This thread will focus on growing Oklahoma City's technology industry. From IT firms and web building firms to computer companies, electronics companies to computer and electronics sales companies and small computer businesses.

What do you want to see happen in Oklahoma City in the next ten years. Will the city be the next major corridor of silicon prairie? Will a PC vendor establish or relocate its headquarters in Oklahoma City? Or would you like to see a software development cluster fill out the vacancies over at Quail Springs Corporate Park?

With the biotech industry now playing a major role in Oklahoma City's economy, and Dell becoming a major player in our local high-tech economy, I have a good feeling that Oklahoma City will have a major involvement in the next generation of computing.

Let's here some of your ideas, hopes and dreams.

I'm hoping that in the next few years, and with the help of some partners we can build a Top of the Class Data Center here in Oklahoma City. The downside is our tornado's, so moore and norman our out for locations, as well as NW OKC. I know there are some decent places downtown for co-locating servers, but I'm thinking something like EV1 Servers in Houston or The PLanet in Dallas, but here in OKC.

I'm in with that idea. I remember reading about a new data center in Edmond </ST1:poff Broadway that was just completed. It was supposedly built inside a reinforced concrete room and could with stand any natural disasters. It had the usual Diesel generators, multiple up stream providers, etc.

How much do you think it would cost?

I would bet minimum $250,000

I'm interested because I've been considering expanding my hosting company. I seem to add new accounts weekly just by word of mounth. At the moment my servers are housed in Virginaia on an OC48 ring.

I think costs would start maybe in the upper 100's. Really I think the biggest expense would be getting the loops to the building. I too just got my Windows Hosting Company going, and would love to expand it.

I'd be interested in a data center if I had $$$$$ to pitch in. However, I do have plans for my career in the tech industry and in the near future will involve Oklahoma City.

I'm currently relocating from Enid to OKC and have had more then my fair share of trying to get decent bandwidth. In Enid it's either SBC or Cox. You can pay for MCI, Sprint or Qwest but they just piggyback on SBC so you end up paying more anyways.

I know OKC has some great lines running through it, but can OKC really compete in terms of bandwidth compared to Dallas or Houston?

Just look at the backbone maps, everything in the midwest seems to concentrate on Dallas & KC.

I'm not flaming OKC, i'm just curious what OKC could offer someone wanting to build a large datacenter here.

Speaking from hands-on experience, Houston does not offer any faster internet speeds than that of Oklahoma City.

I'm currently relocating from Enid to OKC and have had more then my fair share of trying to get decent bandwidth. In Enid it's either SBC or Cox. You can pay for MCI, Sprint or Qwest but they just piggyback on SBC so you end up paying more anyways.

I know OKC has some great lines running through it, but can OKC really compete in terms of bandwidth compared to Dallas or Houston?

Just look at the backbone maps, everything in the midwest seems to concentrate on Dallas & KC.

I'm not flaming OKC, i'm just curious what OKC could offer someone wanting to build a large datacenter here.

True there's KC, St. Louis, and Dallas that are close by. I wonder what it would take to get a some pipes of that caliber to OKC.

I kno sbc is supposed to be upgrading to all fiber optic networks here with "neighborhood nodes" to convert to copper wire in neighborhoods... also i heard something about sbc opening their uverse service here in a few months (it they do we'll be the second city in the nation to have it after san antonio)... and i would definetaly buy some server space for my website if it was based in oklahoma :ou2

also i heard something about sbc opening their uverse service here in a few months (it they do we'll be the second city in the nation to have it after san antonio)...

I had never even heard of U-verse until you mentioned it in your post. Sounds interesting:
AT&T U-verse (http://www.sbc.com/gen/u-verse?pid=7878&cdvn=custom)

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Ya know, way back in the like in mid 2000, I was contracting for bell installing dsl. Back then you could get SDSL at your home, (no longer available in OK) at 1.5/1.5 which was bandwidth speed of a T1. There was always talks from the engineers of 6.0/6.0 SDSL over fiber. U-verse looks to be the Telco pushing fiber as close as possible to the residence as possible. I remember back in the day surfing bbs's on my 14.4k wondering if it could get any better than that.

