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Data Center Building Boom In Silicon Valley

1sockchuck writes "Data center developers are building like mad in Silicon Valley, with seven active projects in Santa Clara alone. The building boom includes the resumption of several stalled projects that prompted concerns of a shortage of wholesale data center space in the Valley. The flurry of construction activity is different from the overbuilding during the dot-com boom, which was characterized by too much funding and too few customers. This time, industry experts say, the end of a funding drought has created a situation in which construction is struggling to stay ahead of demand from companies like Facebook — which just scarfed up an entire new data center in Santa Clara."

6 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. Re:sure sure by davester666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, I would be more worried about electrical capacity.

    It's not like California is overloaded with the stuff...

    --
    Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. Re:customers by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1, Informative

    Because the customers are in Silicon Valley.

  3. Re:No real space shortage by Surt · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, it was nice for me in that it went from looking like my savings would never catch up with the rising down payment requirement for a decent house, to I'm living in one now.

    And having spent years wishing I could afford a house as they were bid up by people with nonsense jobs, it felt rewarding to buy a short sale at a 45% discount.

    --
    "Who is the Journal of Quantum Physics going to believe?" --Stephen Hawking
  4. Re:customers by TheKidWho · · Score: 3, Informative

    Because the engineers are in Silicon Valley.

  5. Re:Training/certification by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Negative on MS cert(s), no one cares about that especially in an IaaS environment where you're more interested in providing Infrastructure as a service rather than Software or Platform(s). More virtualization technologies experience and a shitton of Cisco knowledge. (CCNA is a start and no one will look down on it)

    VMware Certified Professional, maybe?

  6. This makes sense if you look at all facts by Whuffo · · Score: 4, Informative

    One thing that the commenters here have overlooked is the availability of direct connections to the Internet backbone. The biggest nexus of end and peering points is right there in Silicon Valley so hooking into huge bandwidth is much less expensive than it would be in other locations. Is the property cost too high? It used to be, but these days there's plenty of vacant space and the costs have gone down substantially thanks to the recession. There's plenty of electrical power available and it's in close proximity to a very large population of internet users. What's not to like?

    Those who see this as a boom that will produce jobs that are worth moving to Silicon Valley for are best advised to stay home. The recession has hit the IT folks there very hard and there's about 30% unemployment in that field. Data centers aren't places that require large staffs; one or two people to monitor the systems is about it and they'll do it all from moving servers around to fielding support calls. There's nothing there for people coming from out of state and nothing for the folks that are already here. Many of those H1B workers and illegal aliens have already left for home and more are leaving every day; even the slaves are bailing out.

    Facebook has already jumped the shark, so their build-out in Silicon Valley will become even more vacant space in the near future. Green energy was planned to be the next boom but it's stillborn so the hard times in the valley are going to continue for now.

    Really - if you're thinking of moving to Silicon Valley from out of state - stop now. The chances of employment are very slim and the expense of living there is very high; the best you could do is submit resumes until you run out of money. You're better off almost anywhere else.