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Will Silicon Valley Run Out of Data Center Space?
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."
There is a TON of unused data center space in the bay area, as dotcoms have folded up or moved.
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?
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
If there's demand, someone will supply it. If the demand is for unrealistically cheap service, then that's not real demand.
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.
My friend Debbie Ann is so promiscuous, instead of an appointment book she needs a package manager
Perhaps it wasn't a typo... but a snide remark. Silly-con -> Sillicon
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.
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.
See this article by T. J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor.
See this article by Michael S. Malone.
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.
I'm confused, I've been watching some videos and reading stories on the Onion's site. This story just fit right in.
Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most. - Clement Mok
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 underutilized.
But, things seem on the upswing now though, at least my intuition says so.
There are only two places in the US where datacenters can be built - Silicon Valley and Northern Virginia.
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.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
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.
... 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.
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 trees. But none of the plans will ultimately allow us to opt out and pay for care in cash (a favorable alternative to dying or suffering on a waiting list in many cases) because that option will destroy the leverage that governments have to force physicians to work for below-market reimbursements. (Note how no one asks malpractice lawyers to work for below-market rates. Hmm. I wonder which party those lawyers give money to?)
My health-care costs aren't going up 8% per year. I'm not spending too much of my GDP on health care, because I don't have a GDP; I'm a person. The government can fuck off when it comes to my health care. And this is a matter of life and death for me and everyone else who uses health care. It's not like people are just going to acquiesce. This conflict on health care will continue to escalate and intensify until the ruling class backs down.
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.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
. 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.
This is my sig.
....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.
Regards;