Re: [cobalt-users] Need advice on Colocating or Self Location

[Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Grant Stern wrote:

> No, living in a 10k sq. ft. co-lo center is not the deal, unless you like
> things really cold and windowless at home.  However, if you are doing more
> than hosting, such as print design, photography, commercial printing, tv
> production, or just have physical product to sell, having a physical space
> that supports these activities leaves tons of room for a data cabinet or
> room.  I work with an MRI center owner, just got a T1 in his office (3000
> storefront space in West Palm Beach), as case in point.  He has a nice cold,
> dark closet next to the monster sized dino machines that power his equipment
> (12" floppy anyone) that will hold a raq full of raqs next month.  10k
> warehouses run 5000 a month to purchase.  I'm working on getting one, ok,
> let you know how it turns out.

Are you sure those weren't 8" floppies?  That's the largest I've ever
seen.  They do look big, though <smile>.

This is what I preach against.  For some of my clients, hosting from
their own office makes sense, but most of us need more connection
redundancy and more peak bandwidth than we can afford unless we share
it.

And sharing it puts you into the colo business, out of your core area of
expertise; the area in which you can make money.

And if you offer colo, unless it's just for your friends, you have to
compete, which means security, redundant power, redundant air
conditioning, redundant connections, and redundant 24-hour people on
call.  It gets expensive fast.

> I agree.  But if you want space, more is better, the small spaces are twice
> as expensive, and I see potential in purchase more than rental for
> buildings.

Purchasing during a recession, even a minor one, is a great idea if you
can afford it.  But you then have a big building with big tax bills and
big mortgage payments unless you've paid cash.

So you have to be able to afford it and to ride out the recession.  It's
hardly a topic for a Cobalt list.

> Sure, a lot of downtowns are cheap, but most of them don't have a nice new
> nap and zero loop prices on T lines.  Furthermore, downtown Miami (I'm
> speaking of the north side) is in the beginning stage of five years worth of
> renovations.  New arts center is coming, and even the nightlife is starting
> again on these old city streets, which is telling in this town.

Okay, so you're plugging Miami.  I suppose I could plug Los Angeles or
San Diego.  I don't think too many of us want to pick up our businesses
and move.

Especially if our core business is one of those you mentioned: print
design, photography, commercial printing, tv production; if you have
that kind of core business it's probably pretty local (I have an old
childhood friend in tv production in Miami, you may know him or know of
him).

> My adsl loves downtown, and so do I.

I use my aDSL for my home connection.  I wouldn't use it for hosting, I
wouldn't depend on it for anything.  My backup modem has been online for
hours at a time some days <frown>.

> No, probably not, but, maybe some of us want to sell raq hosting space for
> 225 a month like my buddies at unowho.net do.  If you can sell 10 of em to
> companies (local cpa/attorney maybe?) then a cabinet would be nice.

If he has to charge $225 a month for 1U, he may be paying too much. 
Either that, or his ancillary overhead may be too high; people tell me
my 1U fee is too high, and it's significantly less than that.

Open invitation to one of my buddies to list my prices <smile>.

> Granted (pardon the pun), but once you have one raq running, the others are
> easier to figure out.  And once you have a connection, unless you're
> planning to host major multinational sites, you can put quite a few boxes
> online.  I'm studying the benefits of whipping up an office communication
> ASProvider with my local network and php gods.  As luck would have it, I'm a
> far better designer than they are, so they want me on the project.

I still see no reason for a designer to become a colo provider in your
above response.

> Ok, so I haven't been in the hosting business that long, but I did sign up
> for yahoo, using LYNX in 1995.  I started using next machines back then too,
> back when I was excited to get spammed!

Hmmmm.... by 1995 I'd been online for almost 20 years.  Does it matter
<smile>?  Next?  Do you mean those machines designed by that guy who
started a company with a kid I knew, building computers in their garage?

> Ahhhh, you speak of the 'burbs in the north of the city.  The south is
> paradise!  The burbs in the south are overcrowded when you get too far west,
> but the stuff close to US1 is very nice, and the nicer neighborhoods are all
> incorporated or close to it.  Just don't drive too fast and its a great
> place to live (been there, done that, bought the speeding ticket from an
> overpoliced municipality).

Yes, as my brothers have warned me; always use your cruise control, even
at 35 mph; if you go over the limit, you WILL get a ticket.  True in
Pembroke Pines as well, btw.

> Who knows?  I didn't because it was overpriced.  This town didn't feel a
> recession until after 9-11.  I live across the street from the OMNI mall,
> which they successfully converted into a million sq. ft. colo center
> essentially.  That is successfully wired the place and had such a high ask
> price (20k/mo. Rent + depending on build out and that was their smallest
> offered space), that they were unsuccessful in one small thing!  They did
> not sign a single lease. . . .

As I said, colo centers are overbuilt.

> Cogent did tell me on the phone today that they charge triple that amount
> for service providers.  And I wouldn't touch them either.  After hearing
> about what they do now, and how much build out they plan, I feel sorry for
> them.  Right idea, little too late.

The price I mentioned is real and available today.  Perhaps you're
talking to the wrong Cogent people?

Or perhaps they've started raising prices and Miami is first?  I don't
know.

> >pipe dreams?  Again, what in the world are you talking/writing about?
> 
> I don't know 'bout you, but I just want a big, fat, data pipe.  Just ordered
> the OC-48 for my closet at home. Ok, just a dream.

Oh, that kind of pipe <smile>.  Now I understand <smile, again>.

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman <jblists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Linux and Cobalt/Sun/RaQ Consulting
nobaloney.net
P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517
voice: (909) 778-9980  *  fax: (702) 548-9484