Their "man trap" and guards seem like any one of the dozens of data-centers/co-los I go to on a regular basis. Most of theses are NOT located in strip malls either. Many of these host servers for fortune 100's and governments as well as ordinary schmos like me. Some even have vaults like banks. I'm thinking the reporter just got dazzled by the altogether ordinary trappings of a datacenter that does co-lo simply because reporters don't usually visit many datacenters. I guess the man-traps and biometrics must have seemed pretty "Star Trek" to me the first time I went to a co-lo as well.
Completely unremarkable. I call "don't believe the hype" on this one.
It may be standard practice in Brazil to issue guards with guns to prevent wholesale theft of hardware ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182463 ). Stolen hardware isn't worth much but the cost to replace it could be millions.
It does sound like this is all show. I'm in no way a military expert but having your guards going around opening doors for visitors just doesn't sound right. If you were treating a visitor as a potential threat would a guard really turn their back on them to open a door?
"the company managed to acquire what was once meant to be Enron's broadband trading hub for a song. This gave Switch access to more than twenty of the primary carrier backbones in a single location."
I get the sense that a big part of the story didn't get told here. For instance, how did those guys get the financing to buyout the Enron stuff? Where are the investors coming from -- locally, inside-the-company, etc.
I'd also like to hear how a relatively small startup pulled down some big international players. Getting business from local investor-types is one thing: loading up with huge DoD sensitive stuff isn't something you just wake up one day and do.
Completely unremarkable. I call "don't believe the hype" on this one.