2009 is almost over and it is time to look backwards as well as forward to a new year with a lot of interesting challenges and opportunities. For Data Center Map 2009 has been a very good year with a lot of interesting new features, huge growth and a lot of good feedback from the community of clients and providers who use our services. We managed to get the new version of our site launched in May and has since then upgraded it with new features and extra focus on connectivity (fiber, ethernet services and internet exchanges), and so far the feedback we have received has been overwhelming.

All these new features and improvements we are making are a part of our vision of transparency, and in the big picture they are just small steps towards our ultimate goal. Data Center Map is already the leading site of its kind with the most comprehensive database of providers, facilities and networks, but in the long term our vision is to make Data Center Map the ultimate link between clients and providers of data center services. We believe this is possible by making the industry as transparent as possible by collecting and sharing all the information we can in a way that is easy to work with for both parties, and thereby making it easier for clients to get in touch with suitable providers as well as easier for providers to market their solutions.

In 2010 we will be optimizing a lot of our existing services and features to accommodate this (such as our quote service), as well as hopefully adding a lot of new features to make Data Center Map an even more handy tool for our users. Furthermore we will strengthen our external partnerships to drive more traffic and thereby data to the site as well as optimize our services according to the feedback we receive from our partners. As always we are of course more than open to suggestions on what improvements our users would like to see, so feel free to contact us.

That was all for now, instead of taking up more of your time on this lovely day, I would like to wish you a happy new year and thank you for using Data Center Map.

Recently we have experienced a growing demand from our users to increase our coverage of carriers and connectivity options, in relation to the data centers that we have in our index. We have covered IP transit services (FastE, GigE and 10G IPv4 and IPv6 ports) for some time now, but to improve our coverage we have now added a few new features:

• Ethernet services
  As an addition to our coverage of IP transit services, we now offer the possibility for carriers offering ethernet services to define it in their network settings. This will list them as offering ethernet services in the data centers where they offer IP transit and allow clients to request quotes for ethernet services from them, in case they are in need of point to point or multipoint private line transport or similar. If you offer point-to-point ethernet / private line transport you can define this by going to “Add/edit networks” in the control panel and editing your networks ASN.
• Carrier resellers
  Dealing with some of the big wholesale carriers can sometimes be hard and expensive if you are a small fish in the market, which is why a lot of providers go through a reseller of direct port solutions from the wholesale carriers instead. As a part of our upgrade we have included support for carrier resellers, so that it is possible to obtain quotes from a reseller as well instead of just from the carrier directly. If you resell carrier services you can define this by going to “Add/edit networks” in the control panel and adding the carriers AS number(s).
• Data center connectivity
  The administration of carrier neutral data centers has been improved for colocation providers, as they can now easier administrate which carriers offer IP transit as well as which carriers have their own fiber in their data center(s).
• Carrier quote forms
  In addition to the general quote form and the quote form at the network pages, we have added a quote form directly to the connectivity tab on data centers (example) and buildings (example). This will make it easier for clients to request quotes for services in a specific data center or building. Furthermore the network quote form has been upgraded so that the client can choose who should receive the request if both resellers and arrangements with the carrier are available (example).

So almost no matter where you are looking for connectivity, we will be able to support you with our wide coverage of carrier presence. Currently we cover about 250 network carriers and more than 1,500 points of presence, including pops from most of the tier 1 networks and the rest of the leading transit providers such as Global Crossing, Telia, Verizon Business (UUNet), Sprint, Qwest, AT&T, AboveNet, Cogent, XO Communications, Savvis, NTT Communications, Level 3, TW Telecom, Comcast, Bell, Tinet (Tiscali), France Telecom, Deutsche Telecom, Versatel, Interoute, Lamdanet, COLT Telecom and many more.

You can search for carriers via this search form, to get access to their profile where you can see whois details, upstreams/peers, transit locations and much more, or use the advanced data center search form to find data centers with specific carriers represented.

Apart from these enhancements in relation to carrier services and our former upgrade to include fiber presence and internet exchange points for peering, we have a lot of other carrier and connectivity related upgrades planned for the future. We encourage all carriers to make sure that their presence is properly defined in our database as well as we encourage all carrier neutral data centers to update their profiles with availability of network providers etc.

When clients choose a colocation provider the quality of the data center is obviously often one of the most important factors, which is why presenting your data center in a good way on your website is very important so that clients get a good first impression. There are a lot of ways to do this – a good description, facts, photos, videos, 3d models, interactive flash presentations etc. Below I have gathered some of the various approaches of doing virtual flash tours, as inspiration to those who are considering how to present their data center(s) as well as eye candy for those of us who just love watching them.

InTechnology

InTechnology has created a very simple yet powerful presentation of the entire facility layout, with nice mouseover functions with pictures and facts of the various features in the data center.

Easynet Connect

The approach by Easynet Connect is a bit different than most of the other providers, made as a 360 degree photo you can spin around and mouseover the various elements in the data center to get further details and photos.

