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Online auction site eBay has chosen a suburb of Salt Lake City as the site for a $334 million data center project. The company said yesterday that it has purchased land in South Jordan, Utah in the Daybreak Commerce Park, not far from where Oracle Corp. (ORCL) is building a huge data center.

The state Office of Economic Development offered eBay $27.3 million in tax incentives over 10 years to build the facility in Utah, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The data center is expected to create about 50 jobs with wages averaging $49,200 a year, about 50 percent above the Salt Lake County annual median wage.

The facility, which could be as large as 250,000 square feet, would continue a regional expansion that has seen eBay acquire a large data center in Phoenix and expand its facility in Denver.

     Are you feeling the credit crunch? Most Americans are affected one way or the other. Higher grocery bills are hard to ignore at the checkout and many of us know of someone who has lost their job in 2008.
     In my opinion, downsizing is a sign of the economy turning around. Companies realize that they need to cut-back and reorganize, and not continue the spending spree of the last decade. They are finally learning that to be more profitable in today’s economy a company needs to stick to its core competencies.

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Data Centers are a hot topic these days.  No matter where you look, this once obscure aspect of infrastructure is getting a lot of attention.  For years, there have been cost pressures on IT operations and this, when the need for modern capacity is greater than ever, has thrust data centers into the spotlight.

Server and rack density continues to rise, placing DC professionals and businesses in tighter and tougher situations while they struggle to manage their IT environments.  And now hyper-scale cloud infrastructure is taking traditional technologies to limits never explored before and focusing the imagination of the IT industry on new possibilities.

Microsoft, has focused a lot of thought and research around how to best operate and maintain their global infrastructure.  They believe it is one of the most revolutionary changes to happen to data centers in the last 30 years.

Generation 4 modular data centers will take the flexibility of containerized servers—like those in Microsoft’s Chicago data center—and apply it across the entire facility.
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The New York-based consulting and services firm surveyed more than 4,100 consumers over the summer and found that service — more than price — is a clear differentiator.

According to the online survey, 67% of respondents reported switching companies because of poor customer service, compared with 59% last year.  U.S. respondents were even more service sensitive, with 73% reporting that they switched companies owing to poor customer service, compared with 47% switching over lower prices.

Now, more than ever, is the time to challenge traditional practices.  In particular, organizations need to segment their customers.  That makes segmenting customers and understanding their touch-points with the business particularly important.

More survey results Other interesting results from Accenture’s survey include: U.S. respondents were also the least likely to believe the use of technology has improved customer service significantly in the past five years.  Consumers in the United States were just as likely to consider customer service as price when choosing a new provider, after switching from an established one.

Finally, organizations need to establish their customer service baseline and the diversity of their customer base.

What is the driving factor in how you spend your money, customer service or price?

Changing the Way Users Interact with the web?

Facebook Connect went live last Thursday and may usher in a new way to browse and interact with the Web. The program enhances the connectivity among the social network, its users and the Web pages users visit.

In addition, Facebook shrewdly increases ad revenue for itself and partners while cementing its reputation as the social network of choice for a long time. It does all of that seamlessly while appealing to our very basic urge to show and tell. And that is the distilled brilliance of Facebook Connect: It is the show and tell of the Internet age.

The idea behind Facebook Connect is deceptively simple.
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