Roundup: IBM, SGI, Akamai

Here’s a roundup of this week’s headlines from the data center and hosting industry:

IBM earns LEED Gold in RTP. IBM announced it has achieved Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification for its new data center located at the company's Research Triangle Park (RTP) campus. Opened in February of this year, it is the first LEED Gold data center for IBM. The construction reused 95 percent of the original building's shell and in the process IBM recycled 90 percent of the materials from the original building and ensured 25 percent of newly purchased material came from recycled products. "Through local sourcing, recycling and tremendous innovation we've been able to achieve a significant milestone for the company and further solidify IBM's commitment to Research Triangle Park," said Bob Greenberg, IBM Senior State Executive for North Carolina. "Data centers have always been a critical part of IBM 's global delivery network and this facility, our cloud computing data center, has furthered IBM's ability to deliver innovation and value to customers around the world."

Akamai offers NFL.com video. Akamai (AKAM) announced that NFL.com will be using the Akamai HD Network to enable broader availability of high-quality online video. Starting this season the majority of content will be offered in higher quality on Akamai's network, including NFL.com Live, Thursday Night Football and video highlights of every NFL game. "NFL is pushing the envelope this season with their digital media strategy by offering so much of their content in high-quality," said Robert Hughes, Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Services and Marketing at Akamai. "The Akamai HD Network offers the NFL a single platform for delivery of content along with unique intelligence and the ability to simplify complex processes in the network."

SGI selected by A*STAR. SGI announced that the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore has purchased SGI Altix UV 1000, the world's fastest, most scalable supercomputer, to accelerate public sector research and development in biomedical sciences, physical sciences and engineering.  The supercomputer has 2,112 cores and 12.3TB of shared memory, as well as 32 terabytes of Panasas 8 high performance storage.  "Scientists and engineers with the most complex research and data needs the world over are getting real results with Altix UV powered by the Intel Xeon processor 7500 series," said Rajeeb Hazra, general manager of high performance computing at Intel. "We are excited for A*STAR to reap the vast benefits of Intel and SGI's close collaboration to accelerate Singapore's scientific and engineering discoveries."