Tech & Services

Playing host to the recession

As the global recession continues to ebb and flow, the hosting sector fluctuates also, bringing us stories of great loss and unexpected buy-outs alongside stories of unimaginable growth and continued investment. Between the recent halt on construction of Amazon’s huge Oregon data center to the acquisitions and general company growth plans issued this week, the financial woes of the world seem to be allowing some firms to shine during this difficult time while others simply cannot cope.

There has been a trend over the past year of large service providers making the jump to building their own data centers with Google and Microsoft leading the way, but one of the web’s giants has found the ongoing recession an unexpected deterrent to construction plans. InformationWeek took the time to visit the construction site in eastern Oregon which was to house a huge 116,700 square-foot data center owned by Amazon following construction by Vadata Construction, a legal entity of the online retailer. Representatives of the company on-site told the magazine that construction had quietly come to a halt as Amazon was forced to direct funds elsewhere, citing the “ongoing recession” as the cause. The facility was intended to be the first of three stages that would see Amazon host and control all of their own data in-house and, while no details have emerged on when the project will get underway again, it seems a safe bet that Amazon intends to pick it up at some point in the very near future.

The addition of ATCI Hosting will increase Hostirian’s overall scale and strengthen our world-class portfolio of hosting solutions. We viewed this as an opportunity to acquire complementary assets that position Hostirian for continued growth. – Steve Szachta, Hostirian chief operating officer

On the other end of the economic spectrum web hosting provider Hostirian announced yesterday its acquisition of ATCI Hosting, a firm known for its offering of semi-dedicated, dedicated and virtual servers. Hostirian chief operating officer Steve Szachta has indicated that his company has retained further purchasing power and expects to be active where mergers and acquisitions are concerned over the next 12 months; another pending purchase is to be announced before the end of the month.

With markets continuing to swing and national economies continuing to suffer under the weight of the many financial catastrophies over the course of the past year, it will be interesting to note how companies of all sizes and niches fare, from behemoths like Amazon to more modest firms like Hostirian.

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Tags: acquisition, Amazon, ATCI Hosting, data center, economic downturn, economy, Google, hosting, hosting industry, Hostirian, Microsoft, recession, Steve Szachta