Datacenter and Colocation Discussions

We all know what CFL bulbs are. But few people know about how LED lighting can bring additional power savings to a datacenter.

For starters, LED lighting is slightly more efficient then CFL bulbs. The hidden value is heat output reduction. LED lights have almost no heat output. In a 5000sqft facility using traditional T8 35W bulbs vs LED, this can add up to a difference of 2000 BTUs per hour.

The only limitation to LED is it is still cost prohibitive. For example, a T8 fluorescent bulb is about $6. An LED T8 bulb is about $90. If you run your lighting 50% of the time, then it will take about 2 years to recover the cost from gains in power saving.

Ecologically speaking LED’s are also superior since they do not contain any Mercury. At Quonix, we are planning to convert to LED lighting systems within the next year for our datacenter.

A year in review…

Now that 2009 is nearing its end, its time to review where things are and where we are going.

We started the year with an expansion of fractional cabinet services by adding Quarter Cabinet (9U) Secure Colocation. The first quarter cabinet rack sold out in 30-days. Given the immediate interest, we will focus heavily on the quarter cabinet products, especially since VMware environments are getting smaller and smaller. We have full rack customers that can now migrate into a quarter rack running just a few servers.

VPS was also a new service addition for 2009. Our high-end guaranteed non-oversubscribed VPS platforms are doing very well, and they are a nice compliment to our existing web and email hosting segment.

We also saw increasing growth in out T1 and T3 DIA business. The biggest road block has been getting the word out to businesses in Philadelphia that Quonix Networks has the most competitively priced DIA circuits, not to mention the best IP network.

The icing on the cake for 2009 was finalizing plans on our new Harrisburg, PA datacenter. This facility is scheduled to open by the end of 1st quarter 2010. The Central PA location is ideal for Philadelphia based customers looking for a secondary DR location that is 100 miles away, but still convenient enough for daily commute.

2009 was a great year, but we expect 2010 to be even better. Some of our plans for 2010 include lit fiber optic services in Metro Philadelphia and Point-to-Point Metro Wifi.