Roundup: NSA, ViaWest, NextDC, NxGen

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

NSA building supercomputer center.  The National Security Agency is designing a new $895.6 million supercomputing center to be constructed at its Fort Meade, Maryland headquarters. Said to be 'state-of-the-art' and mindful of energy efficiency, the unclassified specs say the facility will be completed by December 2015. The government specification documents also indicate a $246.4 million 2012 request for the Utah Cybersecurity data center under construction. The supercomputing facility lists security features at an estimated $15.1 million and $21.7 million on perimeter control. In fiscal year 2012 they are asking for $84.7 million, including $35 million for planning and design.

ViaWest opens Portland data center. ViaWest announced the grand opening of its 21st enterprise-class data center, located in Portland, Oregon. Opening ceremonies on May 12th will celebrate the compay's second data center investment in the region for the facility to be called Hillsboro II. “ViaWest continually invests in its data centers, technology, and people. We are very excited to expand both our investment and our local involvement in the Portland area,” said Roy Dimoff, Chairman & CEO of ViaWest. The new data center features fully redundant high-density power and chiller configurations, 24x7 on-site support, and access to top network providers.

NxGen names President and CEO. NxGen announced that it has named Elizabeth A Fetter as President and Chief Executive Officer. NxGen recently unveiled the NxPower electrical room module, where a 1MW room was deployed in five days. Fetter previously served as president and CEO of three technology companies and other positions at strategic consulting, telecommunications and software services companies. “We are an innovative company that requires the innovative leadership that Liz has shown time and time again,” said Barry Nelson, a member of the NxGen Modular Board of Directors. “The mission critical market is highly technical and dynamically evolving. As NxGen’s technical innovation penetrates the marketplace, Liz has the experience and vision necessary to lead us to the forefront and continue to expand our market share.”

NEXTDC expands to Western Australia.  NEXTDC announced that the company has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire vacant land in Perth, Australia where they intend to construct a purpose-built data center facility. "Perth is a strategic location for NEXTDC and after a comprehensive evaluation of a number of alternative sites in Perth, we have selected this site due to its location and access to significant power and other infrastructure that we trust will be validated through the formal due diligence process to be conducted over the next two months," said CEO Bevan Slattery.