redeploying server farms

Michael Perelman michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
Mon Apr 9 19:13:30 PDT 2001


There are two dimensions to this question. To begin with, Brad is correct in that a server farm can service in a number of industries; so can a railroad, which does not qualify as part of the new economy.

In addition, fiber optic cables or the hardware in server farms can become obsolete, or at least less valuable if new technology arises. Then too, there is, I thought, a surplus of fiber optic cables, reflecting the old economy phenomenon of excess capacity.

Doug Henwood wrote:


> This paragraph appears in a story by Anya Schiffrin in The Industry Standard:
>
> >"Our new-economy capital stock is more flexible and so much less
> >vulnerable to the over-investment trap," says [Brad] DeLong. "A
> >chemical factory can only be used to make chemicals. But a server
> >farm and its fiber-optic cables can be used to organize and control
> >any component of the economy." If so, the economy this year will
> >finally show just how new it really is.
>
> Really? Can a server farm be redeployed so easily? And if the problem
> is just too much capacity, what good is redeployment?
>
> Doug

--

Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929

Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu



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