Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Data Storage The Internet

Will Silicon Valley Run Out of Data Center Space? 142

1sockchuck writes "With capital scarce, data center developers are prioritizing projects in northern Virginia, where the Obama stimulus plan and federal shift to cloud computing are likely to boost data center demand from government agencies. This is forcing them to delay or scale back large projects in Santa Clara, setting the stage for a supply/demand imbalance in Silicon Valley, particularly for large space requirements. One potential mitigating factor: some currently occupied data center space could become available through the failure of venture-backed startups."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Will Silicon Valley Run Out of Data Center Space?

Comments Filter:
  • dream on (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @07:27PM (#29046105)

    There is a TON of unused data center space in the bay area, as dotcoms have folded up or moved.

    • Re:dream on (Score:5, Informative)

      by cantcomplain ( 1604473 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:13PM (#29046493)
      You may be partially right--some of the facilities have space. But some that have "tons" of space are maxed out or near it for power and cooling. Some are not accepting new clients or anticipate turning away business in the next few months. I think it was 365 Main that turned me away and said the move to the cloud would be consuming their capacity. Some of the tenants at 200 Paul have space but some of it is pretty ghetto and limited by power. At least that's what I found in a cursory search dictated by a ceo that doesn't want to build out a server room (40kva w/10 tons hvac) at a new site. If you know cheap and usable co-lo space, all the sushi you can eat!
      • There is plenty of hosted space and power at 185 Berry, also a few empty floors. Several other multi-carrier buildings with space in the city as well. If it's the alternative of an on site build you probably can live without a ton of private peers anyway. Sushi ran in saulsalito sounds good.
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by simontek2 ( 523795 )
        BDAW.com has some space, they are in the verizon building on 8th and Hope in Downtown LA. Peer1 usually has space all over the place.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by mcrbids ( 148650 )

        As a former 365 Main customer, I can say that our move to Herakles Data in Sacramento went smoothly, and what a difference! Great, reliable service, redundant EVERYTHING (unlike 365 Main which gave me A network feed and A power strip) with a bigger rack and more power, and at a BETTER PRICE.

        Seriously, it's dramatically different, night and day in just about every way.

        When 365 Main had their power woes a couple years back, it was all lawyer-speak about validating any kind of claim, because we *were* promised

      • >200 Paul have space but some of it is pretty ghetto and limited by power
        You might have to invest some of your own money to get a place and renovate it to have better cleaner energy, as Google did for their data centers, they now offer a full data center BOX with green energy and solar panels , the whole kit. The only thing YOU would need is the actual space itself to set up the BOXES ( the cargo boxes turned into data centers).

        ps - Also the cool thing about those boxes is they are mobile, so you can tak

      • Why not locate your data center outside of Silicon Valley? With modern server systems, the needs to go hands on is pretty limited, you can access KVM type interfaces via the web (easy enough to set up on a private network), power cycle via the web, mount ISO images, etc.

        .

        Yes, Silicon Valley is one of the original official "public" peering points, but so is Northern Virginia. And today, the majority of peering is occurring in private, and backbone speeds have increased by orders of magnitude, the need to

    • Agreed (Score:5, Interesting)

      by symbolset ( 646467 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:25PM (#29046583) Journal

      With improved density current installation needs should be met forever even without folding .coms.

      More importantly, the datacenter should locate somewhere with cheap power, labor and real estate that has good fiber. Where in the world it is is irrelevant - people who run servers don't fondle the hardware any more.

  • I say DIG (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fluffeh ( 1273756 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @07:31PM (#29046133)
    I think we should start building hardened data center sites miles underground! And have like nukes defending them! And there should be these huge walls that don't allow anyone in or out! And guard dogs!

    Sorry, for a moment there, I thought we were still in a cold war.

    Maybe they could just move them next door to the next valley? I am sure there are plenty of nice valleys around that are just waiting to take all the required new data centers. Maybe snap up some bargain land from those plummeting subprime land prices?
    • Re:I say DIG (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @07:56PM (#29046347)

      Case in Point

      World's most secure data center [pingdom.com]

      This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.

      And it is real. It is a newly opened high-security data center run by one of Swedenâ(TM)s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below the bedrock of Stockholm city, sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Maybe they could just move them next door to the next valley?

