Roundup: SGI Sets Performance Mark, AboveNet

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

SGI Establishes New Performance Record.  SGI announced that the Altix ICE integrated blade cluster is the leading performer in SPEC (Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation's) MPI2007 benchmark tests for high performance technical computing. The SGI ICE 8200EX with 2,048 cores of Intel Xeon processors X5560 (2.8GHz), together with SGI InfiniteStorage NAS, was more than 40 times faster than the 64-core, Intel X5482 (3.2GHz) reference cluster in the suite's SPECmpiL_base2007 test. "The standards-based, industry-leading Altix ICE platform is a core component of sustainable, high performance IT infrastructures, offering a variety of interconnect options that enable users to efficiently scale their applications across thousands of processor cores," said Christian Tanasecu, vice president of software engineering at SGI. Complete SPEC MPI2007 results can be found here.

AboveNet reports fourth quarter results. AboveNet (ABVT) announced results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2009.  Two major items for 2009 were becoming cash flow positive, and for the first time, lit services revenue surpassed dark fiber revenue. "The market for next-generation Wavelength and Ethernet services is in its early stages, opening up attractive growth opportunities for us," said AboveNet President and CEO Bill LaPerch. "We intend to leverage our capabilities as a focused provider of high-bandwidth solutions to help us achieve industry-leading growth rates over the long-term." Revenue for the fourth quarter was $94.3 million and $360.1 million for 2009. Cash and equivalent balances at the end of 2009 totaled $165.3 million, compared to $87.1 million at the end of 2008.

Savvis expands cloud in Asia-Pacific. Savvis (SVVS) announced Tuesday that Savvis Symphony Open cloud infrastructure services will be available to clients in Asia-Pacific through its Singapore data center later this month. Citing high client demand for cloud infrastructure services, this will be the second cloud solution offered from their Singapore facility. "New and existing clients can now benefit from Savvis Symphony Open's on-demand, dynamically scalable resources allowing them to control their IT costs and tailor their usage and set-up to meet their individual needs," said Soon Cheng, managing director for Savvis Asia Pacific.