IBM joins Kenya's Digital Village initiative; Savvis' MPLS earns four Cisco designations

> Fresh on the heels of IBM's (NYSE: IBM) pact with Bharti Airtel to build an IT network across 16 African countries, the company has joined Kenya's Digital Village initiative, with a team of Corporate Service Corps consultants arriving in Nairobi to begin a one-month strategy-building project. Story.

> Sanjay Mewada, Vice President of Strategy for Netcracker, is speaking on a panel at Managed Services World Congress 2010 in Berlin next Tuesday, addressing the benefits of using managed services to implement VAS (value-added services). News release.

> Zhone Technologies (Nasdaq: ZHNE) has sold its Oakland, Calif. campus to LBA Realty, LLC for about $18.8 million in cash, a move that will allow the company to pay off some of its debt obligations. The company will continue to lease a building on the campus for a five-year period. News release.

> Middle East-based submarine cable operator Gulf Bridge International (GBI) has signed an agreement with Europe's Interoute, with both sides providing capacity in countries and cities in the Middle East, Africa, and along transatlantic routes to Northern America. News release.

> Hurricane Electric keeps whooshing along: The Internet backbone and colocation provider, which recently established three new global PoPs, reports that its IPv6 certification, Tunnel Broker, and FreeDNS services have over 113,000 users in 171 countries and that it has certified over 1400 IPv6 "Sages," the company's highest cert level. News release.

> Frost & Sullivan have ranked Verizon Business and IBM among the top managed security services providers in the world. News release.

> Savvis' MPLS Application Transport Services have earned four Cisco powered designations following a rigorous third-party assessment, including Managed TelePresence Network Connection, Managed MPLS-VPN, Managed Firewall and Managed IDS/IPS Services. News release.

And finally... There's product placement, and then there's blatant advertising, and the FCC is investigating whether Skechers and Nicktoons fall somewhere in between, reportedly violating rules that limit commercials to children. The commission has launched a review into the new program "Zevo-3", the Washington Post Reports, following a complaint that the show is "a 22-minute commercial masquerading as a kids' TV show." Story.