HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDA REPORT 2022 0316 CCSA REG ITEM 09CCITY OF MOORPARK, CALIFORNIA
City Council Meeting
of March 16, 2022
ACTION APPROVED STAFF
RECOMMENDATION. (ROLL CALL VOTE:
UNANIMOUS).
BY A. Hurtado.
C.Consider Meet-Me Room Market Study. Staff Recommendation: 1) Receive and
file the Meet-Me Room Market Study; and 2) Direct staff to continue supporting the
County of Ventura and the State of California efforts to construct fiber-optic
networks through Moorpark, and direct staff to continue monitoring and pursuing
funding opportunities that may be used toward a Meet-Me Room and data center.
(Staff: Brian Chong, Assistant to the City Manager)
Item: 9.C.
MOORPARK CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA REPORT
TO: Honorable City Council
FROM: Brian Chong, Assistant to the City Manager
DATE: 03/16/2022 Regular Meeting
SUBJECT: Consider Meet-Me Room Market Study
SUMMARY
In October 2020, the City Council adopted the City’s Broadband Strategic Plan, which
recommended actions to accelerate the deployment of broadband infrastructure and
adoption throughout the community. One of the recommendations was to commission a
market study to determine the viability of a potential Meet-Me Room to be constructed
as part of the Moorpark City Library project. In March 2021, the City retained Magellan
Advisors, LLC (Magellan) to prepare the market study, which is now complete. It is
recommended that the City Council receive and file the market study and, as
recommended in the market study, further pursue a Meet-Me Room at such time as
either the County of Ventura or the State of California funds their regional broadband
networks that are currently proposed to be constructed through Moorpark within State
Route 23 (Moorpark Avenue).
BACKGROUND
On October 21, 2020, the City Council adopted the City’s Broadband Strategic Plan,
which contained numerous analyses and actions by which the City could advance the
deployment of broadband infrastructure throughout the Moorpark community. One of
the Plan’s recommended actions was to determine the viability of a Meet-Me Room to
potentially be built as part of the new Moorpark City Library project. The City Council
appropriated $18,900 for the market study on February 17, 2021, and approved an
Agreement with Magellan to complete the Market Study. Magellan previously prepared
the City’s Broadband Strategic Plan, as well as similar plans for the Cities of Oxnard
and Ventura, and is currently also providing similar services to the County of Ventura
and numerous other clients across the country.
Item: 9.C.
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A Meet-Me Room houses servers that act as a hub for telecommunications service
providers, from which expanded services across the community and region could
commence. Users of Meet-Me Rooms would rent space within it, which would
represent a revenue stream for the City that may completely offset the costs of
constructing and operating it. The location of the new Moorpark City Library building on
High Street was identified as a strong location candidate for a Meet-Me Room because
of its close proximity to numerous long-haul fiber-optic lines located within the railroad
right-of-way and central location within the developed portions of Ventura County.
To inform the market study, Magellan prepared, and the City issued, a Request for
Information (RFI) designed to assess interest in a Meet-Me Room in Moorpark. The
RFI yielded four responses (from Ridge Communications, Smart Fiber Networks,
Onward, and AT&T). In addition, Magellan proactively reached out to numerous other
telecommunications and broadband providers and infrastructure owners to assess their
interest. Ultimately, the market study was informed by discussion with a dozen different
industry respondents.
The market study also incorporates what is currently known about major federal
broadband investment (as part of the American Rescue Plan Act) and major state
broadband investment (approved as part of the state budget in mid-2021). However,
the flows of these funds and investments are currently still being finalized by the federal
and state governments at this time, and the City will need to track the resultant federal
and state programs going forward.
DISCUSSION
The market study affirms that there is interest in utilizing a Meet-Me Room in Moorpark,
especially when combined with a data center facility, but recommends that the City not
pursue constructing a Meet-Me Room until interest reaches a critical mass when either
the County of Ventura or State of California funds their regional broadband networks
that are currently proposed to be constructed through Moorpark within State Route 23
(Moorpark Avenue).
A summary of the market study’s conclusions are as follows:
1.A Meet-Me Room in Moorpark would significantly advance the City’s broadband-
related goals. A Meet-Me Room in Moorpark would: increase the access,
affordability, and reliability of broadband services in Moorpark; facilitate
deployment of wireless technologies; support Smart City applications; produce
cost savings for telecommunications services for City operations; and promote
economic growth by attracting and retaining key industries and by creating jobs.
