Links: Hosting.com, SaaS mergers, Google

ComputerWorld looks at demand for secure data center space in Virginia, a market driven by the needs of the federal government. The report looks at the Terremark (TMRK) facility in Culpeper, among others.

In the wake of rumors that Oracle (ORCL) and Salesforce.com (CRM) are talking, Bob Warfield from Smoothspan writes about the potential for consolidation in the software as a service (SaaS) market.

Mark Fontecchio from SearchDataCenter looks at the prospect that data center energy efficiency could result in even greater energy use.

Google Research has announced that this year's Scalability Conference will be held June 14 in Seattle.

Hosting.com has announced that its San Francisco data center is now climate neutral, and projects carbon savings equivalent to not burning 260,000 gallons of gasoline a year.