Daily Archives: April 30, 2010

UK managed hosting provider, NetBenefit, today announced that it has been chosen as a partner in Microsoft’s new programme WebsiteSpark. The programme allows the professional web developer to benefit from potential savings of hundreds of pounds as well as technical training and business support.

Aimed at making the Microsoft Web Platform more accessible, WebsiteSpark is designed for web professionals with up to 10 employees. WebsiteSpark offers web developers free access to Microsoft Windows Web Server andMicrosoft SQL ServerWeb Edition together with developer tools such as Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Expressions.
Colin Bell, managing director at NetBenefit comments: “It can be challenging for start-ups to juggle budgets as they struggle to establish themselves in a highly competitive marketplace. Through WebsiteSpark, the small web design company has access to Microsoft developer tools, technical support and business development resources just at the point when their business needs it most.
“NetBenefitworks with a significant number of web designers small and large. We are proud to have hosted award winning websites and online campaigns. WebsiteSpark allows NetBenefit to combine its expertise and experience in providing flexible hosting platforms for designers and developers with fast and easy access to full-featured Microsoft development tools and web server licenses.”

One of the most advanced data centres in Germany is to soon go into service. TDS’s new facility, with approximately 4,000 square metres of floor space, was erected in Neuenstadt in Baden-Württemberg at a cost of over 10 million euros. Initially, it will be able to house more than 3,500 servers. It will ensure the highest standards in terms of security and reliability, and boast excellent energy efficiency. TDS will now be able to offer additional resources for existing and new customers, since growing IT outsourcing demands are pushing existing data centres to their limits. TDS will also be in a position to provide its parent Fujitsu with additional resources. TDS already serves a number of national and international Fujitsu customers.

Focus on security, reliability and energy efficiency

During planning and construction, emphasis was placed on security and reliability, taking into account the requirements of Uptime Institute’s International Tier III and TÜViT Level 4 certifications.

The building features state-of-the-art fire, burglar-alarm, and physical access-control systems. Plus, there are redundant systems for energy supply, cooling, air conditioning and telecommunications, so the failure of any single component will not result in downtime.

In addition, the new data centre is connected to the existing facilities at TDS headquarters in Neckarsulm, ensuring uninterrupted operation even in the unlikely case of a disaster. As with its existing data centres, TDS plans certification of the new centre through independent authorities to ensure the highest levels of security and reliability.

“Our customers expect maximum security and the highest degree of reliability from an IT service provider. Failures in mission-critical applications that we host would not only have a huge impact on their business; factors such as credit ratings also depend on a secure, reliable and certified IT infrastructure,” says Konrad Meier, member of the Executive Board at TDS and Head of IT Outsourcing. “That’s why security and reliability were our highest priorities in the design of the new data centre.”

State-of-the-art IT systems and effective cooling and air-conditioning contribute to low energy consumption. For example, the indirect free cooling system makes use of outside air; temperatures of 12 degrees Celsius or lower do not require additional cooling. As a result of these and similar measures, the new data centre has been given an outstanding power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.45 (the lower the figure, the better the rating). Most data centres receive significantly higher figures.

Creating new jobs and safeguarding existing ones

“The construction of our new data centre in Germany enables us to meet our customers’ ever increasing demand for IT services provided locally,” explains Dr. Heiner Diefenbach, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board at TDS. “Not only does it allow us to safeguard existing jobs, it helps us create new ones – in Neuenstadt and at other TDS sites. The new data centre forms the basis for our company’s further growth.”

Thanks to this growth, TDS is currently seeking various IT specialists, sales and administrative personnel.

Facts and figures

Below are a few facts and figures for the new data centre at TDS:

– Total floor space: 4,000 square metres

– Space available for servers: 1,068 square metres

– Number of servers: 3,500, max.

– Total length of power cables: 77 kilometres

– Total length of data transmission lines: 39 kilometres

– Output of emergency power supply systems: 3.9 megawatts

– Capacity of fuel tank for emergency power supply: 100,000 litres of diesel

– Capacity of fire extinguishing system: 3,360 litres of nitrogen

– Cost of construction: (building including infrastructure, without IT hardware): more than 10 million euros

You can view photographs of the new TDS data centre at www.tds.de/presse

About TDS AG

TDS provides a comprehensive range of IT services, including SAP-related offerings, to mid-sized enterprises and major corporations. In addition, TDS offers software, outsourcing and related services for human resource management.

A particular focus is SAP consulting, application hosting and application management. The portfolio also includes industry-specific SAP solutions, e.g. for the process industry, as well as the cosmetics and food and drink sectors. As an outsourcer, TDS provides tailored answers to specific customer needs, and end-to-end management of entire IT infrastructures.

In the HR space, TDS can assume complete responsibility for all processes associated with managing staff. TDS is Germany’s market leader in HR business-process outsourcing (BPO), handling about 800,000 payroll transactions every month. A further million payroll transactions are processed by companies deploying TDS Personal HR software.

