Page 56 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

MANA GEMENT STRATEGIES F O R THE CL OUD R EV OL UTION

For its part, Amazon was building a cloud data center
complex along the Columbia River in Boardman, Oregon,
but work was halted temporarily in 2009 because of the re-
cession. This location is advantageous because wholesale
electricity is readily available from nearby hydroelectric
generation. The 117,000-square-foot facility is surrounded

by an eight-foot chain-link fence topped with barbed wire
and is estimated to cost $100 million, once equipped. It is
expected to be followed by two more such buildings.
Further, cloud provider Terremark has built a net-
worked data center for secure government use in Culpep-
per, Virginia, behind a 12-foot berm, blastproof walls, 250
motion sensor cameras, and a guard at a reinforced front

gate, at a price of $250 million.
In a few years, when true competition kicks in to sup-
ply cloud computing, Microsoft’s 12.5 cents per hour for a
small Windows server and Amazon Web Services’ 12 cents
per hour will look less like a reasonable rate. Prices are
low, and they will be driven even lower. How low can they
go? Probably to the cost of the electricity needed to run the
computer plus some very low additional charge per hour,
say from one cent down to tenths of a cent.

Many businesses will see the benefits of such data
centers and become users, but they will try to do so with-
out getting locked into a service pattern dictated by one
vendor.

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