      Does it even matter where the data center is physically located. I'd say go where the climate is such that it requires the lowest expense on cooling or heating, and where the land, hookers and beer are cheapest.
      • by Hillman ( 137883 )

        Canada!

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        Yes, it does. If you've ever tried either to install someplace out of the way where tools and replacement parts are difficult to obtain, or where the data center staff are cage monkeys who've never actually read their own contract and how they're supposed ot have a console and keyboard available within 20 minutes of a phone call plugged into the correct server because you "economized" by paying for a "higher service level" and didn't buy remote KVM's or power controllers, then you know exactly what I've enc

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The next valley over is the Central Valley [wikipedia.org]. I shit you not , I live in the Bay Area and if my wife would let me, I would drive us all the way up near Redding along 101 and then back down along the Sierras to get Yosemite without having to drive through the Central Valley (ok I shit you a little but trust me it does suck). That's California they conveniently don't mention in the brochures.
    • 1. Demolish Windsor, Ontario
      2. Push for new nuclear reactors or expand the horshoe falls' power production
      3. ???
      4. Cheap data centres
      5. Nothing of value was lost.

  • Not even possible (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brian Gordon ( 987471 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @07:31PM (#29046143)

    a supply/demand imbalance

    If there's demand, someone will supply it. If the demand is for unrealistically cheap service, then that's not real demand.

    • by maxume ( 22995 )

      There are markets for esoteric goods that are essentially dysfunctional (stuff like high end art and black market goods), so yes, it is possible.

      • High end art markets, and especially black markets, still follow supply and demand.

        • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

          by maxume ( 22995 )

          If there is a large seizure, some drug or the other might not be available at any price, at least for a short period of time. Some owners might not be willing to part with art at any price, putting the value they place on the item far above any buyer (or even a variety of buyers). Hence the dysfunctional markets.

    • by sessamoid ( 165542 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:51PM (#29046727)

      a supply/demand imbalance

      If there's demand, someone will supply it eventually. If the demand is for unrealistically cheap service, then that's not real demand.

      Doesn't mean it will happen soon, or that a lot of businesses aren't going to suffer until the imbalance is addressed.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by mano.m ( 1587187 )

      If the demand is for unrealistically cheap service, then that's not real demand.

      Yes, it is. You can't know what's 'unrealistically cheap' unless you've pushed the envelope and actually negotiated for a lower price. In a down economy, and with enough buying power looking for low prices, you might even be able to wrangle an unprecedented discount.

    • Yeah, because the economy is actually made of pure math rather than real people! It's so simple!

  • by FullBandwidth ( 1445095 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @07:36PM (#29046197)
    Coal-burning plants in the Appalachians, and a massive transmission line that Dominion Power wants to run across large swaths of W Va and VA. Now that the administration is behind the idea, the local opposition doesn't stand a chance.
  • I wouldn't even consider building a fresh data center here, just because of earthquakes alone.

    Move to Sacto or something.

    • Rust Belt (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I wouldn't even consider building a fresh data center here, just because of earthquakes alone.

      Move to Sacto or something.

      How about those Rust Belt states? Or Detroit? Or anywhere else where there are lots of out of work folks and where the cost of living is a fraction of California? There are colleges and universities that have CS and engineering programs outside of CA - meaning, you can find people with the necessary skills in other areas in those parts of the country. They're not all blue collar union members who refuse to learn new skills.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by magarity ( 164372 )

        meaning, you can find people with the necessary skills in other areas
         
        What skills? A few people at the data center have mad skillz but most of them just need to know how to swap out tapes and failed hard drives and to not press the reset button until expressly told to do so. Most of the administration of the software, which is what needs the most training and skill, happens by people who are off site. Usually in India.

        • No the Indians are to highly trained for such work. We need Americans who are afraid of Math but still think they are doing tech work to do the job.

      • Good idea. Or what about Utah? Or Wyoming? Has anyone here been these places or to Nevada? Western Nebraska? These states are mostly empty. Running power and fiber is plenty cheap enough when you consider the cost of land in these desolate, barren areas can be had for a pittance.

        • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          Utah? Is there anyone there smart enough to run a computer let alone manage a server?
          They don't call em utards on fark for nothin you know.
          • by cenc ( 1310167 )

            yea, that would be why the NSA is moving a data / translation center there. Those tards can not even speak English, just every other language in the World.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          While i would personally love to see a place like WY, or the rust belt get a bunch of data centers, there are some issues that would need to be addressed that realistically leave the northeast and west coast the only major viable locations for most data centers. Firstly, the issue of infrastructure rears its head in much of the midwest, WY, MT and the like, are likely lacking sufficient power supply and readily available bandwidth to realistically facilitate large amounts of data centers. While it is not ne

          • If distance were of no concern Australia would probably be the best place for data centers.

            I think it is, personally. It's not just the false-floor space, it's the head space of driving home to "Ho hum, another hundred miles of f*****g perfect beaches". And the schools turn out educated people, for the most part. As in -- they have to study, hard, or they don't pass. Stunning place, really. Come on down.

            • That wasnt by any stretch to indicate that Australia is a bad place, it makes the short list of places i'd like to live, i was referencing it due to it proximity to NYC which according to my highly technical 'two fingers on a school globe' methodology puts AU about as far from NYC as any place on earth, thats all.

          • While i would personally love to see a place like WY, or the rust belt get a bunch of data centers, there are some issues that would need to be addressed that realistically leave the northeast and west coast the only major viable locations for most data centers. Firstly, the issue of infrastructure rears its head in much of the midwest, WY, MT and the like, are likely lacking sufficient power supply and readily available bandwidth to realistically facilitate large amounts of data centers.

            I hate to say it but, Idaho. Access to plenty of hydro, a ton of potential wind in the east part of the state. Micron and HP are here which in turn means there is at least a certain amount of pipe to the area. Not only that but the Google and MS data centers out in the Columbia River Gorge aren't that far away. The INL isn't far off, so in atleast some regards it's not as yokel as some might think... Regardless of our sometimes questionable choices in elected officials. Ahem... [wikipedia.org]

      • "They're not all blue collar union members who refuse to learn new skills."

        Sure, it's not as if CS graduates are using a variation of a 1970's OS or Lisp-like editors from that period.

  • Pure BS! (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    There was a slashdot article just recently on how easy it is to move your cloud servers to a low-tax, business-friendly jurisdiction.

    Your cloud services are also easily moved to a LOW COST location.

    Sheesh. Think a little.

  • Peak Valley (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Were going to need a bigger valley!

    Start digging or start dying.

  • No more startups (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kohath ( 38547 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:20PM (#29046527)

    No, it won't be a problem.

    There will be very, very few new startups in the US. And many of the existing startups will shut down. There's just not much point in starting a business in the US any more.

    - IPOs used to be plentiful, but that was before Sarbanes-Oxley made going public astronomically expensive.
    - The government is sucking up most of the country's available capital [to buy votes] for stimulus and other government spending, leaving less available for business growth.
    - The new stock option rules more-or-less preclude giving lower-level employees company stock so they share in the success of the company.
    - Even for those that do see success, the tax rate will be 60-70% in a few years, so they won't be able to keep much of what they make. They won't be able invest the money in new startups because the taxes will take too much and there will be none left over.
    - And don't forget that everyone knows businesses are villains and rich businessmen are hated. Why subject yourself to all that for such low after-tax gains?

    See this article by Victor Davis Hanson [victorhanson.com].
    See this article by T. J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor [pajamasmedia.com].
    See this article by Michael S. Malone [wsj.com].

    It's not really the land of opportunity any more -- not unless you know just the right people in government or the environmental industrial complex to steer you an earmark. And even those will run out in a few years after all the money is spent and all the output from the country's slowly-declining future production is borrowed and spent.

    There will be plenty of vacant data center space.

    • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Flamebait? He makes some excellent points. The federal deficit will soon be at a level where no amount of gdp increase will be able to pay it off. Get ready for massive tax increases, massive inflation, or parts of the US being sold off.
      • The federal deficit will soon be at a level where no amount of gdp increase will be able to pay it off.

        If US GDP goes up by 10%, the covers the existing budget gap and then some. Historically, this usually takes place every two or three years. Right now, we're in a recession. The problem with US finances is that Medicare is going up at an even faster rate. Health care does ultimately need to be rationed, or basically, people are going to have to be thrown off of Medicare, simply to control costs. I'm

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Kohath ( 38547 )

          So fix Medicare and leave the rest of the health care system alone then.

