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  1. #1
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    is high density appealing to dedicated server providers?

    Would the ability to draw up to 32KW of power per cabinet be appealing to dedicated server and VPS providers?

  2. #2
    i don't thin so

    Who would need 32KW in a cabinet ?

  3. #3
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    Maybe a little more detail would be helpful. We have a data center that was designed around an anchor tenant's specific needs. Essentially they prefer to put up to five blade chassis per cabinet. This requires 4 X 30A/208V circuits per cabinet. I guess what I am really asking is what type of customer or business vertical can truly benefit by taking advantage of this extreme density capability. Any insight would be appreciated.

  4. #4
    So you want to offer cabinet space of 42U for blade hosting ?

  5. #5
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    We do offer that service and so far we have been successful with enterprise customers that have adopted blade server technology. However, as you can imagine, and as your reply indidcates, the number of end users requiring that type of power denisty is somewhat limited. It occurred to me that there may be an advantage for providers of dedicated servers and VPS if they could fit a tremendous amount of servers in a single cabinet assuming extremely competitive pricing on bandwidth.

  6. #6
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    At the same time it would be; it would be not.
    Dedicated server providers (with the exception of maybe NewServers.com) won't rely on blades, but in separate 1U machines. Corporate customers are the ones who would trust more the blades than separate servers.

    If you can offer 12-15kW per rack, it would be at least sufficient for those newer servers (Dual E5400/5500) on a full rack or even for the Twin Server configurations.

  7. #7
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    I think the main issue always comes down to cost. Most facilities have a price on power / per SF, so if you are charging just as much for that cab as you would 4 contiguous cabinets at 7.2KW, then there isn't any value. You might also be left with a ton of empty floor space too after the power is sucked dry : ) since not only will the cab use 30+KW but you are going to need more out of your cooling resources.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by 360TCS View Post
    We do offer that service and so far we have been successful with enterprise customers that have adopted blade server technology. However, as you can imagine, and as your reply indidcates, the number of end users requiring that type of power denisty is somewhat limited. It occurred to me that there may be an advantage for providers of dedicated servers and VPS if they could fit a tremendous amount of servers in a single cabinet assuming extremely competitive pricing on bandwidth.
    There would have to be a distinct cost advantage to it over just getting multiple additional cabinets.
    Anyone can get cheap bandwidth anywhere now a days, so that isn't a draw to your space. Basically, will it be cheaper for me to fill up an entire cabinet or just get more cabinets with less power each?

    Normally the latter is cheaper as higher density has a multiplier cost involved with cooling.
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  9. #9
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    dbuyer0,

    Thank you for the reply. The price for a 32KW cabinet would indeed be higher than for a 7.2KW cabinet but nowhere near four times as much. There is a definite economic advantage for compressing the footprint and many of our customers have realized that advantage by using virtulazition and blade servers to fit the same computing power into a single cabinet that may have required four or more cabinets in lower density facilities in our area. I understand your comment regarding cooling. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, our data center was designed specifically to effectively deliver and cool high power densities as we have relatively small physical footprint and plenty of available power and cooling.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by 360TCS View Post
    dbuyer0,

    Thank you for the reply. The price for a 32KW cabinet would indeed be higher than for a 7.2KW cabinet but nowhere near four times as much. There is a definite economic advantage for compressing the footprint and many of our customers have realized that advantage by using virtulazition and blade servers to fit the same computing power into a single cabinet that may have required four or more cabinets in lower density facilities in our area. I understand your comment regarding cooling. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, our data center was designed specifically to effectively deliver and cool high power densities as we have relatively small physical footprint and plenty of available power and cooling.
    I say, give them all the juice you can support then : ) ! In most of our DCs (we are a colo provider)densities are discouraged passed 7.2KW and it becomes almost, ALMOST as cheap to add an additional cab. You might want to target some companies that provide a managed SAN solution too as opposed to only corporate enterprise..

  11. #11
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    that's good advice on the SAN providers, thanks. I have explored that vertical a little bit, but have run up against a phsyical footprint problem with some of the larger, more power hungry EMC and NetApp solutions that require their own enclosure. We like to provide our own, custom made 82% airflow cabinets for uniformity along with the fact that we already own them and they are in place, powered up and ready to populate.

  12. #12
    I think cooling would be an issue once you'll go beyond 10 - 20 cabinets (once you'll start a second row). Power is usually not a problem - you can squeeze a lot (as long as you have it) in one cabinet, you can cool several of them OK, but then, unless you'll start cooling per each cabinet - could be bunch of problems (I remember I've got like 50K AC for 5 or 9 cabinets, don't remember and they still were not doing that much cooling per cabinet - I am talking about AC with airflow for each cabinet).
    Realistically don think that at this point of time more than 10 KVA per cabinet makes sense. Regarding the market - it is all depends on your sales/marketing - of course you'll be able to find customers who want only blade servers, as long as you'll put enough sales and marketing effort behind.
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  13. #13
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    we pay 6-7X as much for power as we do for Space.... at some point, the KW/square foot has a diminishing return...
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