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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.
If there's demand, someone will supply it. If the demand is for unrealistically cheap service, then that's not real demand.
Case in Point
World's most secure data center
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).
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.
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.