IT enterprise provider Terremark, whose portfolio includes services such as managed hosting, colocation, and cloud, recently announced that they’ve completed an add-on to their data center in São Paulo, Brazil.

Terremark says the expansion makes the facility one of the largest in the area, giving Terremark an additional fifteen thousand square feet of raised space.

Wireless provider Verizon acquired Terremark earlier this year in April for $1.4 billion dollars.

Commenting on the matter, Hugo Zanon, GM of Verizon Terremark operations in the country, stated, “Our main focus in expanding our São Paulo data center is to provide local customers with a secure, highly available hosting environment for their mission-critical applications.”

“The NAP do Brasil offers our multinational customers a globally connected facility they can leverage as they deploy the IT resources needed to tap the growing Brazilian and Latin American markets,” he continued.

Meanwhile, the facility has the ability to host 1000 thousand servers, a pretty impressive statistic. Terremark already has around fifty data facilities in locations including Dallas, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Miami.

Other recent news regarding Terremark includes an expansion of its services, thanks to a new acquisition by Verizon.

Most recently, Verizon acquired cloud enterprise provider CloudSwitch, which the company has already combined with Terremark. Upon the acquisition, Verizon President of the global enterprise unit Bob Toohey stated, “With the acquisition of CloudSwitch, Verizon has taken another step forward in defining the enterprise cloud.” For more information on Terremark’s data center expansion, visit: http://www.terremark.com/about/news/archive/2011/09012011.aspx

Flexiant, a UK-based cloud infrastructure software and services provider – and Europe’s original public cloud provider – and Standing Cloud, Inc. a leader in the emerging platform as a service (PaaS) marketplace, have gone live with their “Standing Cloud powered by Flexiant” integration, bringing a vastly simplified method of deploying and managing cloud-hosted applications to European cloud users.

“Standing Cloud powered by Flexiant” marries an application layer from Standing Cloud with Flexiant’s Extility cloud product. Extility customers will be able to find and immediately use around 100 popular web applications—WordPress, SugarCRM, DotProject and OpenBravo, to name a few—complete with built-in monitoring and management tools that ease system administration headaches. Developers can use PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, and Python to support rapid testing and live deployment. Pricing starts at $38.95 per month.

Together, Standing Cloud and Flexiant aim to remove the mystery of the cloud for “informal buyers” who have struggled with accessing cloud technology. Forrester Research defines this group as including application developers, innovative business users and service providers.

The “Standing Cloud powered by Flexiant” integration includes a separate Flexiant branded area of the Standing Cloud web site, and offers the ability to register and run a free trial of the various applications, before opting for full hosting. This allows users to see how flexible and immediate cloud application provisioning really can be.

“Standing Cloud powered by Flexiant is an exciting new way to bring the promise of cloud computing to business users and developers. By connecting Standing Cloud’s point and click interface to their infrastructure, Flexiant’s customers no longer need to have system administration skills to use it productively,” said David J. Jilk, CEO of Standing Cloud.

As well, earlier this year, Standing Cloud began expanding its support for data centers in the UK and Europe so that users could take advantage of the company’s ability to restore their application in minutes to another cloud in case of downtime on their primary cloud provider. For more info, read “Standing Cloud Facilitates Privacy Law Compliance in the EuroCloud” (Standingcloud.com).

“We found we had a lot in common with Standing Cloud, in our determination to look at things from the users’ point of view. We’ve created a service that ‘just works’, that doesn’t need a lot of knowledge or skills. You shouldn’t have to hire someone to manage your cloud computing, you should be able to do it yourself. And with Standing Cloud’s innovative application layer, you can,” said Alex Bligh, Flexiant CEO.

Flexiant’s flagship software product, Extility, allows licensees to build their own cloud and sell cloud services under their own brand. The cloud computing platform delivers all the benefits of real-time server estate management to end-users through its unique user interface and API. Central to these end-user benefits is the ability to provision and reconfigure servers in seconds or minutes rather than hours or days.