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2.There is significant interest in a Meet-Me Room, especially when paired with a
Tier 3 Data Center. To improve the viability of a Meet-Me Room, the study
recommends that the facility include a Tier 3 data center. Data centers house
servers, storage, and networking systems that serve as off-site backups for
users, such as large employers. Because they have similar physical
requirements as Meet-Me Rooms, there is significant synergy between
collocating them. The study recommends a Tier 3 (of 4 tiers) facility based on
the current and future businesses located in Moorpark and Ventura County.
Higher tiers have less downtime, additional power outage resilience, and higher
costs.
3.A combined Meet-Me Room and data center facility should be approximately
5,000 square feet in size, ideally expandable to 10,000 square feet, and
detached from other buildings. To maximize the viability of a facility, the study
recommends 5,000 square feet of floor area that is ideally expandable to 10,000
square feet.
4. The estimated cost to construct a combined 5,000 square foot Meet-Me Room is
$5,000,000. This estimate is based on an estimated $1,000 per square foot to
construct a Meet-Me Room. This cost does not include the cost of the land on
which a Meet-Me Room would be constructed.
5.Public-Private Partnership (PPP) opportunities exist for the marketing and day-to-
day operation of a Meet-Me Room. The study confirms that there are private
entities able and willing to partner with the City to operate a Meet-Me Room on a
day-to-day basis. This includes marketing and sales of space inside the Meet-
Me Room/data center, building access, and 24/7 downtime/threat response (such
as if the temperature gets too hot inside). In such a PPP relationship, revenues
generated by the Meet-Me Room would be shared between the City and its
private partner, at negotiated rates. A PPP approach also decreases some of
the risk of constructing a Meet-Me Room because the City would have reduced
operating expenses to keep it running.
6.A Meet-Me Room is likely not viable until either the County of Ventura and/or
State of California commits to constructing their broadband networks through
Moorpark. The value of a Meet-Me Room increases as more providers install
infrastructure inside and can thereby interconnect their networks. If an AT&T cell
phone user calls a Spectrum land line, for example, the interconnection between
the AT&T and Spectrum networks need to occur somewhere. A Meet-Me Room
makes this interconnecting simple and economical. While there is some current
demand to occupy a Meet-Me Room in Moorpark, it would be unlikely to
generate sufficient revenue to offset the costs to construct and operate it.
However, the market study states that critical mass to make the Meet-Me Room
less risky would occur when either the County of Ventura or State of California
commits to constructing their own regional broadband networks. If those
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networks are constructed through Moorpark, there will be many
telecommunications network operators seeking to locate inside Meet-Me Rooms
along those network paths. Moorpark’s central location in Ventura County makes
it especially desirable for those network operators to utilize a Meet-Me Room in
Moorpark.
The original concept of a Meet-Me Room in Moorpark did not incorporate a data center
and its additional square footage and construction cost. The recommended 5,000
square-foot size of a Moorpark Meet-Me Room renders it physically inappropriate to be
constructed as part of the Moorpark City Library project; the site is too small. Just as
the square footage increased severalfold, so too does the construction cost – now
estimated at $5,000,000 – which would in turn be offset by higher revenue potential.
Scaling up the project also increases the risk in constructing it, since more initial capital
investment is required.
Based on the above considerations, the market study recommends that the City not
immediately and actively pursue construction of a Meet-Me Room. However, the
factors that currently drive this recommendation are in rapid flux and could change
dramatically in the coming months, such that a recommendation to actively pursue
design, construction, and tenanting of a Meet-Me Room would be appropriate.
First, both the state and federal governments have committed to investing tens of
billions of dollars into broadband infrastructure through multiple existing and new
programs. Staff is aware of 18 pools of broadband funding, some of which have
published eligibility requirements and some of which have not yet published eligibility
requirements. Of those programs that have published eligibility requirements, the City
is not eligible for most (such as grants to rural communities, unserved communities, or
tribal communities). However, tens of billions of dollars still remain on the table with
not-yet-published eligibility requirements, and grant funding and/or favorable lending
programs remain a distinct possibility. If the City is able to secure part or all of the
funding for a Meet-Me Room through such financing programs, the cost to the City (and
the associated risk) is greatly diminished.
