# Datashack.net (Kansas City) To Migrate Colo Customers with 1 Day Notice



## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

Unsure what is going on at Datashack in Kansas City.   It appears they are moving out of their North Kansas Datashack facility which is only a few years along now.

Customers received this email today:



> We are planning to move your colocated services to our new datacenter tomorrow. This new facility is only located 1 block away from the old datacenter. We will need to power off, de-rack and re-rack your equipment in our new facility. We plan to start moving servers tomorrow 10/22/14 @ 10AM. If this time does not work for you then please let us know of another time this week or very early next week that we can get this taken care of.
> 
> At this time we are also auditing and reclaiming old / unused IP blocks from colocated servers. IF you could please tell me which IP networks that you're currently using and which networks we can reclaim that would make the move a lot smoother.
> 
> ...


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## devonblzx (Oct 21, 2014)

That doesn't look good if they haven't made any mention of this before.  Don't see any other talk about this yet so only speculation remains but reclaiming IP space and moving all with one day of notice doesn't sound good.    I'd call them and figure out exactly what is going on if you have colocated equipment with them.


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

And remember this on heels of their announcement about taking over operation of linkCity fiber network in North Kansas City.


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## WSWD (Oct 21, 2014)

They're pulling a Burst!!


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## QuadraNet_Adam (Oct 21, 2014)

In most cases, the savings of renting a dedicated server with a budget provider just isn't worth the headaches and troubles in the long run... it's important to choose a provider who is offering sustainable pricing that guarantees them to be here in the future which means YOUR peace of mind for the extra few bucks here and there that you pay. Same concept applies for colocation, is the pricing SUSTAINABLE for real estate (rack space), power, cooling, bandwidth, and all other costs involved with colocating? IMO, it's highly unprofessional to reclaim customer's IP space just like that, not to mention the short notice on the datacenter migration.


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

WSWD said:


> They're pulling a Burst!!


I wonder if they are indeed bailing on that North Kansas City real estate or if they are making that facility just a dedicated rental location and booting out the colo to another location......?


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## Francisco (Oct 21, 2014)

Doesn't the Kansas state government subsidize them, and other datacenters, quite a bit?

To the point that they're almost paid to run their business by the govt. alone?

Francisco


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

Francisco said:


> Doesn't the Kansas state government subsidize them, and other datacenters, quite a bit?
> 
> 
> To the point that they're almost paid to run their business by the govt. alone?
> ...


Interesting.  I went looking quickly and didn't find anything.

I expect tax abatements on datacenter builds that involve real estate development (is mega common all over the States).


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## Francisco (Oct 21, 2014)

drmike said:


> Interesting.  I went looking quickly and didn't find anything.
> 
> I expect tax abatements on datacenter builds that involve real estate development (is mega common all over the States).


Well, it's the only way I can make P4's for $10/m or whatever they're sold for 'work' without them being a loss leader. It could be large grants on hardware or some very very very cheap power rates, so cheap that even a P4 eating an amp is doable.

Francisco


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

A P4 pulling 1A (120 watts @ 120V) = 

720 hours in a month x 120 watts = 86400 / 1000 = 86.4 KwH

87 KwH x .05 (5 cents per KwH) = $4.35 a month in power.

That's less than 50% of what they are charging.   P4's are long ago paid off   So cost is power mainly.


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

Francisco said:


> Doesn't the Kansas state government subsidize them, and other datacenters, quite a bit?
> 
> 
> To the point that they're almost paid to run their business by the govt. alone?
> ...


Seriously though, something up with Datashack real estate.  Good sized chunk of acre inside a pretty alright condition brick industrial structure.   Running like 8/10th of an acre in total land.

Property taxes $85 a year... So says Clay County records.   This is a property that has to be assessed $160k and above and real estate at market that should be $300-400k on low sides.

Someone gave them some tax abatement, but I didn't see it in the county records online.


