Microsoft has launched two Azure Government Secret regions, now in private preview and pending accreditation. The tech giant informed that they offer comprehensive and mission enabling cloud services to US Federal Civilian, Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and US government partners working within Secret enclaves.Announcing the launch, Lily Kim, General Manager, Azure Global wrote on the company blog, These new regions operated by cleared US citizens are built for IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and Marketplace solutions, bringing the strength of commercial innovation to the classified space. These secure regions will deliver an experience thats consistent with Azure Government, designed for ease of procurement and alignment with existing resellers and programs.Azure Government Secret includes two separate Azure regions in the US. Microsoft did not disclose the location of the data centers. The company said that they are 500 miles apart from each other, providing geographic resilience in disaster recovery (DR) scenarios and faster access to services across the country.Azure Government Secret will enable us to take applications in legacy IT environments and move them onto a scalable, high-performance platform. This will be a great opportunity to modernize services, making them more efficient and effective for our defense customers, said Keith Johnson, Chief Technology Officer for the Defense and Intelligence Groups, Leidos.According to Microsoft, the Azure Government Secret regions are developed using the same foundational principles and architecture as Azure commercial cloud. These dedicated datacenter regions are built with additional controls to meet the regulatory and compliance requirements for DoD Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Intelligence Community Directive (ICD 503) accreditation.Microsoft has also expanded the scope of all Azure Government regions to enable DoD Impact Level 5 (IL5) data. It will provide a cost-effective option for L5 workloads with a broad range of available services.Microsofts announcement comes as the company is competing with Amazon for JEDI, a cloud contract for the Department of Defense. Microsoft and Amazon are the last bidders standing for the $10 billion contract. The Pentagon is expected to make a decision around mid-July.

CoreSite Realty Corporation, a premier provider of secure, reliable, high-performance data center and interconnection solutions in major U.S. metropolitan areas, has begun construction on Phase I of its new colocation data center located in downtown Chicago. The new facility will be known as CH2.According to CoreSite, the purpose-built space and infrastructure will support high-growth requirements for digital transformation and hybrid cloud demands in the heart of downtown Chicago. CH2 will be the companys second data center in Chicago. It is located one mile from the companys existing CH1 facility and network node. The first phase of construction on its 169,000 square foot is expected to be completed by next year.Were excited to have under construction an enterprise-class, purpose-built data center designed to deliver 18 megawatts of power and 169,000 net rentable square feet of capacity in downtown Chicago. We expect to complete the first phase of the building next year, delivering an efficient data center design capable of supporting high density requirements and enabling customers to solve for mission critical, performance-sensitive hybrid cloud applications, said Matt Gleason, CoreSites Vice President and General Manager.CH2 data center is designed to leverage an interconnected campus environment. The facility promises connection via redundant high-count dark fiber to CoreSites CH1 data center, the Companys key interconnection hub in Chicago. The new data center will be able to deliver a vibrant community of enterprises, content providers, networks with more than 40 domestic and international carriers, leading cloud service providers with native cloud on-ramps, and best-of-breed solution partners to further serve customers needs.Earlier in February, CoreSite expanded its Washington DC campus with a new colocation data center facility, calling it DC2. It has more than 24,000 square feet (2,230 sqm) of data center space. The data center is also connected to its flagship interconnection hub, DC1.

DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class data center, connectivity, managed services, and cloud solutions, is all set to open its third data center located in the greater Kansas City area. The Dallas-based data center provider announced the grand opening of KC3, a Tier III data center facility in the growing Kansas City market. DataBanks total data center count goes up to 15 with the addition of KC3.Kansas City is quite literally at the center of the countrys growing national market for data center services and solutions. The grand opening of KC3 cements our commitment of providing the highest quality infrastructure solutions and customer support to an area that is home to notable corporate HQs and leading enterprises, said Raul K. Martynek, CEO of DataBank.Located in Lenexa, KS, the seven-acre campus has a 44,000 square foot data center with 25,000 square feet of raised floor, that can potentially be expanded to 100,000+ of raised floor space. According to DataBank, the facility provides redundant power and cooling configurations, diverse network entry points and multiple fiber providers to deliver exceptional network resiliency and uptime. It has 12 MW of total power, with critical load capability of 4 MW to 6 MW.With the opening of KC3, DataBank accomplishes a high-speed optical metro transport ring in a region with growing demands for connectivity. Creating optimal connectivity in the region, KC3 will be linked to DataBanks other two facilitiesKC1 and KC2. KC3 offers customers direct access to the DataBanks CloudPlus platform. Besides, customers can make use of onsite amenities including a loading dock, office workspace, conference rooms, client labs, tech space, secure storage, break room, and staging areas. DataBank guarantees that the site would be staffed with 247 on-site security and operations teams.The grand opening event is on May 15th. The event will feature Eddie Kennison, former Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver. In addition, DataBank will have a raffle, food, and opportunities to network with business leaders. Group tours of the new world class data center will also be available.

Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, launched EcoStruxure IT Advisor, offering a simplified way to deploy data center management. EcoStruxure IT Advisor enables data center operators of large data centers and colocation facilities to reduce operating expenses and maximize uptime by optimizing capacity, analyzing business impact, and automating workflows. It is capable of making data center management and operations more efficient.Hybrid data center architectures are driving the industry to rethink the way their data center infrastructure is managed and operated. EcoStruxure IT Advisor addresses this need by offering customers a powerful cloud-based or on-premise data center planning and modeling software, accessible from anywhere, and delivered with a flexible subscription model, said Kim Povlsen, Vice President and General Manager, Digital Services and Software, Schneider Electric.According to the company, key features and benefits of EcoStruxure IT Advisor are:Asset management for accurate inventory: It shows data within the physical layout for instant access to device details and asset attributes, and overview of data center operations.Risk planning for proactive incident management: The Impact Analysis report indicates how incidents may impact your devices and infrastructure.Change management:Workflow automation ensures that human error is reducedColocation: IT Advisor offers floor view with areas, cages and racks, and IT assets colored according to status, along with detailed floor and rack utilization reports.The launch of the IT Advisor is the next phase of Schneiders EcoStruxure IT platform expansion. The platform delivers a Datacenter Management as a Service (DMaaS) architecture, purpose-built for the hybrid IT and data center environments. EcoStruxure has been deployed in more than 480,000 sites, connecting over 1.6 million assets under management through 40+ digital services.The platform also includes EcoStruxure IT Expert and EcoStruxure Asset Advisor. EcoStruxure IT Expert is a secure, vendor agnostic, wherever-you-go monitoring software with visibility of all IoT-enabled physical infrastructure assets. EcoStruxure Asset Advisor which provides 24x7 monitoring by the Schneider Electric global service bureau or through our Partner network.