Currently, TDS employs around 1,200 staff at some 20 sites in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In fiscal 2008/2009, the company posted revenues of approximately 132 million euros. Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Neckarsulm, Germany, TDS is traded on the Frankfurt stock exchange (ISIN DE0005085609 and DE0008164286). TDS has been a member of the Fujitsu Group, one of the world’s leading IT players, since 2007.

Website: www.tds.de

SiteGround web hosting company has launched new services in two very important areas – website promotion and security enhancement. SiteGround customers can now have the most popular Google tools integrated in their websites by the company professionals. Additionally, SiteGround now offers new ways to enhance the security of its customers’ websites and emails. All these new services are launched together with a newly-designed Exclusive Support Section in the SiteGround customer area.

SiteGround has a long record of providing different resources and services in addition to the standard web hosting. Application related services such as application installation, upgrade, template and addon installation, have always been part of the company service portfolio. Now SiteGround enlarge the area in which they offer assistance to the web masters using their hosting. With the new service of integrating the most popular Google tools like Analytics and AdSense, SiteGround helps its customers to promote their websites better. The security of the customers’ emails and websites is the other area of innovations. SiteGround now offers advanced spam and virus protection based on the well-known MailFoundryTM technology. Additionally, SiteGround now provides website security audit plus malicious code clean-up to protect a website against hacker attacks.

All additional support services provided by SiteGround are now located in the newly-designed Exclusive Support Services Section in their Customer Area. “As we were actively adding new services over the last months and this process will continue, it was necessary to create this new section for easier navigation and better customer experience.” says Dima Peteva from the SiteGround marketing department. “We are very happy with the positive feedback we received by our customers both for the new services and the new design”.

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SiteGround has been founded in 2004 and currently provides web hosting services to over 250,000 domains worldwide. SiteGround is constantly improving its service to offer abundant resources, comprehensive 24/7 customer care and latest server technology to provide highest reliability to its customers. The company offers shared hosting, reseller hosting and managed dedicated hosting solutions. You can learn more about SiteGround at the company’s website: www.siteground.com

Web and cloud hosting provider, Savvis plans to meet growing demand for European cloud computing and IT infrastructure by expanding its UK data centre.

Savvis said that the 20 million pounds Sterling ($30.3M USD) expansion of its Slough data centre in the UK precedes the Savvis Symphony Virtual Private Data Centre (VPDC) launch in Europe later this year. Savvis Symphony Open, its public cloud solution, is currently being offered in addition to managed and virtualised hosting, private cloud, and network services.

The Slough facility will be an ISO 27001 accredited facility and the planned 20,000 square feet expansion is expected to be completed by September 2010. Approximately 43,000 square feet of saleable data centre floor space will be the end result of this expansion.

Brian Klingbeil, managing director EMEA for Savvis outlines the necessity of the data centre enhancement: “Following a rise in enterprise adoption of managed hosting services in Europe, we are now experiencing increasing demand for both private and public cloud infrastructure services. From our highly secure data centre in Slough, European customers can access some of the industry’s highest levels of IT infrastructure flexibility – from colocation and managed hosting to cloud computing and network services. This breadth and depth of solutions continues to attract enterprise customers into our Slough facility.”

Globally Savvis maintains more than 1.4 million square feet of raised floor space through its 28 data centres including three in the UK. Savvis said the Slough facility expansion is one of four worldwide scheduled for completion in 2010.

Please visit www.Savvis.net to learn more about the company’s portfolio of Web hosting, Cloud Computing and IT services.

The Planet, the global leader in IT hosting, today announced its silver sponsorship of the 2010 Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco, scheduled for May 4-5 at the Moscone West Convention Center. The company’s Web Hosting Evangelist Kevin Hazard will present at the expo’s solutions showcase theater on May 4 at 10:45 a.m. His session, titled “You care about hosting, even if you don’t know it: The Siren Song of The Planet Server,” gives a brief overview on why a solid IT infrastructure provider is critical to Web 2.0 businesses.

The Planet will exhibit in booth 708, a planned stop on the Web 2.0 Booth Crawl, which takes place May 5 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The company will also feature its popular Server Challenge, which tasks conference attendees to post the fastest time in correctly rebuilding a server. The winner of The Planet Server Challenge will receive an Asus Eee PC netbook. Additionally, the company will give away a Flip digital video recorder to one conference attendee. Participants must submit their business card to win.

For more information on The Planet at the Web 2.0 Expo, visit http://www.theplanet.com/events.

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 20,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 18.5 million Web sites worldwide. Customers have the power to choose from the broadest range of hosting solutions in the industry, from dedicated servers, Managed Dedicated Servers, Northstar Managed Hosting™ and data center colocation, all backed by 24x7x365 support. With the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class service, backed by state-of-the-art data centers and an enterprise-class network, The Planet turns IT into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to grow their businesses. For additional information, visit http://www.theplanet.com.