The company has secured 3.2 megawatts of electricity from HS Orku in Suðurnes for data centre operations but will be able to receive up to 19.2 megawatts of electricity if necessary.

Gestur G. Gestsson, the CEO of Skýrr, commented, “Thor Data Center has actively been involved in the marketing of Iceland’s environmentally friendly options for data centre companies. The data centre has great employees with advanced knowledge of the structure and architecture of data centres. Here at Skýrr, we are very proud of this great addition to the to the family”

Gestsson continued, “We have been looking into developing a data centre here in Iceland for a while now as there are so many great opportunities in this field, especially in foreign markets. We expect that Thor Data Center will help bring in foreign currency and contribute to the overall development of the country’s economy.

The company is based in Iceland but also has a solid position in the Nordic markets through its subsidiaries abroad in Norway and Sweden. The Norway subsidary, Hands, focuses on Microsoft Dynamics AX and vertical markets. In addition to this, Hands owns a subsidiary in Latvia called Aston Baltic.

Skýrr covers all aspects of information technology, offering its customers integrated services in software, consulting, hardware, IT operations and hosting.

The World’s First 100 x 100 Gbps Network will Transform Trans-Atlantic Bandwidth and Connectivity and Enable Iceland’s Emerging Data Centre Industry

HOUSTON, TX and MORRISTOWN, NJ – July 19, 2011 – Emerald Atlantis Limited (EA) and TE SubCom, a TE Connectivity Ltd. company (NYSE: TEL) and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, today announced the finalization of an Instruction to Proceed (ITP) to build the Emerald Express Trans-Atlantic Cable System. The first phase will provide both low-latency and ultra-high bandwidth capacity between the US, Canada, UK and Iceland, requiring 5,200km of advanced submarine fibre optic cable. To achieve the desired ultra-high capacity rates, Emerald Express has been designed to support 100x100Gbs on each of its six fibre pairs.

“The Emerald Express system’s combination of a 100x100G per fibre pair design and ‘great circle’ routing for optimized trans-Atlantic low latency will enable Emerald Atlantis to meet the tremendous demand for bandwidth driven by cloud services, while providing Iceland with the required connectivity to support the anticipated explosive growth of low cost, 100% carbon free, renewable energy powered data centres, in which the Wellcome Trust, Emerald Atlantis’ largest shareholder and strategic partner, has a major investment,” said Greg Varisco, EA, President.

The trans-Atlantic marine cable route survey between UK and Canada commences in early August and the Emerald Express system will enter service in late 2012. The Emerald Express system includes a high capacity connection to Iceland, allowing Iceland based data centres to offer ultra low latency connections to Europe and North America, and provides two stubbed branching units positioned off Newfoundland and Ireland to support future connectivity.

“A fast track, game changing project of this scope requires the expertise and commitment of the most experienced technology supplier and installation partner, which is exactly what we have in TE SubCom,” said Scott Schwertfager, General Manager, EA. “We look forward to working closely with TE SubCom to ensure the Emerald Express system is completed on-time and with maximum efficiency and reliability.”

“It is a pleasure for TE SubCom to be chosen by Emerald Atlantis, who has asked for the most technically advanced solution available for a 2012 project completion,” said Michael Rieger, TE SubCom VP of Global Sales. “The industry is shifting its commitment to new trans-Atlantic bandwidth and TE SubCom is looking forward to working with the Emerald Atlantis team in the US and Iceland to deliver this unique IT infrastructure project within budget and on time. TE SubCom will leverage our extensive North Atlantic project experience, including recent success delivering a system into Iceland.”

About Emerald Atlantis Ltd.

Emerald Atlantis (EA) recognises the imminent shortage of low latency trans-Atlantic bandwidth, and after extensive R&D and market research, the company founders, and institutional investor – Wellcome Trust, have combined in Emerald Atlantis to build a network that jumps a generation in technology and offers a unique opportunity to Fortune 1000 companies to access low latency trans-Atlantic bandwidth and low cost green energy data centre solutions in Iceland. Emerald Atlantis is registered in the Isle of Man, is privately owned, operated and funded and has offices in Houston Texas and Reykjavik Iceland.

For more information visit www.EmeraldAtlantis.com.

About the Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.

For more information visit www.wellcome.ac.uk.

About TE SubCom

TE SubCom (SubCom), a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, is an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services and a leading global supplier for today’s undersea communications requirements. Drawing on its heritage of technical innovation and industry recognized performance, SubCom delivers the most reliable, high quality solutions to organizations with undersea communications needs vital to their core mission. The company designs, manufactures and installs systems around the world, and has deployed more than 490,000km of subsea communication cable—or enough to circle the earth more than 12 times at the equator. SubCom’s global presence, backed by industry leading research and development laboratories, manufacturing facilities, installation and maintenance ships, depots, and management

team work together to implement integrated solutions and network upgrades, with unsurpassed reliability, that support the needs of telecommunications, internet providers, offshore and science customers worldwide.

For more information visit www.SubCom.com.

About TE Connectivity

TE Connectivity is a global, $12.1 billion company that designs and manufactures over 500,000 products that connect and protect the flow of power and data inside the products that touch every aspect of our lives. Our nearly 100,000 employees partner with customers in virtually every industry — from consumer electronics, energy and healthcare, to automotive, aerospace and communication networks — enabling smarter, faster, better technologies to connect products to possibilities. More information on TE Connectivity can be found at http://www.te.com/.

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Shortly after Thor Data Center launched, back in May 2010, AST produced a short documentary of this unique installation up in the north Atlantic.

Today we are proud to announce that Thor Data Center has joined hands with a global network of datacenters through the International Data Centre Group, a London-based alliance.

The full press release can be seen below.