I never imagined the type of content that would become almost standard. can anyone say web 3.0?

How many jobs is this supposed to create? Are all of these servers you all are talking about going to take over the world?

I propose aim higher.

With microsensors, e-commerce (yeah, I hate that word too), and pcb fab houses doing runs from 1 to 1 billion, there is no reason why OKC, with the proper leadership and mentoring, could not grow to be one of the centers for integration of low cost autonomous sensors or even cutting edge lifestyle enhancing electronics.

The business model that is evolving is slowly overcoming the difficulties we have faced here in the past (access to capital, aversion to change, the old guard, etc...) and allowing individual creativity to grow. It just needs the right conditions to succeed, conditions we need to foster here in Oklahoma...

For example a small start up with ~$10k in capital could easily design custom MP3 players and sell (competitively) to a global market, whereas 5 years ago this would have taken a multinational company. The only thing OKC lacks is the mentorship and ability to change the learned response to put this in action.

I am willing to bet that in the next 5 years you will see this "village" model of technical entrep. make many people rich and many communities very happy. I just hope OKC can be the tip of the spear on this new way of thinking.

My train of thought exactly.

Dang,

Not much response after that....

I figured that would light a fire....guess I was wrong...

I will now leave, queue the sad walking away music from the increadible hulk....

gluphus, hehe I think you simply got us all eager and interested in your thoughts, we're definitely in agreement. I think we were just waiting for more from ya :)

But I do agree that OKC has some strong opportunities if they right leader stepped up. Especially with Dell Expanded, the AOL call center leaving, with the right funding a leader could definitely spark some major development.

I think the problem is a lot of the people with the vision into the future for Technology don't really have the funds. I'd love to put together a global tech company here in OKC, just putting up the funding is the difficult part.

Hello all, new to okc talk and wanted to say hi.

My first thought was the implementation of fiber on a wide scale, we're not but 5-7 years (?) before it's use on a scale comparible to the current system...it's already being used commercialy, but on a small scale. It will take time but the with fiber will come opportunity...growth and progress. What concerns me is Oklahomas un-friendliness to small-medium business. The money in OKC seems to be with the wrong...and worst businesses :::cough:::: COX ::::cough:::: SBC

(I've contracted for both)

Betting if OKC was the home of a data center, one or the other would have their grubby hands all over it.... my moneys on SBC.

Betting if OKC was the home of a data center, one or the other would have their grubby hands all over it.... my moneys on SBC.


I'd be more likely to predict that if someone were to build such a thing here, an entity like ATT (nee SBC) would buy it up just to shut it down. The larger cos like the centralization and would hate to see successful "subregional" datacenters.

I don't know that you have to compete with lots of bandwidth on the same level as some of the big players right now; I think there's an untapped emerging "middle tier" market that some smartapple here in OKC could really leverage and make some nice coin.

-soonerdave

I finally got the initial roll-out of my product. It was akin to chewing glass, but it will be worth it... now, I shall catch up on some musings....

BLUF (bottom line up front): Oklahoma (and N. Texas) has a great window to create some truly great revolutionary ideas/processes/products. Those that choose to pass will likely see their (grand) children's quality of life move closer to the median world average as globalization increases.

Long winded prelude:
A couple of posts back the issue of datacenters being built (then bought out) was discussed. This dovetails well into my thoughts that the processes in place (laws, finance, etc...) are structured and will be continued to evolve to favor large multinationals. As such, competition and true economic evolution will decrease...ie: think Atlas Shrugged with the looters and moochers (I call them ticks and leeches) and the sanction of the victim. For a better illustration, reference Samara Lectures: Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.samaralectures.com/eff.html). For a better illustration, reference Amazon.com: The New Golden Age: The Coming Revolution against Political Corruption and Economic Chaos: Books: Ravi Batra (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403975795/bullnotbull-20).
In essence, stupidity (at all levels) is rewarded and freedom (think rebuilding a nice Chevelle in your garage or working at something rewarding type freedom, not a mtv cribs type freedom.) is punished.

