Virginia Corporate Moves

Linden Lab Taps Terremark for Critical IT Infrastructure of Virtual 3D Environment

Terremark Worldwide, Inc., a leading global provider of managed IT infrastructure services, recently announced that Second Life developer Linden Lab has selected the Network Access Point (NAP) of the Capital Region to co-locate the critical IT infrastructure that brings to life the world’s leading 3D virtual world environment. Developed and launched by Linden Lab in 2003, Second Life has become one of the largest hubs for user-generated content in the world, boasting a robust “inworld” economy with more than $450 million in annual user-to-user transactions.

When it opens later this month in Culpeper, VA, Terremark Worldwide, Inc’s NAP of the Capital Region will be the most secure and technologically sophisticated datacenter on the Eastern seaboard. From this advanced datacenter campus outside Washington, D.C., Terremark will provide Linden Lab industry-leading co-location services supported by fully redundant power systems that meet the needs of today’s high-density computing environments. The NAP of the Capital Region’s innovative design, featuring security elements that exceed federal government standards and power infrastructure backed by 100 percent service level agreements for the datacenter’s power and environmental systems, offered Linden Lab the ideal facility for the business-critical infrastructure that powers Second Life.

“As Second Life continues to expand its infrastructure to meet current and future demands in user traffic and content generation, we felt Terremark’s full suite of world-class IT solutions provided a high level of flexibility for those future business and technology needs,” said Frank Ambrose, senior vice president of global technology for Linden Lab. “The NAP of the Capital Region’s sophisticated design affords us the opportunity to expand in multiple facilities within the same campus while partnering with a company that shares our commitment to limiting the environmental impact of activities by employing energy-efficient systems.”

With continued strong demand for world-class IT infrastructure solutions from both federal government agencies and large enterprises, Terremark launched construction on the second datacenter facility on the NAP of the Capital Region’s 30-acre campus in January, and the project continues on-schedule, with completion expected in the early part of 2010. The datacenter campus, designed to accommodate up to five, 50,000-square-foot independent datacenters and one 72,000-square-foot office building, meets the needs of today’s power, space and bandwidth-intensive mission-critical applications and hot/warm sites for disaster recovery/COOP environments.

“The fact that Linden Lab has selected to co-locate their critical infrastructure in Terremark’s datacenter outside Washington, D.C. is a powerful testament to our impressive combination of leading-edge solutions and world-class datacenters,” said Barry Field, Terremark’s senior vice president for U.S. Commercial Sales. “From co-location and disaster recovery to cloud computing and secure information services, the availability of our complete set of offerings from a global datacenter footprint presents compelling value to public and private-sector organizations searching for solutions to meet their full-range of IT needs.”

Culpeper has positioned itself as a new breed of business location—high-tech with a high quality of life. Today’s ideal location is found where geography, technology, and quality of life converge to create new opportunities for growing businesses, while retaining the qualities that make it an ideal place to raise a family.

Wood Furniture Maker Expands in Galax

Here’s news one doesn’t see everyday: A domestic wood furniture vendor expanding production. Case goods manufacturer Vaughan-Bassett Furniture will invest $2.15 million to expand its Galax, VA, plant, and add an additional 100 jobs, Virginia Governor Tim Kaine recently announced.

“Vaughan-Bassett Furniture is the largest manufacturer of wooden adult bedroom furniture in the U.S. and began in Galax in 1919. The company has thrived in the Commonwealth for nine decades and will continue to be a significant employer and corporate partner in Southwest Virginia,” Gov. Kaine said.

Vaughan-Bassett, which makes 95 percent of its bedroom and dining room furniture in the United States, already employs more than 574 people in the Galax facility. “We believe our employees here in Galax represent the finest furniture workforce in the world,” said Wyatt P.E. Bassett, president and CEO of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company. “We are committed to growing our company, and that means we will need both more machines and more employees here in Galax to operate them.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with the City of Galax and Virginia’s Corridor to secure the project for Virginia. Gov. Kaine approved a $75,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Galax with the project. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission approved $200,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the project. The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide training help through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program.