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@Kevin

One of the reasons the Dulles corridor is such a massive draw for tech companies (think sheer IT job numbers), is the availability of carrier neutral data centers.

Which of course leads to cheap connectivity for companies. If you're looking for a carrier neutral facility in DC proper, you've got one - CoreSite 1275K which is pretty much at capacity.

XO and Cogent do absolutely nothing with their telco style data centers scattered throughout the city. No one is going to dump servers in a place with open relay racks and single provider.

Get some IX's in the city with carrier neutral facilities and you'll see a lot more companies starting to locate jobs within the city. Real estate too expensive? Not really. Look at NYC (60 Hudson St, 25 Broadway, ...) and Chicago (350 E. Cermak, Chicago Board of Trade Building, ...).

350 E. Cermak handling almost all the traffic for the midwest.

[OT: Going slightly OT but 350 E. Cermak is an awesome building. It used to be a giant newspaper printing building and was converted to a data center. Pics > http://6me.us/Zgqjg ]

Going a step further, I'm not sure what DC needs is Web 2.0 companies. That bubble is going to burst. Your workforce is also very mobile, as in they can pack up and move if someone gives them a better deal elsewhere. Web 2.0 is 90% marketing, 10% tech. This won't happen with larger infrastructure companies.

If DC wants to become like Reston or Ashburn, throw money at Equinix and get them to open a huge IX in DC. You get peering, then you'll get the content companies to come here and locate facilities inside or very near the city.

You'll get the infrastructure jobs which pay everyone from construction works, security guards, electrical engineers, sys admins, networking guys, programmers, etc. You'll also get the benefit of better connectivity for the city.

So ICANN has offices right next to Google in DC and they're having to send their employees out to Reston (Reston Parkway area) almost daily (where anycast roots L sits). If not for political reasons, they would likely already be out there with ARIN and ISOC.

by Will on Jul 16, 2012 8:42 pm • link • report

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