Business Digest

Data center

Westerville

DRS, an information-technology consulting firm based in Youngstown, has partnered with the City of Westerville and Otterbein College to develop a data center for local businesses and residents. DLS and its subsidiary, PALO Creative, an advertising agency based in Leetonia, will provide strategic consulting and marketing to help the city launch a Business and Education Innovation Center. The center aims to expand the city’s data-storage capacity while giving community partners, such as Otterbein, access to affordable broadband and cloud-based data services.

Airline merger

washington

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, expressed concern over a possible merger between Continental Airlines and United Airlines to the Obama administration Monday. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Brown urged the administration to view the further consolidation of the airline industry with skepticism. Any merger between Continental and United, Brown said in the letter, is likely to result in a loss of jobs and travel-related revenue in Ohio, particularly at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. The reduction in flights and jobs at the Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Airport after the merger of Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines has had a significant negative effect on the regional economy, Brown said.

Vindicator staff/wire reports