          The comprehensive plans are basically a huge organizational clusterfuck aimed at subsidizing Medicare using the taxes and premiums of healthy people, rationing care for everyone so you can ration it for Medicare recipients too, and forcing doctors and patients into low value/low physician-pay outcomes by denying all other choices. Some of us aren't willing to have our life-and-death choices subject to government bureaucratic decision t

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Lots of young people think they can just pay for their medical costs in cash. I have bad news, your twenties and thirties are not the expensive parts of your life in terms of medical care.

            -This conflict on health care will continue to escalate and intensify until the ruling class backs down.

            The ruling class are the people who own the insurance companies and such, they're not actually the friend of the working man, they just want your money.

            • by Kohath ( 38547 )

              "The people who own insurance companies"? Who are they? Do they live in a cartoon mansion with their nephews and roll around on the cash in the vault?

              Life isn't a cartoon. There are no "the people who own insurance companies". Teachers and plumbers own the insurance companies in their pension plan or 401K.

            • by Kohath ( 38547 )

              Oh, and let me add: Your arguments are great. I am now completely persuaded. You won me over completely.

              Please tell me when I can start letting life and death decisions for myself and my family be made by a government bureaucracy. It's such a great idea. Why didn't I see it before?

          • That's ridiculous (Score:3, Interesting)

            by tjstork ( 137384 )

            . Some of us aren't willing to have our life-and-death choices subject to government bureaucratic decision trees.

            What's the difference between government and an insurance company? I just don't get it. I'm not seeing how you could be any more bureacratic that Cigna, Aetna or Blue Cross.

            . And this is a matter of life and death for me and everyone else who uses health care.

            Either way, its not your money. Your life or death decisions are making my health care more expensive, public or private.

            • by Kohath ( 38547 )

              What's the difference between government and an insurance company? I just don't get it. I'm not seeing how you could be any more bureacratic that Cigna, Aetna or Blue Cross.

              For one thing, insurance companies don't ration using waiting lists. For another, insurance companies aren't a monopoly.

              But ultimately, if the insurance company won't pay, I can pay out of pocket. The government plans will eventually eliminate this option. The government needs to lower the cost, and one of their tools to do this is to take away all the choices from doctors so the doctors are forced to accept below-market wages. If I can pay a doctor directly, a doctor can ask for extra money over and ab

              • by tjstork ( 137384 )

                For one thing, insurance companies don't ration using waiting lists. For another, insurance companies aren't a monopoly.

                For one thing, they do. For the other thing, they essentially are because they are allowed to trade rate and underwriter information.

                But ultimately, if the insurance company won't pay, I can pay out of pocket. The government plans will eventually eliminate this option.

                There is no socialized medicine country where this has happened. Instead of saying "must", why not deal in facts.

                In the c

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      We're dooooomed!

      Yeah, like it wasn't the land of opportunity in the 50s, when the upper bracket income tax percent was much higher and the United States decended into Soviet-like poverty. Oh wait..

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Kohath ( 38547 )

        Which other countries were a better place than the US to start a company in the 1950s? It was just after WWII and most countries were rebuilding.

        Which countries are a better place than the US to start a business in 2009? And in 2011 when the taxes start kicking in? And what about the years after that? There are lots of countries that won't be capping their carbon emissions, for example.

        Also, government as a percentage of GDP was about half as large [usgovernmentspending.com] in the 1950s. And the regulatory burden [fiscalaccountability.org] was much lower

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by lawpoop ( 604919 )

      the tax rate will be 60-70% in a few years

      Who modded this informative? How about +1 Right-wing paranoid socialist revolution fantasy?

    • Re:No more startups (Score:5, Informative)

      by YesIAmAScript ( 886271 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @11:30PM (#29047629)

      Gloom and doom never gets old. We were definitely doomed in 2000 also. And 1994.

      I don't think Sarbanes-Oxley has anything to do with the number of IPOs. IPOs are such a ridiculous money making scam that increasing the overhead a few percent isn't doing to dampen anything. I'd say the reduction in the number of IPOs is more to do with the stock market in the toilet than anything. Companies don't go public to succeed anymore, they go public to get a huge stock pop, and you won't get that right now.
      You're right about the changes in stock options to low-level employees, but my understanding is there are no new rules, companies are voluntarily expensing stock options now. Which, to be honest, they should have done all along.
      The tax rate will be 60%? Marginal tax rates aren't even at 30% for most people right now. Remember, it's Silicon Valley, your house costs $600,000 and the tax on the interest is deductible. I know people with 14 exemptions on their W-4, virtually all of which come from them paying $28,000 in interest on their house each year. That means if you're making $100,000, 28% of your income isn't subject or state or local taxes at all!

