Between web services, hosting and storage, Amazon is becoming the backbone for digital properties from startups to established companies such as Dropbox.

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Hurt by falling demand for its office and hotel properties, plus pricey investments in cold storage and residential development, Crescent Real Estate Equities cut its earnings outlook for 2001 by 13% and its dividend by 32% in October.

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Some favored blue-chip REIT selections include Kimco Realty ( KIM), Realty Income ( O), National Retail Properties ( NNN), Public Storage ( PSA), Tanger Factory Outlets ( SKT), Simon Property Group ( SPG), Taubman Centers ( TCO), Federal Realty ( FRT), Prologis Inc. ( PLD) and Ventas Inc. ( VTR).

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Mr. Nislick is the chief executive of Edison Properties LLC, which owns parking garages, self-storage facilities and office buildings in the city.

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Self storage had long been a sleepy market that counts about 55, 000 properties nationwide that are mostly operated by mom-and-pop landlords.

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Composed of portfolios of properties or mortgages, REITs invest in everything from shopping malls to storage units.

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Such computer systems require interconnectivity to provide access to centralized storage and as discussed above increasingly require the need to communicate with each other to not only provide virtualization properties already discussed but also deliver performance in an acceptable time-frame, often in the order of microseconds.

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