Marty Said...
At 08:11 PM 4/19/2006, Alex Rubenstein wrote:
On many of the public colo houses earnings calls, they told analysts that they are trying to keep contracts to one year so they can raise prices year over year, that power pricing is fluid and many facilities are being expanded both space and environmental, that most locations really are full or being held down by lack of cooling for existing dense rack space. Basically get ready to hold out your wallet.
Well, Peter Van Camp of Equinix was asked this during the (extremely informative) Equinix call for Q1 and said that many contracts being signed are still 2-year. The analyst who asked it made the (correct) assertion that shorter contracts are more advantageous now (for IDC providers), considering the tight data center market. And the market is really tight, especially in particular areas. I expect to see many more NANOG postings "where can I find good colocation in area X" over the next year. Of course, the colocation companies must raise their prices - for one thing, many folks got sweetheart deals during the lean years. For another, energy prices are way up, as we've all noticed, and IDCs use lots of juice. Finally, its supply and demand.
Is it that?
Or, is it some of these companies no realising that charging $250 for a 20 amp outlet is less than their cost, even three years ago?
I don't know, but I was selling only measured power in 2001 and people liked it. Granted, power was cheaper, but pay as you go was a good model. You still had to cool to breaker density, but it was nice to have no power risk and I would recommend that anyone who can, should convert to measured power billing.
If energy prices keep going up, one would think that submetered power would be the wave of the future, so that colos can pass through electricity prices - both direct electrical power consumed by the equipment, and the HVAC needed to dissipate the heat. The move to super-dense server platforms is a real killer. Anyone know of many colos currently submetering individual tenants?
Remember when folks thought Exodus was crazy for 220w per square foot?
Well, in hindsight that aspect of their plan was visionary. I don't suppose if anyone knows if the Exodus designed were seeking to future-proof in general, anticipated these dense server platforms, or just wanted to build more bigger? - Dan BTW, for the folks who like this stuff, there will hopefully be some great datacenter-related talks at NANOG this time, thanks to Josh Snowhorn. Its not too late to make a submission... :)