I am back in the bay area and it is amazing the number of server hugging executive decision makers want to have their IT equipment within driving distance. They have driven up the price of colocation space in the bay area, and ironically the colocation companies don’t want you to be energy efficient, they want you to be energy hogs. You ever wonder why you are stuck not being to do simple things in colocation space like hot and cold aisles.
What do you do to save energy costs? MOVE out of the bay area!!!
You look at Google, Apple, and Facebook to reduce costs and scale they move out of the bay area.
Here is a case in point of how the server hugging behavior blinds people to save money.
Power costs in the Bay Area from PG&E is about $0.13 – 0.14 kW. Silicon Valley Power can save you a few cents, but you are paying over ten cents a kW. You can go to Pacific Northwest or East in central US and get below five cents a kilowatt. If you don’t want to move out of state, closer to the bay area you can go to Sacramento and get eight cents a kW.
If you are going to move you need connectivity. It is one of the reasons you are in the bay area. Advanced Data Centers is an example we’ll use in Sacramento.
Connectivity
CARRIER NEUTRAL
McClellan Park is strategically located to leverage the multitude of carriers providing both wavelength (metro and long-haul) and traditional data/telecommunications services. ADC is committed to maintaining carrier neutrality and diverse options for its client’s connectivity requirements. Tenants will have direct access to the following carriers and service providers: 360, AT&T, Global Crossing, Level3, O1 Communications, Qwest, Sprint, Surewest, Time Warner Telecom, Verizon Business, and XO.
Power and efficiency
LEED© PLATINUM
USGBC LEED© Platinum pre-certification.
GREEN DATA CENTER DESIGN
By utilizing energy efficiency strategies such as Air Side Economizers, Hot/Cold Isle and Highly Efficient Chiller and Fan systems, ADC uses 38% less overall energy (to operate the same Critical Load) as industry standard data centers according to the 2003 LBNL Data Center Benchmarking Study. This reduces both the burden on the environment and utility grid, while lowering the total cost of data center ownership.
Cleaner power
GREEN POWER
The ADC McClellan Park data center is served by SMUD, one of the nation's "greenest" utility districts. SMUD’s 2009 Power Mix includes 19% eligible renewable energy (biomass, geothermal, wind, solar), 20% hydroelectric and 60% natural gas. Additionally, customers may elect to receive 100% renewable power under SMUD's Greenergy® program.
And oh by the way what all the big boys get moving out of state is sales tax exemption. You can get it at McClellan AFD as well.
Being located on a former Air Force Base, LAMBRA, an acronym for "Local Agency Military Base Recovery Area", allows our customers to claim a credit equal to the sales or use tax paid or incurred to purchase up to $20 million of qualified property. Qualified property includes high technology equipment, such as computers and electronic processing equipment.
Now, moving may seem expensive, but it is often the easiest way to save money and be more efficient.
Think about moving out of the bay area to save energy and costs. All the big data center players are.