For more information on Flexiant, please visit: http://www.flexiant.com/

You may be quite aware of the plan in the United States to save money by closing federal data centers. Well, now, Canada is planning its own data center consolidation. According to a release by the Canadian government, the country plans to move from having around 300 data centers to just below twenty, accounting for closures of around 280 data centers.

Along with the plan, the Canadian government will also move from 100 email systems to just one. The newly consolidated services will be placed under “Shared Services Canada,” a new organization.

It’s a pretty large consolidation effort. However, it really comes as no surprise. As technology advances, it becomes more compact, requiring less space. Then there’s the economic factor that should be taken into account.

Commenting on the matter in a press release, Canadian Minister of Public Works and Government Services Rona Ambrose stated, “Canadians work hard for their money and expect our Government to manage taxpayers dollars responsibly.”

Portion of the release on the matter states, “This will improve services to Canadians, make IT more secure and reliable, and save taxpayers’ dollars in line with the Government of Canada’s plan to return to balanced budgets.”

The move comes as the country looks strengthen its economy in the wake of the worldwide economic crisis. In the United States alone, the U.S. government is planning to close 373 data centers by sometime next year. Earlier this year, Meritalk, an IT research group estimated that the U.S. could save nearly eighteen billion from closures in the United States.

You can find more information here at Canada News Centre.

A new breach has been identified in the area of global cyber hacking. Recently internet security company McAfee detailed “Shady Rat,” a hacking operation that targeted 72 top worldwide entities. Such victims included various U.S. defense contractors, government agencies, top companies, the United Nations, and plenty more.

The operation occurred over five years. Although it mostly had U.S. targets, various other victims were based in countries such as Canada, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

The security company’s analysis of the attack was based off of accessing the intruders’ “Command & Control server.” Despite the magnitude of the breach, McAfee says that most of the targets had already corrected problems caused by the infections.

According to the report, the operation relied on setting up a backdoor channel through malware. Concluding its findings, McAfee stated, “This is a problem of massive scale that affects nearly every industry and sector of the economies of numerous countries, and the only organizations that are exempt from this threat are those that don’t have anything valuable or interesting worth stealing.”

Although the source of the operation wasn’t revealed, many tech analysts have suspected China as the source of various recent cyber-attacks. Despite denying any involvement, the country was said to be the source of a recent high-profile attack on Google’s Gmail service.

Meanwhile, countries such as the United States have looked to increase their efforts against global cyber security threats by working with other nations, as well as developing new technology. Other recent global cyber-attacks have included a breach on defense contractor Lockheed-Martin and one involving the Pentagon (which the U.S. said likely originated from an unidentified nation state).

Besides these larger scale global breaches that seem more mysterious, this year has seen plenty of other attacks where individual hacking groups have openly taken credit for particular breaches.

Groups LulzSec and Anonymous have recently dominated the headlines. LulzSec has been responsible for attacks on sites belonging to Sony, PBS, the U.S. Senate, the CIA, and more while Anonymous has recently targeted the likes of U.S. defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton and Monsanto, an agricultural company. Fighting back, authorities in various countries have recently arrested people suspected of involvement in the organizations.

Even with all the bad news recently regarding cyber breaches, hopefully such developments have spread awareness and pushed entities to increase their protection against large cyber threats.

You can access the entire report by McAfee in PDF format here: http://www.mcafee.com/us/resources/white-papers/wp-operation-shady-rat.pdf

Could data centers be consuming less power than once believed? The New York Times recently reported on data center power use based on a study from Stanford Professor Jonathan G. Koomey. The findings posed some interesting results.

To get his results, Koomey relied on data compiled by IDC, an information firm.

Back in 2007, the EPA predicted that data center power would double in a span of five years (2005-2010). However, Koomey’s study found something different. In fact, the study found an actual increase of around 56% worldwide.  In the United States, data centers saw an increase by 36%. That’s not quite the doubling the EPA was predicting.

So, what are the reasons behind the shortfall of power consumption by the facilities? According to the New York Times, such factors may include “power-saving technologies” along with the global recession.

Cutting power consumption isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. In fact, it’s often seen as good. More recently, many top data center builders have looked for ways to cut power costs by introducing new methods for cooling facilities’ servers. For example, in May, Google announced a Finland data center that would use cooling methods by relying on water from the Baltic Sea.