      - And don't forget that everyone knows businesses are villains and rich businessmen are hated. Why subject yourself to all that for such low after-tax gains?

      Good point, now what are you going to do with your business degree? I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed that your ilk might no longer be rushing to Silicon Valley to make their money for nothing but calling themselves executives and quoting tax regulations.

      • Why did I say state and local taxes when I meant state or federal taxes? Sorry about that.

      • Deductions only apply to one of the three federal taxes on wages. The social security and medicare taxes have no deductions. If you've ever been self-employed then your are very aware of the 15% bite those two federal taxes take out of your income, but even if you are not self-employed those two take still nearly an 8% bite out of your paycheck (not to mention that if the employer didn't have to pay their half, they could just pay it to you instead).
      • by Kohath ( 38547 )

        I guess Michael S. Malone [wsj.com] is stupid then?

        Good point, now what are you going to do with your business degree?

        Fire all my employees and shut down the company. Take a long vacation. Then get an easy job with moderate pay and a lot of vacation time.

        A guy could work long hours and employ people and struggle and risk to try to make money. But what's the point if he only gets to keep a tiny part of it? Why not take the capital and invest it in a country that still allows people to succeed? Why not give up the extra work for the government's benefit and just enjoy some leisur

    • Not to mention, its impossible to write software in the U.S. without getting sued by some patent troll.

  • by Old97 ( 1341297 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:22PM (#29046549)
    I'm confused, I've been watching some videos and reading stories on the Onion's site. This story just fit right in.
  • Half-empty dc's (Score:2, Interesting)

    by raybob ( 203381 )

    I've worked in several large datacenters in the Atlanta area for various clientes in the past few months. These things are overbuilt, and half or more of their capacity looks idle. Speaking with dc staff, many of even the populated cages are idle/bankrupt/abandoned.

    And the dc salesmen have seemed pretty eager last 6 months or so. I've bought some rack space & virtual servers recently, and got some shinin' deals.

    So I can attest to the fact that at least that postulate about dc capacity being underutil

    • Re:Half-empty dc's (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drdanny_orig ( 585847 ) * on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:36PM (#29046635)
      I live and work in Sunnyvale, and I'm here to tell you that half the office space in this area is empty. Buildings that started going up two years ago have stopped, rusting in place. And at the rate people and businesses are leaving I don't think space is going to be a problem.
      • Hell, I live near Tampa, Florida. I'm here to tell you that half of the homes in this area are empty. Everyone's leaving the state. You can probably pick up foreclosed properties for next to nothing.

      • After Sonoma County dried up in terms of jobs for technical people, we moved to San Jose in hopes of earning a living in a place where there was technology happening. The real estate prices were high, I was unable to find work, and eventually I had to bail. Now I live in a city that only has one software company, but the weather is nice and the traffic doesn't turn ugly during commute time. I don 't miss the smog, the traffic, or the arrogant people. The Internet has freed us to work where we like and the S
  • by gtrubetskoy ( 734033 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:24PM (#29046563)
    There are only two places in the US where datacenters can be built - Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia.
  • by schwep ( 173358 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:29PM (#29046595)

    Just put in a fat pipe to the data center & connect it to the backbone. Data centers are (by design) a commodity, and as such will be outsourced to where it makes sense.

