Are data centers utilities?

Another good post from Mechanical Markets. This time the question is raised if data centers are utilities or not. Given the latency driven compitition, being in the same DC as the exchange can be very profitable. However, it comes at a cost. And one can question to what extend exchanges and data centers are willing and able to provide space to all participants.

And this is exactly what happened in the Nordics between Verizon, Burgundy and Nasdaq OMX. The exchange abused its position in the market and forced Verizon to deny Burgundy acces to the DC in which Nasdaq OMX was providing co-lo services and hosting its matching engines. 

All in all, there are very good and compelling arguments to start seeing DC as utilities! 

You can read the blog here.