The iseek Communications Data Centre, located at Brisbane Airport, has won the WSP Award for Best Sustainable Development - New Buildings, at the Property Council of Australia/Rider Levett Bucknall Innovations and Excellence Awards 2012. The data centre has achieved a Green Grid power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.3 - one of the lowest power usage indexes in Australia. [ + ]

The North American University of Michigan has revealed its Modular Data Center (MDC), which it has labelled an eco-friendly data centre. The data centre, which houses equipment in a unit the size of several shipping containers, is different to most data centres in that it uses outdoor air to cool equipment, instead of expensive, industrial air conditioners. [ + ]

Symantec is analysing a malware threat that it has labelled W32.Flamer, which the company says has been operating under the radar for at least two years, stealing documents and other user data, primarily from machines in the Middle East. [ + ]

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has issued a draft determination proposing authorisation of the agreement between NBN Co and SingTel Optus for the migration of Optus’s HFC subscribers to the National Broadband Network (NBN) and the subsequent decommissioning of parts of Optus’s HFC network. [ + ]

Microsoft Research's FUSE Labs have quietly launched So.cl (pronounced 'social'), originally designed as a research network for students, to the general public. [ + ]

Australian hosted VoIP provider VoNEX will collaborate with VoIP phone manufacturer snom on a new software-as-a-service VoIP solution that will see the Australian company’s services delivered to North American customers. [ + ]

Optical networking revenues are down across the globe, according to Ovum, with Q1 2012 figures indicating a 9% drop from the same period in 2011. [ + ]

Revenue for IT outsourcing (ITO) rose 7.8% globally in 2011, to a total of US$246.6 billion, according to Gartner. In 2010, revenues reached just US$228.7 billion. IBM maintained its position in 2011 as the top earning ITO, with revenues of $26.9 billion, matching the global growth rates at 7.8%. [ + ]

Australian cloud-based service and business solution provider BitCloud has attained VMware Enterprise Partner status. [ + ]

Government funding of $233.6 million for personally controlled electronic health records (PCEHRs), announced yesterday in the 2012 Australian federal Budget, will boost both the health and ICT sectors in Australia, according to the Australian Information Industry of Australia (AIIA). [ + ]

Optus and Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA) have signed a binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will see the mobile carriers share existing mobile sites and the infrastructure costs, over the next four years, to build additional mobile sites in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Geelong, Central Coast, Gold Coast and Canberra. [ + ]

Cybercriminals are exploiting a vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player in a targeted attack on manufacturers of defence products. According to Symantec, the attackers will soon cast a broader net aimed at a wider variety of organisations. [ + ]

Australian businesses could substantially cut capital and labour costs through the use of public cloud services, leading to a yearly $3 billion boost to the economy after 10 years, according to a new report from KPMG. [ + ]

The Australian Red Cross has signed a three-year deal with Primus Telecom to provide a data network solution to its network of branch offices and other sites across Australia. [ + ]

snom technology has announced that its VoIP phones are interoperable with Schmooze Com’s PBXact phone system and PBXtended hosted PBX. snom VoIP phones can now be autoprovisioned via the Schmooze Com Endpoint Manager for quick and easy installation and no-hassle management, directly from the PBX GUI. The following six snom models are currently certified for the Schmooze solution: snom 300, snom 320, snom 370, snom 821 and snom 870 desktop phones and the snom M9 wireless handset. [ + ]