HI-TECH news

With regards to data centers, it looks like Microsoft’s moving full speed ahead.  The company has announced that it will open not one, but two “mega” data centers in July, and some of the technical specs are rather astounding.

The Dublin facility that’ll go live on July 1st is supposed to be 303,000 square feet in size.  Arne Josefsberg, Microsoft’s General Manager of Infrastructure Services, also reported on a corporate blog that 5.4 megawatts of critical power will be on tap from the start, with a total of 22.2 megawatts of critical power available.

Impressed?  Well, Microsoft’s Chicago facility should be even more remarkable.  Josefsberg stated that it “covers over 700,000 square feet - approximately the size of 16 football fields - with critical power of 60 megawatts.” 

Plus, “Two-thirds of the Chicago data center is optimized for housing containerized servers. Containers conserve energy and will help us realize new advancements in power efficiency with a PUE yearly average calculated at 1.22.”

The Chicago data center is due to open on July 20th.

All of this activity implies that Microsoft’s expecting - or already seeing - significantly more demand for its online offerings.  Given the timing, this may represent a big win for Bing.

Microsoft has put its online digital ad agency Razorfish up for sale and has hired Morgan Stanley to help find a potential buyer.

French marketing company Publicis Groupe, which is planning more acquisitions focused in online advertising, is thought to be a possible buyer of Razorfish, according to the Financial Times.

Maurice Levy

Microsoft purchased the agency, formerly called Avenue A Razorfish, as part of its $6 billion takeover of aQuantive in 2007.

Analyst estimate the value of Razorfish at $600 million to $700 million, based on sales of about $400 million last year and profit margins of similar businesses of 12 to 13 percent.

Some see owning Razorfish as a conflict of interest with Microsoft Advertising, which sells technology to competing digital agencies.

Razorfish, based in Seattle, is one of the largest digital agencies, with more than 2,000 employees. Its clients include Dell, Disney and McDonalds.

Publicis chief executive, Maurice Levy, said money from a refinancing this month could be used for acquisitions, specifically focused in digital and emerging markets, which are proving more resilient than traditional advertising in the U.S. and Europe.

“There are some opportunities” for acquisitions, Levy said. He declined to comment if Publicis would be interested in acquiring Razorfish.

Other agencies that could be interested in Razorfish include Omnicom and WPP, who are also moving more of their marketing budgets into digital.