PRESS RELEASE

Thor DC (Iceland) becomes the latest Alliance Member of the International Data Centre Group

13^th April, 2011, London, UK: The International Data Centre Group (IDC-G), the first global data centre alliance, has signed Thor Data Center (Thor DC), the leading energy efficient data centre in Iceland, as its eleventh alliance member.

Launched in 2010, Thor DC has been running at one of the lowest Power Usage Efficiency ratios in the industry, reflecting the highly conducive environment for data centers, which is found in the temperate climate of Iceland. Providing free cooling and 100% green energy, it offers a viable option for the environmentally conscious data centre customer. At Thor DC, differing customer needs can be met through either high-density, ultra-secure Point Of Deployment containers (that can offer up to 30kWh per rack) or house-in-house solutions (with power per rack up to 8kWh). Furthermore, Thor DC’s connectivity is assured through the three main undersea cables linking Iceland to both the US and Europe.

The London-based IDC-G alliance network is a unique concept, being the first partnership of high-end data centre operators around the world under a strong, unified brand, providing international businesses with a centralised point of contact for their bespoke data centre needs. The handpicked members of the IDC-G alliance are carrier-neutral and among the preeminent players in their respective national markets, with a strong focus on operations quality.

In announcing the new addition, Guy Willner, Executive Chairman of International Data Centre Group said, “IDC-G is thrilled with the latest partnership that brings Thor DC on board in Iceland. The process of signing up Iceland, although none the less rigorous, was smoothly expedited as we saw in Thor DC a perfect fit for our alliance. Thor DC’s vision to be clean and green, both for the customers and the environment, is a very attractive concept, more so now than ever. They operate as a cutting edge, high-security data centre with an extremely acute awareness of their corporate responsibilities. The significance of this partnership for IDC-G is also that the global horizon of our fast-growing alliance continues to widen.”

Arni Rafn Jonsson, Thor DC’s Chief Operation Officer, said, “We are very pleased to join IDC-G as its latest member. We are young, passionate and cutting edge. The partnership with IDC-G provides unlimited global potential for tapping into new markets and also a forum where our vision of high-end data centre services and a commitment to sustainability is shared within the community of alliance members.”

Trygve Jarholt, Project Manager for Opera Software, and among those responsible for choosing Thor DC as Opera’s principal data centre services provider, also commented on the partnership: “As one of the pioneer customers of Thor DC, we warmly support and applaud the International Data Centre Group initiative. We are really happy to see that IDC-G sees the benefit of Thor DC and Iceland as a push forward for implementing Green-IT. And we see that achieving stronger global synergy among data center providers benefit the entire industry as well as individual Internet users.”

About IDC-G

IDC-G is the first global data centre alliance, providing customers with a single interface for premium data centre services in emerging technology markets and new economies.  IDC-G’s customers can leverage world-class industry experience combined with the local expertise of its Alliance Members, as well as the reassurance that comes with the IDC-G stamp of data centre excellence.  IDC-G was launched in 2010 by Guy Willner, the co-founder of Europe’s leading carrier neutral data centre provider IXEurope, which was acquired by Equinix Inc. in 2007 for USD555m.    For more details on IDC-G, visit http://www.idc-g.com/

About ThorDC

Situated midway between Europe and North America, ThorDC is well placed as a stepping stone between the two continents. It offers co-location in a shared, multi-tenanted environment or in a caged environment. Racks can be provided with power density of up to 30kW per rack with 24/7/365 onsite monitoring of Mechanical and Electrical infrastructure and energy consumption. It uses a new type of natural free cooling technology, jointly developed with AST Global in Spain. Latest test results show a Power Usage Efficiency ratio result of 1.07. At the ThorDC Tier 3 facility which offers 1,600 square meters of technical space, customers can choose from a variety of value added services. For further details on ThorDC, please visit: http://www.thordc.com

About Opera Software

Opera Software ASA has redefined web browsing for PCs, mobile phones and other networked devices. Opera’s cross-platform web-browser technology is renowned for its performance, standards compliance and small size, while giving users a faster, safer and more dynamic online experience. Opera Software is headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with offices around the world. The company is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol OPERA. For further details on Opera, please visit: http://www.opera.com/

-Ends-

For further details, please contact Yidan Wang:

Email: yidan.wang@idc-g.com :

Telephone: +44-(0)-207-117-6300

Address: Fulham Palace, Bishop’s Avenue, London, SW6 6EA

The University of Iceland will lead the project and Thor Data Center will host the equipment in its Tier3 modular datacenter in Hafnarfjordur.

The Nordic research institutes that are cooperating on this project are the Danish Center for Scientific Computing (DCSC), the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) and UNINETT Sigma in Norway. These institutions have each built their own computing cluster in their home countries but have now joined hands to build a joint HPC project in Iceland.

For further details, please see the following press release:

Nordic HPC Press Release

In short, HPC is a cluster of servers, in one big pool, that provides reasearch institutions and scientists with massive computing power for calculations, problem solving, simulations, modeling and other intensive tasks that are usually too big or too time-consuming for a single computer to do in a reasonable amount of time.

Building an HPC project is a massive undertaking, in terms og both time and cost. Increasingly, research institutions are joining hands and colaborating in order to contain costs and be more effective in their IT allocations.

Once of the major considerations in designing and planning an HPC, particularly a shared one (most are to some extent) is effectively and fairly manage and share computing time. Another is much more mundane – cost. As the price for electricity continues to rise, HPC owners seek ways to contain the cost of power. Enter Iceland, stage left, if you please.

Given the fact that Iceland’s cost for electricity is about one-third to one-half the cost of energy in Europe, one would like to propose that Iceland is a prime site for an HPC cluster.

And it looks like someone agrees with us, finally

Stay tuned for further news later in the day…