Japan’s Electricity Rate Pain is an Opportunity for Foreign Data Centers

TEPCO is dramatically raising electricity rates on April 1 and companies in the Tokyo area are outraged.  Japan’s electricity-hungry data centers will be among the hardest hit.  As the Japan Times points out 70 to 80 percent of Japan’s data centers are concentrated in Tepco’s service area.  Already data center providers from low-cost China have been promoting their services to Japan’s corporations but for obvious reasons many are reluctant to place any portion of their corporate data in China – no matter the low cost.  This is an opportunity for U.S. West Coast data centers.   American data center service providers can offer both lower costs and reasonable protection from industrial espionage.  As Terrie’s Take points out this hot market extends to data center equipment suppliers.