Digital Realty Participates in Open Compute Summit and Becomes Official Member of Open Compute Project

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:DLR, news, filings), a global provider of data center solutions, participated in the second annual Open Compute Summit (http://opencompute.org/summit/) hosted by Facebook in New York City on October 27, 2011. The Open Compute Summit is the biannual conference organized by the Open Compute Project, an initiative begun earlier this year with a contribution from Facebook. It is based on the premise that greater openness and collaboration have the potential to increase the pace of innovation in the space, open up greater access to scale computing technology to everyone, make scale computing more efficient, and help reduce the environmental impact of infrastructure technology.

Digital Realty’s Director of Engineering, Kevin Dalton, participated with other industry experts on a panel and workshop that focused on design and engineering best practices for data centers. In addition, Digital Realty has become an official member of the newly unveiled Open Compute Foundation, which was formed to lead the Open Compute Project.

“Digital Realty has been actively involved in the Open Compute Project through our long-standing collaboration with Facebook on numerous data center projects. Becoming an official member of the new Open Compute Foundation was a natural next step,” said Jim Smith, Chief Technology Officer for Digital Realty. “We look forward to working with other members of the Foundation who share our commitment to developing a blueprint for data center facilities that increases efficiency, reduces costs and mitigates their environmental impact. Digital Realty is proud to participate in this important work.”

“We are planning to make the Open Compute power and cooling option available in our Powered Base Buildings and Turn-Key Datacenters in order to facilitate the adoption and delivery of this new type of data center architecture,” continued Mr. Smith. “For the many corporate enterprise customers that may not have the resources to operate or deploy data centers at Facebook’s scale, Digital Realty can help bridge the gap for them in our existing portfolio or new build-to-suit facilities utilizing the same leading edge architecture.”

For more information about the Open Compute Foundation and last week’s Summit, visit http://opencompute.org/.

About Digital Realty

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. focuses on delivering customer driven data center solutions by providing secure, reliable and cost effective facilities that meet each customer’s unique data center needs. Digital Realty’s customers include domestic and international companies across multiple industry verticals ranging from information technology and Internet enterprises, to manufacturing and financial services. Digital Realty’s 98 properties, excluding three properties held as investments in unconsolidated joint ventures, comprise approximately 17.4 million square feet as of October 27, 2011, including 2.1 million square feet of space held for redevelopment. Digital Realty’s portfolio is located in 30 markets throughout Europe, North America, Singapore and Australia. Additional information about Digital Realty is included in the Company Overview, which is available on the Investors page of Digital Realty’s website at http://www.digitalrealty.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements which are based on Digital Realty Trust, Inc.’s current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially, including statements related to its plans regarding power and cooling options available in its Powered Base Buildings and Turn-Key Datacenters. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the following: the impact of the recent deterioration in global economic, credit and market conditions including the downgrading of the U.S. government’s credit rating; current local economic conditions in its geographic markets; decreases in information technology spending, including as a result of economic slowdowns or recession; adverse economic or real estate developments in its industry or the industry sectors that it sells to (including risks relating to decreasing real estate valuations and impairment charges); its dependence upon significant tenants; bankruptcy or insolvency of a major tenant or a significant number of smaller tenants; defaults on or non-renewal of leases by tenants; its failure to obtain necessary debt and equity financing; increased interest rates and operating costs; risks associated with using debt to fund its business activities, including re-financing and interest rate risks, its failure to repay debt when due, adverse changes in its credit ratings or its breach of covenants or other terms contained in its loan facilities and agreements; financial market fluctuations; changes in foreign currency exchange rates; its inability to manage its growth effectively; difficulty acquiring or operating properties in foreign jurisdictions; its failure to successfully integrate and operate acquired or redeveloped properties; risks related to joint venture investments, including as a result of its lack of control of such investments; delays or unexpected costs in development or redevelopment of properties; decreased rental rates or increased vacancy rates; increased competition or available supply of data center space; its inability to successfully develop and lease new properties and space held for redevelopment; difficulties in identifying properties to acquire and completing acquisitions; its inability to acquire off-market properties; its inability to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to reporting companies; its failure to maintain its status as a REIT; possible adverse changes to tax laws; restrictions on its ability to engage in certain business activities; environmental uncertainties and risks related to natural disasters; losses in excess of its insurance coverage; changes in foreign laws and regulations, including those related to taxation and real estate ownership and operation; and changes in local, state and federal regulatory requirements, including changes in real estate and zoning laws and increases in real property tax rates.  For a further list and description of such risks and uncertainties, see the reports and other filings by Digital Realty Trust, Inc. with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including Digital Realty Trust, Inc.’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 2011, June 30, 2011 and September 30, 2011.  Digital Realty Trust, Inc. disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.