The following is a summary of recent news on investments, buys, and builds of data centers in Japan:
- Catalyst Repository Systems Opens Tokyo Data Center – A pioneer in providing cloud-based document repositories for e-discovery and other complex legal matters, Catalyst announced the opening of its full-featured, high-security data center in the Shinagawa ward of central Tokyo.
- Salesforce.com invests in Japan to grow Cloud 2 – Salesforce.com announced its latest strategic investments in Japan. “Salesforce.com remains committed to Japan and to growing the Cloud 2 economy globally,†said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. Salesforce plans to open its new data center in November.
- Japan power shortage leading to increased generators, but the Japan Data Center Council warns of a diesel fuel shortage.
- Hitachi has decided to spend roughly 10 billion yen over the next two years to beef up its domestic data center operations in response to a demand spike after the March 11 disaster. The company will upgrade the circuit linking its key data center facilities in the cities of Yokohama and Okayama as early as August.
- Data center operator IDC Frontier, a subsidiary of Yahoo! Japan, is planning to build a fourth module on its data center campus on the Kyushu Island (southwestern Japan). IDC Frontier general manager, Atsushi Yamanaka, commented that the fourth module will be online in the spring of 2012.
- IBM announced a broad expansion of its cloud computing services for customers in Japan and in the Asia Pacific region with the opening of a new IBM Cloud Data Center in Japan and a dedicated data center for LotusLive, IBM’s cloud collaboration service. The new facilities will extend IBM’s globally-integrated cloud delivery network of cloud computing centers that serve in over 50 countries, including Singapore, Germany, Canada, and the United States; and 13 global cloud labs, of which seven are based in Asia Pacific – China, India, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam and Singapore.
- The Tokyo Data Center of Capital Novus reportedly survied the March tsunami unscathed. Although significant tremors from the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku earthquake were felt all throughout the region, the office and its surrounding location remained virtually unaffected. The Japan data center and office have been operating for nearly 3 years. With approximately 600 GB of Native File Processing and 200 GB of TIFF File Processing completed per day, the center has nearly doubled its capacity in the last year. “As with any disaster, we all share the hardships and will work together to rebuild and help those in need,” states Aya Takahashi, Project Coordinator at the Tokyo office.
- Mitsubishi Corp. announced that it has started a fund that invests in data centers, seeking to benefit from a $17 Billion market and rising demand after the March earthquake. The $336 million fund was started by Mitsubishi unit Diamond Realty Management. The market for data centers is likely to expand 8 percent this fiscal year, according to a report by Tokyo-based MIC Research Institute Ltd. TEPCO was recently evaluating disposing of its data center holdings, including the @Tokyo 1.4 million square foot data center.
- Fujitsu announced the launch of a new cloud service for analytical simulations. Geared towards the manufacturing sector, the service enables customers to scale their resources up or down in accordance with fluctuations in their demand. Features of the Service include the ability to create hybrid environments that combine the computational resources of the customer with those of the TC Cloud, navigation of large-volume analytic results, and it delivers the reliability and operational continuity of Fujitsu’s data centers.
- Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) announced first quarter 2011 financial results, with a 47.7 percent year-on-year revenue growth. Operating income was $11 million, up 244.2 percent, and revenues were $290 million. “In addition to the contributions for IJJ-Global, we have seen continuous growth in our overall business, including systems integration, despite the weakened Japanese economic momentum after the 11 March earthquake,†said Koichi Suzuki, President and CEO of IIJ.
