Roundup: Iowa Flooding, Hosting Prices, Velocix

The Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids area was hit hard by the Iowa flooding. That meant a busy time for local data center provider TEAM Technologies, which assisted many local businesses in their IT recovery efforts. This article also addresses some lessons learned from the flooding, particularly for IT departments responsible for continuity at small and medium-sized businesses.

Should web hosting companies use higher fuel prices as cover to increase their fees? That's the view of Tom Millitzer of New Commerce Communications on his blog at The WHIR. "Take advantage of the situation," Millitzer writes. "Raise your rates. It is easier to do so today during these high inflation times (4.18%) than when inflation is low (2.5%)." Here's my two cents on this: customers know when businesses are "taking advantage" of them. If you want to raise your rates, add value.

We've noted real estate professionals marketing industrial properties for conversion to data centers. A current example is the Energy Systems building in Omaha. "We have had major Omaha corporations consider the space," said Chad Hansen, a vice president of NAI/NP Dodge Commercial Real Estate, which represents the owner of the 160,000 square feet building.

Velocix, a content delivery network that integrates peer-to-peer technology into its services, announced last week that it has acquired the exclusive license for RawFlow's live streaming P2P technology, will provide a hosted version of Kontiki's P2P delivery solution and announced a new P2P platform offering for developers. Dan Rayburn has additional details and analysis.