Despite the fact that power-use failed to double, it’s still shown a steady climb, signaling the continued importance of data center facilities. In some regards, perhaps the global recession has played a small part and pushing data centers to innovate towards more energy-efficient technology.

In his study, Koomey also found something very interesting pertaining to Google. Despite its high profile, Google is responsible for just around less than 1% of data center power.

For more information on the study, visit The New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/technology/data-centers-using-less-power-than-forecast-report-says.html?_r=1

I have just updated http://www.webhosteditor.com/ theme. Its a clean and profissional template made by Andrew Lindstrom and can be downloaded for free here:

http://wellmedicated.com/themes/zinepress/

The funny thing is I have over 4 unique, custom made and expensive templates made for this blog, and I end up using a free template! I guess sometimes the best things in life are free, but we dont notice it since we are always in a hurry to get things done.

So, post your comments on what you think of this new wordpress theme and any recommended widgets to add to it.

BestWebHost.WS – A new web hosting reviews site has be launched, along with a webmaster blog to discuss web hosting companies, web hosting tips, web sites design, free templates for wordpress, vbulletin, phpld..etc

The webmaster blog will also go into search engine optimization and discuss the best ways to link building, onsite optimization and offsite optimization.

The website will also have over 70 webmaster tools such as google pagerank checker, alexa ranking, backlinks check….etc These tools are being worked on as we speak and its expected to go live next week.

More info about this new web hosting site can be found at:
http://www.bestwebhost.ws/
http://www.bestwebhost.ws/blog/

ZNet, the top hosting provider (http://www.znetindia.com), today announced that it has become an authorized reseller of the Google Apps™ suite of communication and collaboration tools.

“The Google Apps Reseller program will help us enhance the value of Google Apps for users of IT industry,” said Munesh Jadoun, Founder & CEO, ZNet Technologies. “Google Apps for Business offers a broad set of powerful APIs that enable our customers to collaborate easily with their employees, customers and other stakeholders. ZNet is offering Google Apps for Business at $48/user/year.”

Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations of any size – all hosted by Google to streamline setup, minimize maintenance, and reduce IT costs. With Gmail (including Google email security, powered by Postini), Google Calendar, and integrated IM, users can stay connected and work together with ease. And, using Google Docs and Google Sites, which include word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and website creation tools, they can share files and collaborate in real-time, keeping versions organized and available wherever and whenever users work.

The Google Apps Reseller program includes resellers, consultants and independent software vendors that sell, service and customize Google Apps for Business for their customers. ZNet has received training, support and deployment services from Google, as well as access to APIs for integrating Google Apps into their customers’ business operations. ZNet is able to retain a close relationship with their customers in order to provide additional service and support. The businesses receiving Google Apps will benefit from the additional attention to their specific needs. For more information on ZNet Google Apps for Business program please visit http://znetindia.com/google-apps

Dotpulse, the sister concern of ZNet, is also in news for releasing new Word press theme exclusively for web hosters. Pre-registration for the theme is open to avail 50% discount: http://www.dotpulse.com/themes

About ZNet:
ZNet, one of the top hosting provider, offering online solutions: domain registration, web hosting, reseller hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS, business email, SSL certificates, online business applications, etc since 2002. ZNet has recently launched multi-location hosting by providing Indian & US datacenter.
For more information about ZNet, visit http://www.znetindia.com/

Infrenion Networks, a leader in FFMPEG and Video Hosting today announced a Special WordPress Hosting plan. Infrenion Networks states that this plan will include 10 GB disk space along with 220 GB Bandwidth. Infrenion Networks is one of the few hosting companies that offer you great services, as far as blog hosting is concerned. This is a plan set aside for those who either blog for commercial purposes or those who do it for personal reasons.

The most attractive features of this plan are:
Free Domain name,
Free Dedicated IP,
Free SSL certificate worth $40.

Compared to prices from other hosting companies, Infrenion Networks WordPress hosting plan definitely sounds cheaper and affordable. Benefits of this plan are one can host multiple domains on single account, create unlimited MySQL database within the disk space allocated to the plan. Unlimited Email accounts, 99.9% server uptime guarantee and much more.

