Top 5 Data Center Stories, Week of Sept. 23rd

Digital Realty Opens Large Phoenix Expansion Space - Digital Realty Trust has completed the expansion to its data center in Chandler, Arizona, adding 226,000 SF, the company said. The expansion nearly doubles the size of the former 365 Main facility at 2121 S. Price Road in Chandler, which already included 293,000 SF of data center space.

NOAA Targets Hurricanes With Computer Power - A new supercomputing facility in West Virginia could help improve weather forecasters’ ability to predict the power of huge hurricanes, which could eventually help public officials make better decisions about when to call for the kind of mass evacuations seen during Hurricane Irene.

Twitter Adding More Data Center Space (Again) - Twitter continues to grow, and its infrastructure is growing along with it. The popular microblogging service recently surpassed 100 million active users, and is once again expanding its data center network to keep pace. This time, Twitter is looking East.

The Lessons of Moneyball for Big Data Analysis - In a presentation Tuesday at the O'Reilly Strata Summit 2011 in New York, Paul DePodesta, who is now Vice President for Player Development for the New York Mets, reflected on the role of performance analysis in baseball and lessons that can be applied to data-driven organizations. The movie, titled "Moneyball" that depicted his efforts at the Oakland team, opened Friday.

Microsoft Steps Up Cloud Expansion Plans - Microsoft will invest an additional $150 million to expand its new data center in southern Virginia, continuing a series of expansion announcements that hint at a dramatic scaling up of Microsoft’s cloud computing capacity.