I guess Huxley was right about this Brave new world.

History shows this is a z-event where the social cycle changes from the aquistor class running things (now) to the warrior and intellectual classes regaining the top slots. The current method of economics is shortsided, in that it only serves the top 0.1% (approx) and will not be tolerated by the other 99.9%. Change will happen, it is just a personal choice of where you choose to place yourself (and family) for the main show...


Opportunity:
There is a (huge) niche in intelligent systems with a huge market upside, little regulation, low cost of entry that offers a true benefit for everyone in its process cycle. (ie: the customers love it, its beneficial and its fun to make.) As things fall apart, they must be rebuilt in a way that uses less resources and provides better value than before.

I am talking cottage industries that herald back to a time of the bazaar, the challenge and satisfaction of actually creating things and the reward of not being owned by faceless entities. With local people (craftsman, engineers, etc...) making (incredibly hi tech) products and working with each other, dealing minimally with bankers, lawyers and lawmakers.

Combined with our local culture of decentralized autonomy, Oklahoma can be a flower of international growth and commerce, without the help* of government/autocratic agencies.

Current Situation:
Systems are broken, crap is made, bought and marketed while the things that really matter are slowly being pushed to the side/forgotten. Think of all the processed food we feed -vs- wholesome food. We buy prepackaged food more that real food, thinking its quick and easy, yet, if you add the numbers, it still takes the same amount of time to prepare it as real food. People are chasing after...well, crap. We all know this to be true, but we cannot figure out how to get back to what is right. We are all too busy with work obligations, debt servicing and social meetings. Yet we feel less satisfied and lonelier every day. Something just ain't right... In addition, less and less people actually make something. A nice spreadsheet just doesn't give us the same satisfaction as laying 300 yds of fence or rebuilding a camshaft....

Meanwhile, things are falling apart. Roads/bridges are not being maintained, pipelines and infastructure are over capacity and cracking at the seams.

Loss of critical thinking:
The best part is the current business model effectively blinds itself from these opportunities.
-The head of the corporations have been Pavlovianly trained to focus on their current business model. This is reinforced with the black money (hedge funds, intl liquidity) effectively controlling their purse strings like a puppet, insuring all is executed according to a scripted business plan(s). Such is the burden of centralized control.
-The worker bees find themselves less and less happy. The creative people find themselves burdened with more regulations and their skills being used to create (for the most part) items of little lasting value. The warrior class (see reference above) is forced inside of an 8X6' cubical to do TPS reports, much like the old bear cages at the OKC zoo.

After a while, everyone just loses their way...forgets what is important and fun.

Almost finished:
A. The US* is broke:
-approx 60% of the US Budget is for required funding, ie: obligations. Imagine if 60% of your take home went to pay for your VISA bill alone. This is not the sign of a well ran fiscal entity. This is (will) increase to ~60% of total GDP by 2010.
-The federal reserve passed a law last week reducing reporting requirements by its member owners. Combine this with the M3 reporting (lack of) and you see a financial entity moving paper to cover itself.
...blah, blah, blah, we all know the fiscal condition of the US Govt.
(this can be good, it can make our exports cheaper.)
-The current economic model in the US requires $7 infusion to create a $1 increase in GDP; ie:-the centralized controls have made it overly restrictive to create new growth.

B. More people+more prosperity+same amount of natural resources means either:
a. either ( less people or less prosperity ) OR
b. new systems MUST be developed to get better efficiencies from resources.
(this is Shumpter theory, btw)

C. Since the controlling interests in the US Govt and big business will be occupied with keeping their ships afloat AND the demand for smart products will increase, there is a great opportunity to develop these ideas. Whomever(s) does, will be rich in money and satisfaction.


Conclusion:
I would LOVE to see and hear of people actually (wanting to) create great things.
This forum should be used to enable, encourage and launch the :bright_id that make this world a better place.

FYI... there was a great IT networking event held tonight by I2E over in the PHF food court area. Anybody go besides me?