Infrenion Networks also provides 24 hours user friendly customer support and they have been very old in the industry of web hosting so that they have a long experience of working.

The company stated that they have optimized servers for Blog hosting plan and they will make sure that the performance of your blog will be definitely more satisfactory as compared to other web hosting companies.

In short , Infrenion Networks provides :-

* 99.99% Uptime Guarantee.
* 24/7 live chat and email support.
* 30 days Money back guarantee.
* No Setup or Hidden Fees.
* Best US and UK Data Centers.

Daniel Hanczyc, Vice President of Marketing at Infrenion Networks says that Infrenion Networks is offering 30% discount on Special WordPress Hosting plan for all users. This offer is for limited time and everyone can take benefits of this offer by using the coupon code 30OFF.

Infrenion Networks is the company which is bit ahead for providing Cheap US and UK FFMPEG Web Hosting services, they provide web hosting services at low price but the quality remain high. All the web hosting services of the company are very reliable and perfect for all kind of business, They are always moving on to provide best web hosting plans to their customers, as they are in the web hosting industry from last 8 years, so that they look forward to provide fine services among the all. They always promise for best quality webhosting services, so that they provide 30 days money back guarantee to the customer.

WordPress is an open source blog tool and publishing platform powered by PHP and MySQL. It’s often customized into a Content Management System (CMS).[5] It has many features including a plug-in architecture and a template system.WordPress has a web template system using a template processor. Users can re-arrange widgets without editing PHP or HTML code; they can also install and switch between themes. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations. WordPress also features integrated link management; a search engine-friendly, clean permalink structure; the ability to assign nested, multiple categories to articles; and support for tagging of posts and articles. Automatic filters are also included, providing standardized formatting and styling of text in articles.

For more information about WordPress Hosting plan go to:

http://www.infrenion.com/wordpress-hosting

Alamy (http://www.alamy.com), the world’s largest independent stock photo site, today announced that NYI ([http://www.nyi.net), New York’s premier data center solutions provider, will oversee its infrastructure upgrade for North America, starting in New York. This decision is due to growing US sales of the company’s images, which have increased 30% in the past year alone.

“NYI is great partner for us,” said Richard Taylor, Alamy’s Head of Production. “When we launched out of their New York facility in 2010, their team worked with us to create a flexible, cost-effective deployment that enabled us to test our model for a new market. Now that it is such a success, we are scaling up our presence in their New York facility.

“What this means for customers,” he continued, “is that preview images, in addition to overall increased efficiency, will appear up to eight times faster than was previously the case, making it a lightning fast experience!”

“Alamy has a great business model,” said Phillip Koblence, VP Operations, NYI. “Its rapid growth is due in large part to the company’s total web focus as well as its treatment of content providers. Alamy is also deeply committed to customer service and appreciates the value of infrastructure investment.”

“The US market has exceeded even our most optimistic projections,” added Fabienne Read, Alamy’s US Sales Team Manager. “With this expansion, we are keeping up with demand among US editorial publishers and exploring other market segments. We anticipate even greater success in the untapped area of commercial photography.”

About Alamy
Alamy is the world’s largest independent stock photo site. It connects thousands of designers, marketing departments, news desks, and publishers with some of the best professional and amateur photographers around.

Alamy does not make editorial judgements on pictures, nothing is rejected providing the quality is acceptable – it lets the customer choose the pictures they want.

Alamy’s revolutionary approach to the stock photography business means 60 percent of each sale is paid to the content owner – the lion’s share or the revenue earned.

About NYI
Established in 1996, NYI is headquartered in the heart of the Wall Street area, where it owns and operates its network of boutique data centers across the United States. The company’s core services include colocation and dedicated servers, cloud computing and managed services, disaster recovery and business continuity planning. NYI provides mission-critical data solutions for a broad range of industries, including media, financial services, healthcare, law, fashion, architecture, life sciences and real estate. NYI is SSAE 16-, PCI- and HIPAA-compliant. For more information, visit: http://www.nyi.net.