Riding Law Firms to Global Expansion

Fresh from new deals in Toronto and Phoenix, a Recommind exec tells us the company is eyeing data centers in Australia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Recommind senior director Tyler Robbins tells us there's lots of global demand from law firms. Recommind just leased space in an unnamed Toronto data center for its legal record-keeping system. That move puts it closer to the Seven Sisters--the seven big Canadian law firms. In Phoenix, the firm also inked a deal to help feed demand from its West Coast clients as well as backup disaster recovery center for its Ohio presence, he says. (The stampede of candidates trying to woo swing voters has been known to cause many natural disasters.)

Dupont Fabros Grabs Six Leases

In just nine months, Dupont Fabros has scooped up six new leases, consuming 10.35MW of power and encompassing 66,500 SF of data center space, the company reports to the SEC. Those leases, over a six-year lease term period, should generate $10.6M annually, officials say. While Dupont did not break down which companies inked the deals, it did list where they were:

Two leases at VA3 (pictured here), encompassing 3MW of power and 33,500 SF
One lease at SC1 with 2.5MW power and 11k SF
Two leases at ACC7 with 3.49MW power and 16,600 SF
One lease at NJ1 with 1.27MW power and 5,000 SF.

Of Data Centers and Wineries

The past three years have seen almost $1B of commercial investment in Loudoun County, according to the 2014 Loudoun County Department of Economic Development's annual report. In fact, companies have invested almost $250M to move or expand in Loudon during the 12 months leading up to June 30, director Buddy Rizer tells us. Buddy sees growth in all target clusters, but two stand out: data centers and wineries. Every day, almost 70% of the world's Internet traffic passes through Loudoun data centers like CyrusOne (pictured), which recently added 280K SF to its campus. It's only one of 56 data centers that bring an estimated $60M in revenue to the county each year. Eight new wineries also opened in 2014, bringing the total to 42. A Viticulture and Enology Center is also being considered. Find out more about our sponsor here, and then you can download its annual report.

Tenants Still Commanding Data Centers

JLL Southeast data center chief Mike Dolan (right with JLL's Ryan Fetz) tells us demand isn't slacking off, as both cloud and further outsourcing feed the data center industry monster. “A lot of the enterprise users are realizing that going with low-scale colo is a better play,” he says. Plus, there's growing pressure among Fortune 500 CFOs to reduce capex--and outsourcing data center operations does that. Tenants should see favorable leasing rates through 2015, Mike says, due in part to third-party providers being aggressive on new development that has outstripped demand over the past three years.

Of course, if you're in need of data center space in Houston, don't expect a great deal. Only three North American markets were labeled "provider-favorable" by JLL, and Houston is one of them. (It also topped the firm's list of emerging data center markets.) Research manager Graham Hildebrand (right, with fellow JLL researchers Margaret Martin, Lance Collett, and Chris Burns) says the pendulum will swing toward Houston data center users in Q1 of next year. (Ironically, the rest of the country has cut down on its pipeline and is predicted to become provider-favorable late next year.)

It's Official:
BendBroadband Bought

Chicago-based Telephone Data Systems has picked up all the assets of Oregon-based BendBroadband for $261M. The company just released details on its summer acquisition of the Oregon high speed communications provider that also includes the company's Tier III data center, in documents filed with the SEC. BendBroadband provides broadband, fiber, cable TV and telephone services in Oregon.

Facebook Spending Millions
on Your 'Likes'

You know all those “likes” you gave our cute picture of kittens in dandelion fields last week? Do you know how much that cost Facebook? Try $565M. Actually, that's what Facebook reported as its Q3 2014 cost of revenue last week, according to filings with the SEC. And that number is 11% more than the same period in 2013. Facebook officials say the cost is in large part due to increases in data center and infrastructure construction. Total construction costs surpassed $700M and included Facebook's many data centers (including the one here in Sweden) and its HQ in Menlo Park, Cali.