[AusNOG] "Equinix Unveils Plan to Build its Third IBX Data Center in Sydney"

[Andrew Fort]

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 3:44 PM, Julien Goodwin <ausnog at studio442.com.au> wrote:
> On 29/06/10 15:08, Skeeve Stevens wrote:
>> 3000 racks is a HELL of a lot of space isn't it... how much does SYD-1 hold now?
>
> Not really.
>
> If you have rows of 30 racks (fairly average) that's only 100 rows.
>
> The single floor of AAPT Burnley st. in Melbourne for example is larger
> then this (ok that's a rough estimate, but I'd stake a beer on it).

I'd take that bet :-)  The ("downstairs") cage area plus the
("upstairs") main colo area at 180 Burnley is not that large (check
the satellite pics); I'm fairly sure they cannot fit 30 rows upstairs,
for example, and although the rows upstairs are long, I'd say 100
racks is pushing it a bit.

My WAG is the space required for 3000 racks (and the required space
between them) is a little larger than a football (soccer) field size,
or somewhere around 6500 square metres.

> Albeit that's built for *much* less power density then new rooms.

Which is the real issue; for 3000 racks at a relatively conservative
10kW per rack, well, you can do the math there.

> Given the space needs these days I'm really surprised that there are few
> *large* DC projects going up, I guess just because of the real estate
> issues, then followed up by the general lack of power. It seems every
> new DC[2] that opens is full within six to nine months.

Yeah, given the rise of cloud (densely packed, 40->80 machines per
rack) and high bandwidth services, I'd be wanting to see some serious
megawatts behind such a facility.  Getting the PUE ratio down is
probably critical to making such a project fly.  This means higher
ambient temperatures in datacentres, e.g., 30 C rather than 23 C.
Don't worry, the gear will be just fine.

-a