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by jayp 2236 days ago
Where is this place? I agree with grandparent - for the past decade or so, having your “own datacenter” means leasing floorspace in an actual datacenter run and managed by someone else.

I live and work in the Bay area. I was part of the larger org that ran Uber’s datacenter (co-located) and that’s how it was talked about.
2 comments
latch 2236 days ago
If 'having your "own datacenter"' means colocation, how do you say "having your own datacenter"?
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jayp 2236 days ago
Good question. Probably the same. English, and especially business English, is not a precise language. I am not really an expert but was part of the larger org.

Just to be clear - colocation here is in order of thousands of square feet. The datacenter provider provides redundant utilities. The customer does everything else.

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BubRoss 2236 days ago
Seems a little silly to blame english when people bend terminology to muddy the waters on purpose. When 'serverless' means easily using a server and 'we have our own datacenter' means 'we don't have our own data center and rent from someone else' maybe the problem is people trying to stretch the significance of what they are doing.

If someone says 'I own my house' and they actually mean 'I rent an apartment', no one is going to say 'oh well, english is an imprecise language'.

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barkingcat 2236 days ago
The difference is the word own.

In all the examples given earlier, the words "I have a datacentre" (or the approximate "I have my own datacenter") vs "I own a datacentre" (or the approximate "I own my own datacentre") have very significant differences.

In the UK, many people would say "I have a flat in this district" and that would be understood as being a renter, since some UK neighborhoods are just too expensive, and renting is the norm rather than ownership.

Similar in North American cities "I have an apartment in a brownstone in Manhattan" - does not necessarily mean they own it, but it could mean ownership or rental or lease or rent-controlled/stabilized tenancy (which could go on for multiple decades/generations of inhabitancy).

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BubRoss 2236 days ago
This is just bending over backwards to try to justify companies and people playing fast and loose to obscure what they actually have.

If someone says "I have a brownstone in Manhattan" and they actually mean they rent one of seven rooms, it's just a lie.

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oneplane 2236 days ago
Western Europe and Scandinavia mostly.
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