If you've shopped for colocation services within Texas, you know that Texas data centers may offer lower costs when compared to other sites within the United States.

A bigger question looms; is Texas a leader in colocation value or does the data center economy lag behind other regions? To answer this question, a decision maker must look at each individual data center's offerings on a case by case basis.

Colo Providers Reluctant to Publish Prices Online

Most data centers would rather give you a quote based on your organization's needs rather than publish their prices online. Some speculate that if colo providers openly published prices, it could spawn a race to the bottom type of scenario where providers are constantly undercutting one another.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at some of the published prices and specifications of Texas data centers compared to other regions around the country.

Texas Data Centers vs. West Coast Data Centers

If you visit ColocationAmerica's website, you'll see that they have published prices for their Los Angeles colocation facility. In LA, businesses can buy an entire rack that consists of:

• 42Us of server rack space
• 20 amps of power
• 30TBs of bandwidth
• 100Mbps network uplink
• 32 IP addresses
• Remote KVM access

For $999 per month

ColocationAmerica is known as a leader in data center and colocation value; although most data centers in California do not publish their prices publically, $995 per month seems to be a median price for a full 42U rack.

Compare this offering with ViaWest, who operates a data center in Austin, Texas.

ViaWest currently has a special promotion that offers similar specifications to ColocationAmerica's offerings in LA for only $395 per month.

The specifics of ViaWest's colocation offerings include:

• 42Us of server rack space
• 20 amps of power
• 10Mbps of bandwidth
• Burstable to 100Mbps
• 24/7 support
• No long-term commitments

For $395 per month

Although this is a promotional offering, it was first published in 2014 and the offer seems to still be valid.

Most data center providers ask that you submit information in order to obtain a quote; admittedly, $395 per month is probably the bottom of the range for published colocation pricing.

Other prices found show that similar deals can range from $395 to $795 per month.

Texas Data Centers vs. East Coast Data Centers

Let's take a look at the comparison a bit further. How does Texas stack up against an east coast provider?

Let's take the ViaWest offer and compare it with prices found on QuoteColo.com.

For 42U, 20 amps, and 30 Mbps of bandwidth, you can get a full rack in New York City for $1,750 per month through the Zayo Group.

In nearby Clifton, New Jersey, Natcoweb sells a 40U, 20 amp rack, that include a 5 Mbps connection for $1,250 per month.

Apples to Oranges?

Texas is one of the largest states in the US. With that said, areas such as Houston may have different data center pricing structure than a market like Dallas, Austin, or San Antonio.

There's a variety of factors that contribute to this, however, some analysts have noted that data center space in Houston is in high demand.

Within other parts of Texas, data center space is readily available. This is why Texas is able to offer lower costs than other regions of the United States.

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