Top 5 Data Center Stories: Week of Aug. 27

James Bond Meets the Modular Data Center: Jon Karlung is known as the visionary behind the “James Bond Villain” data center – the former nuclear bunker beneath Stockholm that now houses servers for Swedish ISP Bahnhof. The facility reflects Karlung’s belief that data centers shouldn’t just be cool – they should LOOK cool, too. Now Karlung is seeking to bring the same sense of futuristic flair to modular data centers.

Major Data Centers Report No Earthquake Damage: Tuesday’s earthquake on the East Coast of the U.S. appears to have been a non-event for the region’s data centers, many of which are located in Virginia, where the epicenter of the quake was located.

Verizon Buys CloudSwitch to Boost Hybrid Clouds: Verizon Communications continues to build its cloud services through acquisitions. Verizon said today that it has bought CloudSwitch, whose software makes it easier for enterprises to build hybrid clouds in which virtual machines can move between data centers and cloud platforms.

Water Main Breaks: A Data Center Challenge: Could your data center operate if it lost its water supply? Water is crucial to the operation of many data centers. This summer’s heat wave in much of the U.S. has taxed the water infrastructure in many areas, causing a jump in water main breaks due to the combination of dry round and increased usage.

Vantage Earns LEED Platinum in Santa Clara: Wholesale data center provider Vantage Data Centers announced today that the first project on its Santa Clara, Calif. campus, known as V3, has earned a Platinum certification from the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program. Platinum is the highest level of LEED, a voluntary rating system for energy efficient buildings overseen by the US Green Building Council.