2009 Review

I'm going to keep my final post of the year brief for a few reasons -- one, I waited until the very last minute to write it, and two, everyone is probably tired of 2009 reviews and 2010 predictions.

First - stocks. After over a year of manually tracking my own data center stock index I'm going to stop (actively) tracking it. I have found some amazingly cool Google Finance formulas for Google spreadsheet and should be able to create it on the fly when or if I want to. Check out this link to see the Google Finance snapshot of the stocks in my index currently. Another tool joining my arsenal is Wolfram Alpha. This site has some pretty awesome compute power for any number of search/compute queries. For instance - check out this comparison of Equinix, Terremark, Savvis and Internap stock information. Additionally, for the web geeks - check out the website data Wolfram Alpha generates - for instance, on equinix.com

The other Google tool I like to use this time of year is Google Insight. Check out this graph showing Worldwide web Search Interest for colocation, "data center", "cloud computing":


Here is an insight graph for search terms Equinix, Savvis, Terremark, Switch & Data and Digital Realty Trust:


My take on the biggest story for 2009 is tours of mega data centers such as Microsoft and Google and the planning of a $1 billion Apple data center. I (continue) to think that container data centers are a valid architecture, and not just for the big companies. Hey Microsoft - if you need me to go move some dirt to get the Des Moines, Iowa data center moving I'll do it. :)

The only prediction I'll make for 2010 is that it will be a breakout year for desktop virtualization. We'll finally come full circle from the green screen dumb terminals that talked to the mainframe, with virtualized desktops talking to the cloud.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!