The company said it already has thousands of active customers using its cloud services in Beijing.

The expansion to NingXia marks the seventh AWS region in Asia Pacific (Beijing, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo). AWS now provides 46 Availability Zones across 17 technology infrastructure regions globally, with announced plans for another 15 Availability Zones across five AWS Regions in Bahrain, France, Hong Kong SAR, Sweden, and the US.

“Together with our partner NWCD, and with deep appreciation of the support we’ve received from the Zhongwei municipal government and Ningxia government, we’re excited to announce the launch of the AWS China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD. The second AWS Region in China is part of AWS’s ongoing commitment to offer best-in-class cloud technologies to Chinese customers,” said Andy Jassy, CEO, AWS. “For years, AWS and our partners have had an enthusiastic base of customers in China, a country with one of the world’s largest and most dynamic cloud ecosystems. Our customers build their businesses on AWS because in addition to being the world’s largest cloud, it has more functionality than any other cloud platform, an extensive partner community, and unmatched maturity, security, and performance.”

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Iron Mountain to acquire IO Data Centers U.S. for $1.3B

Iron Mountain agreed to acquire the U.S. operations of IO Data Centers LLC, a colocation data center services provider based in Phoenix, Arizona, for $1.315 billion plus up to $60 million based on future performance.

The deal includes the land and buildings associated with four state-of-the-art data centers in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona; Edison, New Jersey; and Columbus, Ohio. The existing data center space in the four owned facilities totals 728,000 square feet, providing 62 megawatts (MW) of capacity with expansion potential of an additional 77 MW in Arizona and New Jersey. 

IO Phoenix Campus
Leading interconnected campus with significant expansion potential
Current data center capacity: 38 MW (approximately 95% utilization)
Weighted average remaining lease term of 2.9 years
Expansion capability: 2 - 3 MW through an expansion of the existing shell, plus an additional 60 MW on adjacent 9-acre owned and entitled parcel

IO Scottsdale
Raised floor with dedicated metro optical network to IO Phoenix campus
Current data center capacity: 7 MW (approximately 88% utilization)
Weighted average remaining lease term of 2.2 years

IO New Jersey Campus
830,000 square foot building, including approximately 400,000 square feet of warehouse space for subleasing; former New York Times printing building, partially fitted with data centers, offers proximity to Wall Street and healthcare firms
Current data center capacity: 15 MW (approximately 79% utilization)
Weighted average remaining lease term of 4.3 years
Expansion capability: 15 MW

IO Ohio
Highly efficient data center
Current data center capacity: 2 MW (approximately 98% utilization)
Weighted average remaining lease term of 4.0 years

This agreement follows the acquisition of FORTRUST data center on September 1, 2017, and the announcement of Iron Mountain's international data center expansion through the planned acquisition of two Credit Suisse data centers in the London and Singapore markets.

When the Credit Suisse and IO transactions are consummated in early 2018, Iron Mountain's data center portfolio will total more than 90 MW of existing capacity, with an additional 26 MW of capacity currently under construction and planned and future expansion potential of another 135 MW.

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FirstNet adds "Ruthless Preemption" feature

FirstNet, which in partnership with AT&T is building the nationwide public safety broadband network, announced the release of "ruthless preemption" for first responder subscribers across the country.

Preemption is a mission-critical feature that enables first responders on FirstNet to communicate and coordinate during emergencies, large events or other situations where commercial networks can become congested.

The feature is now available to first responders in states and territories that have opted in to the First Responder Network Authority and AT&T plan.

"As a first responder on 9/11, I experienced the communications challenges that can happen in large emergencies as networks become congested and overwhelmed," said Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Chief Richard Bowers. "Now, with the launch of preemption on FirstNet, for the first time, public safety is ensured a 'fast lane' to connect. FirstNet will provide reliability, confidence and ability for first responders to be able to communicate during emergency operations. Virginia was first in to opt in, and we're all in to ensure emergency communications are seamless for first responders."

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Zayo to provide European Dark Fiber to Global Webscale Company

Zayo announced a major contract to provide a global webscale company (not named) with significant amounts of dark fiber in Europe. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The solution consists of more than 835 miles (1,350 kilometers) of long-haul dark fiber located on multiple strategic routes in the UK and France. The solution utilizes Zayo’s significant European assets acquired from Geo, Viatel, and AboveNet.

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Tencent deploys Mellanox RDMA and Intelligent Interconnect Acceleration Engines

Tencent Cloud has adopted Mellanox interconnect solutions for its high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) public cloud offering.

Specifically, the Tencent Cloud infrastructure leverages Mellanox Ethernet and InfiniBand adapters, switches and cables to deliver advanced public cloud services. Tencent also employs Mellanox RDMA, in-network computing and other interconnect acceleration engines.

“Tencent Cloud is utilizing Mellanox interconnect and applications acceleration technology to help companies develop their next generation products and offer new and intelligent services,” said Wang Huixing, vice president of Tencent Cloud. “We are excited to work with Mellanox to integrate its world-leading interconnect technologies into our public cloud offerings, and plan to continue to scale our infrastructure product lines to meet the growing needs of our customers.”

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Verizon opens 5G incubator in NYC’s Silicon Alley

Verizon opened a 5G-enabled Open Innovation lab in New York’s Silicon Alley.  The facility, which was created in partnership with Alley, a co-working community that collocates startups, accelerators, and entrepreneurs, aims to work with startups and academics to unlock new use cases and experiences through trials and prototypes using Verizon’s pre-commercial 5G technology.

“5G brings an entirely new and unique array of benefits and possibilities compared to previous wireless technologies,” says Verizon SVP of Strategy, Innovation and Product Development, Toby Redshaw. “One of the best ways to unleash the true possibilities of 5G is by getting it into the hands of innovators and visionaries. We see Alley as a logical first place to do just that.”

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Fiber Broadband Association elects Kevin Morgan as Chair

Kevin Morgan has been elected to the position of Chairman-Elect for the Fiber Broadband Association (formerly the Fiber to the Home Council Americas), which is an industry that promotes all-fiber-optic network infrastructure to the home, to the business, and everywhere.

Morgan will serve one year as Chairman-Elect then move to the position of Chairman of the Board in 2019.  He also serves as Chief Marketing Officer for Clearfield.

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