Israeli Firms Shopping for U.S. Colo Space

Colocation broker COLOTRAQ says it has seen a sharp increase in inquiries from Israeli businesses in the past two weeks, prompted by a rise in regional violence. "Since the commencement of hostilities against Hezbollah in Lebanon nine days ago, the number of searches initiated from Israel has already equaled that of the first six months of 2006," Colotraq said in a press release.

"Unstable political environments are just another threat that business leaders need to plan for," said Dany Bouchedid, CEO of COLOTRAQ. "It's only natural and prudent that the tragic events in the Middle East bring such concerns to our attention."

The violent confrontation between Israeli and Hezbollah has featured a steady stream of rocket attacks on cities in northern Israel. The port city of Haifa, one of the primary targets for attacks by Katyusha rockets, is home to numerous technology companies, with Intel, Microsoft, HP and Philips Electronics maintaining offices in or near the city.

COLOTRAQ is a New Jersey-based neutral B2B marketplace for procuring colocation services, dedicated hosting, bandwidth, dark fiber, and managed services. The company currently has aggregated over 400 service providers with operations in 1,100 cities. COLOTRAQ is a business unit of Interaqt which specializes in the procurement, design and build of colo facilities.