Links: Validus, Switch & Data, Go Daddy

Validus DC Power said a "leading global financial services firm" headquartered in New York is deploying the first commercial Validus system in one of its mission-critical data centers. Validus also announced the "wide availability" of its complete family of DC power products.

Switch and Data (SDXC) said it has appointed World Wrestling Entertainment Chief Operating Officer Michael Sileck to its board of directors, citing his 20 years of experience in the entertainment and media industries. The company resisted the urge to make a reference to Sileck helping it "lay the smack down" on the data center industry. We, unfortunately, could not.

Equinix (EQIX) has selected digital optical networking systems to Infinera (INFN) for its metro networks linking its Internet Business Exchange centers in major cities in North America and Asia, the companies said today.

Go Daddy, the world's largest hosting company, will use its Super Bowl commercial this Sunday to try and entice viewers to watch a racier commercial on its GoDaddy.com web site. The hook: hintsa that Indy car driver Danica Patrick will be disrobing in the Web commercial, which was apparently rejected by Fox for suggestive wordplay. Go Daddy is paying $2.5 million for the 30-second spot.