HostEurope

HostEuropes approach with a tour inside a 3d model of the facility is really cool, although it of course is more time demanding for the visitor. After entering the facility the visitor can then choose between four different subjects (cooling, power, network and security). The tour is in German, but even though you don’t understand German it should be pretty easy to use it and get an impression of how it works.

TulsaConnect

TulsaConnect has made flash layouts of their two data center locations, with the possibility of clicking on the various elements for further details and photos.

Level 3

Level 3 has taken the same approach as a lot of the others with an overview of the facility, where you can click on various subjects for further details.

The Bunker

As an underground data center The Bunker has created an overview as well, but split in to three different levels (above ground and 25/30 meters below). Click the “Take a virtual tour” link in the right side panel to see their tour.

UK Grid

Very simple and clean facility overview, split in to two different floors featuring small markers that can be hovered with the mouse for further details.

Cisco

Although Cisco is not a colocation provider, I thought their recent presentation of their data center in Richardson was worth including. It is a really nice overview with a lot of technical details, photos and video material combined.

Summing up the best qualities of the various presentations above, in my personal opinion, then focus on keeping it simple, easy to navigate and combine it with facts, photos and perhaps even video – and make sure that it is easy to update later on if your facility gets upgraded. Oh, and no unnecessary background music as it doesn’t belong in an office environment.

Later I will try to dig in to the best approaches of video presentations and perhaps some of the other alternatives.
If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to reach out.

Seen from above large data centers are often easy to recognize, due to the large amount of cooling equipment, antennas etc. that usually are located either on the roofs of the data centers or around the buildings.
With the availability of satellite images and images shot from planes via Google Earth and Live Maps, it is possible for us to get a sneak peak of some of the more interesting data centers seen from above:

Connectivity

NAP of the Americas, Miami
Below is an overview of Terremarks NAP of the Americas facility in Miami, showing their three up to 16 meter huge sattelite antennas. The satellite dishes are intended as backup in case of a total loss of fiber connectivity, even though it is an unlikely scenario. More details about the satellite installation can be found at Data Center Knowledge.

Tele Greenland, Nuuk
This satellite photo shows two large satellite antennas at Tele Greenlands data center in Nuuk, which due to their very remote location has been Greenlands primary connection to the outside world. Recently a submarine cable was finished, Greenland Connect, connecting Greenland to Canada and Iceland.

Cooling Equipment

i/o Data Centers, Phoenix
Below is a shot viewing part of i/o Data Centers recent data center, Phoenix ONE, with an example of just how big cooling equipment can be at large data centers. Notice the size compared to the car in the lower right corner.

350 East Cermak Road, Chicago
The picture below shows one of Chicagos primary data centers, Digital Realty Trust’s facility at 350 East Cermak Road, which shows the large diversity in different types and sizes of cooling equipment at their roof.

Roof Capacity

TeleCityGroup Sovereign House, London
Often large data centers within the city have very limited roof space available compared to the amount of equipment they house, forcing them to pack a lot of equipment very close together on the roof. Below is an aerial shot of one of TeleCityGroup’s primary facilities in London, Sovereign House in Docklands, showing how densely their roof is packed.

111 Eight Avenue, New York
The huge carrier hotel at 111 Eight Avenue in New York is another great example of a large inner-city facility with a lot of equipment on the roof, and in a much larger scale than Sovereign House above.

Birds-eye view via Microsoft Live Maps can be viewed directly on most of the data centers listed at Data Center Map, just go to a data center profile and click the “Map” tab.

Got any other examples of interesting data center views from the sky? Feel free to share.
Other interesting shots could for example include data centers with solar panels etc.

A few days ago footage from the surveillance cameras in a Vodafone data center in Istanbul was released, showing how the massive flooding in the city came in to the raised floor area and made the floor tiles float around like small floating ducks.
The video can be seen below (forward to 1:54 to get inside the server room):

Normally data centers are designed to withstand the most common natural hazards in the areas they are located in, so it is pretty rare that data centers are affected directly by floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires etc. and even more rare to see footage of it. However, it does happen sometimes that we hear about data centers being affected by unexpected natural hazards or surviving them:

Wildfire close to California data center
In 2007 a wildfire near the data center of Pepperdine University came within 100 feet of the facility, forcing the staff to begin emergency procedures of shutting down systems and moving backup data away from the location. Luckily firefighters managed to save the data center from the flames, so it remained operational during the incident. Further details about the event can be found at Computerworld.

Data center struggled with Hurricane Katrina
During Hurricane Katrina that terrorised New Orleans in 2005, the staff of a data center stuck it out on the 10th floor of a building for nearly two weeks to keep their facility operational. The data center operated on emergency power and played an important role for communications in the area after the hurricane. More details about the episode can be read at Wired.

UK data center rides out earthquake
United Kingdom is not normally an area affected by earthquakes, but in 2008 an earthquake occurred with an epicenter only 30 miles from the Smartbunker data center in Lincolnshire. Fortunately the earthquake, measuring 5.3 on the Richter scale, had no effects on operations of the data center even though the earthquake was felt all the way in Amsterdam. Data Center Knowledge has further coverage about this.

To finish up where we started, here is a video from another flooded data center: