hi5 Expands at 365 Main Oakland Facility

Fast-growing social network hi5 will expand its data center footprint by taking space in 365 Main's new facility in Oakland, Calif., the two companies said today. San Francisco-based hi5 has been a tenant at 365 Main's flagship San Francisco data center since 2004. The expansion is the latest indicator of the growing importance of social networks as major users of data center space, and follows major infrastructure expansions by MySpace and Facebook.

hi5 was founded in 2003 and is now the 8th most-trafficked website in the world according to Alexa. The company will lease an additional 2,500 square feet of space at the Oakland data center, which opened in September 2007.

"365 Main has been responsive to our needs and has provided a secure home for our servers in San Francisco for more than three years," said hi5 Founder and CEO, Ramu Yalamanchi. "With our rapidly expanding service and necessity for multiple high-performance data center locations, expanding our partnership and leasing additional space from 365 Main in Oakland made sense for our business."

"Social networking sites like hi5 promise a reliable, 24X7 experience to their users, and to deliver on that promise requires modern data center infrastructure," said Chris Dolan, CEO of 365 Main. "Our Oakland facility was designed for exactly this type of requirement, and we're proud to be adding this world-class organization to our existing Oakland tenant roster."

365 Main has existing facilities in San Francisco, Oakland, El Segundo, Calif., Chandler, Ariz. and Chantilly, Va. The company plans to open a seventh data center in Vernon, Calif. in 2008.