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## Francisco (Oct 21, 2014)

Maybe it was passed down in his family with an extremely long lease cost, kinda like Guinness?

It's more likely that they get some sort of deep tax/etc breaks due to it being a datacenter?

In the end, I wouldn't think there was any foul play involved. There's some deeper connections between WSI & DataShack and Aaron has always been a stand up guys to chat to. He was very helpful back in the day when I needed some feedback on a brocade configuration and he's always helpful on WHT.

I'm curious why they're doing an IP audit at this time instead of just hitting ARIN again. It's possible their next block would be too big for ARIN to just slide and requires it, though.

Francisco


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## drmike (Oct 21, 2014)

I doubt the property @Francisco was a hand-me-down.   There is a 1600 Clay incorporation who per se owns the property.

Prior to that the property had been owned by a big printing company (international) and the address appeared in the past in documents for Superfund sites (locations of mass pollution requiring government cleanup usually). 

Aaron indeed has been an asset to the hosting world.

Datashack however has always been a tad murky.   Sole upstream outwardly has  appeared to be Wholesale Internet.

Believe others have claimed WSI and Datashack are one in the same other than the incorporation.  Believe folks have said they share common staff.

Likely the story is he is one of a group of investors who own DS. DS utilizes his WSI infrastructure to some degree.  Co-shares staff.

Big question is where are folks servers heading?  From what others have said so far, there have been no details.

There was a power issue at the DS facility a week or two ago.  Unsure if that made this sudden move necessary.

ARIN stuff is interesting.

Wholesale Internet is advertising 114,176.

Datashack is advertising 160,256.

Those are good sized chunks all said.  If they need it, yeah, ARIN still has some.


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## HalfEatenPie (Oct 22, 2014)

drmike said:


> Prior to that the property had been owned by a big printing company (international) and the address appeared in the past in documents for Superfund sites (locations of mass pollution requiring government cleanup usually).


It was probably one of those locations that ended up being reclassified as a brownfield and large tax subsidies were given to whichever company helped clean it up and make it usable.  

A while back (I want to say 90s or 2000s or so?) there were too many locations classified as a superfund site and therefore they went through it and reclassified some of the "lower tier" ones as brownfields in order to make it sound much more PR friendly and basically help them reclaim the land for industrial use. 

About all I remember at the moment from my Intro to Environmental Engineering course


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## AnthonySmith (Oct 22, 2014)

1 days notice means only 1 thing imo: if we only give 24 hours notice we wont lose any customers in advance and once the dust settles people will be to lazy to move anyway.


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## MattKC (Oct 22, 2014)

I knew the downtown facility WSI is in had tax incentives, many of the downtown KC buildings that have been repurposed have received some pretty good incentives. Both facilities are on the Missouri side, but if I remember Aaron said he owned a good amount of property on both sides of the state line. I always viewed ds as a subsidiary of wsi with shared staff for some aspects, although Aaron really never promoted DS, Brooks Brown did that piece.


Maybe part of the takeover on the fiber project included a facility already setup that could accommodate their Colo volume, allowing them to move more dedicated into the newer facility they already had. The short notice is likely to prevent pre-emptive moves from those that scare of moves overall. Wonder how the Colo agreement addresses this type of change.


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## drmike (Oct 22, 2014)

Appears their routing to Datashack has changed recently:



 6:  10ge4-1.core1.mci2.he.net                            42.670ms 
 7:  wholesale-internet-inc.10gigabitethernet1-3.core1.mci2.he.net  71.626ms 
 8:  ve-101.edge-b.clay1.mci.us.wholesaleinternet.net     59.981ms
Clay now showing up in some routes along side of wholesaleinternet.

Customers being moved at Datashack are going from Burlington address (which is an industrial building converted into multi-tenant office space) to the Clay/16th datacenter facility.

I won't poke at Burlington address too much, but the space doesn't appear to be a datacenter or anything.  Might be why issues there in past.


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