    • Financial institutions care. they rely on super low latency for trades and transactions, which is why many data centers are located on some of the most expensive land in America, North NJ, specifically Bayonne and Jersey City as they are within spitting distance of NYC and Wall st

  • Why... (Score:5, Informative)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @08:59PM (#29046775)
    ... do the data centers need to be located in Silicon Valley? I thought this thing called The Internet negated the need for geographical co-location.
    • Re:Why... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mikael ( 484 ) on Wednesday August 12, 2009 @09:19PM (#29046861)

      This article seems to list everything a corporation should consider: [techtarget.com]

      Price of power
      Networking infrastructure
      Accessibility
      Talent pool
      Local incentives

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Just because the Internet is involved doesn't mean everything you do can just happen anywhere. People administering datacenters often need physical access. They might also have other jobs to do. They might be on a team that isn't all IT administrators. There may be face-to-face interaction required to get anything done. Real world considerations often intrude.
    • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      * When you're a small company building something out, you need to have colo near your engineers, since they WILL have to visit it

      * If you later become big the staffing isn't as big a problem (you could just pay a couple engineers to live near your data center in Bumfuck, NW) However, by then you have a lot of infrastructure in your current datacenter, so moving is hard/expensive too.

      * Even if you're large you need to consider the risk of having a datacenter located far from most of your employees - if some

    • by cenc ( 1310167 )

      Writing from the tip of South America with a current ping time of around 250 - 300 ms to my server in the San Jose in the middle of the night I can tell you it matters. I have to run a server in the States for my clients in the Northern hemisphere, and a Server in South America for my office in the southern hemisphere because latency and quality of connections between them matters even for a relatively small and light computing I do in my biz. It is a problem for me with just a few web and email servers, an

  • by Anonymous Coward

    ...the most dense data center in the world is the SuperNAP locate here in Vegas:

    http://www.switchnap.com/

    A lot more are being built here as this is the safest place from disasters in the US.

  • ... of the million-dollar mansions of all the pre-Internet-Bubble-burst CEOs and entrepreneurs. Have they spec'ed out those for data centers yet?

  • Every wonder why San Jose, Cupertino, Mountain View, Fremont, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Palo Alto and all the other major cities of the valley have no sky line and are flat? It is because there are lots of building height restrictions in San Jose and the other cities of Santa Clara County (with a few special exceptions made for buildings like Fairmont Plaza and the Adobe towers). If those restrictions were relaxed we could quickly build huge data centers that occupy only a small footprint. Tall buildings can b

  • There's something about network connectivity that works well with data centers - take a look at any of the "map of the internet" graphics and you'll see that a huge number of major networks intersect in Silicon Valley. There aren't many places on earth better if what you need is bandwidth and low latency.

    Unfortunately, the real estate costs are among the highest in the country and labor costs are correspondingly high. So the building and the drones who staff it are more expensive in Silicon Valley than al
  • That article sounds bogus. The problem seems to be that there's not much demand for more capacity, not that there's a lack of floor space.

    If anybody actually needs a few thousand servers in Silicon Valley right now, I know a company that has them idle. Machines less than 18 months old, 8 CPUs per server, plenty of bandwidth. Serious inquiries only.

  • They seem to have a lot of excess capacity if you judge from what they're offering on leased servers.

    I used to host my own gear up here in Maine (standby generator and all) but I could never get the bandwidth or reliability I can in a pro datacenter, and as the prices dropped so much there was no reason for me to worry about hardware any more.

    As far as colo vs. leased server space - I'll take a leased server any time. The only servers I touch are in my office for development use. Customer facing stuff is

  • I wonder how much of this problem is negated by the fact that startups are increasingly turning to cloud computing as a way to manage the server infrastructure. Amazon and the like have servers in many locations making them relatively immune from these kind of demand shortages.

    Even if that wasn't true, and like others have said, if the cost of storing your server is too high in San Fransisco, just drive it over to Sacramento (less than two hours drive) or down to Los Angeles (less 5 hours away if you ta
  • Why in the world does the data center have to be next door to you?

    With tools like VPN, HP's ILO, Dell's DRAC, and countless other hardware management console ports, serial to Ethernet switches, KVM to VNC or whatever else, it's really easy to rarely if ever see the "hardware".

    I mean come on, we're "slash dot", if we cannot install Linux, change the configuration in IOS, or patch/reboot Windows from 400+ miles away, we may have to change our name to "wiener dot".

    I don't want to be wiener dot.
  • by Hasai ( 131313 ) on Thursday August 13, 2009 @12:03PM (#29054361)

    ....It's the watts.

    You can brag about density all you want, but if you can't deliver the needed wattage to the racks AND the HVAC tonnage to carry away the dissipated heat, it doesn't amount to a hill of beans.

Sigmund Freud is alleged to have said that in the last analysis the entire field of psychology may reduce to biological electrochemistry.

Working...