Second, construction of a regional broadband network through Moorpark by either the
County or the State would greatly increase the desirability of a Meet-Me Room in
Moorpark and therefore demand for space inside it. That translates to higher revenues
generated by the Meet-Me Room and also decreases the risk to the City.
As part of its multi-billion dollar investment in broadband, the State of California has
announced its intent to construct a fiber-optic network across the State, largely within
state highway right-of-way that the State already owns. The first draft of the State’s
network includes a fiber-optic cable within State Route 23 between Fillmore and
Moorpark. If the fiber-topic cable is actually constructed within the SR 23/Moorpark
Avenue right-of-way, the demand and revenues for the Meet-Me Room increase greatly.
It is expected that numerous network operators would take advantage of the State’s
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entire network and lease fiber-optic capacity from the State. These network operators
will need to establish Meet-Me Rooms and data centers somewhere along the network,
and a Moorpark Meet-Me Room located adjacent to State network and in the
geographic center of Ventura County’s population would be highly desirable. In
September 2021, the City sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission
advising that the City is considering construction of a Meet-Me Room in Moorpark in an
effort to leverage the network for our mutual benefit.
Meanwhile, the County of Ventura has also developed a plan to construct a “Middle-
Mile” network that would interconnect all Ventura County communities. The network is
denser than the State’s network and includes redundant circular routes within Ventura
County to improve reliability and resiliency. The County network also includes fiber-
optic cables installed within Moorpark inside SR 23 (Moorpark Avenue, toward
Fillmore), SR 118 (Los Angeles Avenue, toward Somis and toward Simi Valley) and
Tierra Rejada Road/Moorpark Road (to Thousand Oaks). Like the State network, it is
anticipated that numerous network operators would take advantage of the County
network and similarly increase demand for a Moorpark Meet-Me Room and data center.
The County of Ventura is actively seeking grant funding to begin constructing its
network, and the City has been supporting the County effort as established by the City
Council in its current set of Goals and Objectives. If the County obtains funding and is
committed to constructing the portions of its network through Moorpark, then the market
study recommends that the City pursue construction of the Meet-Me Room and data
center.
FISCAL IMPACT
None.
COUNCIL GOAL COMPLIANCE
This action is consistent with City Council Goal 3, Objective 3 (3.3):
“Support regional and local broadband deployment issues.”
STAFF RECOMMENDATION
1.Receive and file the Meet-Me Room Market Study; and
2.Direct staff to continue supporting the County of Ventura and the State of
California efforts to construct fiber-optic networks through Moorpark, and direct
staff to continue monitoring and pursuing funding opportunities that may be used
toward a Meet-Me Room and data center.
Attachment: Meet-Me Room Market Study
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City of Moorpark, California
Meet-Me Room Study
March 2022
ATTACHMENT
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Moorpark Meet-Me Room Study
Contents
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 3
City of Moorpark Broadband Strategic Plan ............................................................................ 3
Ventura County Broadband Network ...................................................................................... 5
California Open Access Middle Mile Network ......................................................................... 6
MMR Recommendation ............................................................................................................. 6
What is an MMR? ........................................................................................................................ 7
Power .......................................................................................................................................... 7
Customers of The Moorpark MMR ........................................................................................... 8
2. RFI Response Summary ......................................................................................................... 9
Service Provider Outreach Summary ..................................................................................... 10
3. Early Research Conclusions ................................................................................................. 12
What are Data Centers? ........................................................................................................... 12
Colocation Data Centers.......................................................................................................... 13
Co-location Data Center Customers ....................................................................................... 15
Public-Private Partnership Opportunities .............................................................................. 17
Benefits of having a DC/MMR in Moorpark ........................................................................... 18
Other Data Centers Near Moorpark....................................................................................... 22
Financials .................................................................................................................................. 23
4. Conclusions & Next Steps .................................................................................................... 23
Next Steps ................................................................................................................................ 23
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1. Introduction
Historically, the City of Moorpark has been a hub of Ventura County through two periods of
industry growth. The first was during the railroad era when tracks were laid coast-to-coast
and the second was the automotive era with the interstate highway system. Today, we are
in the third wave, the digital wave. Here again, given the geographical location of
Moorpark, the City can be the digital hub of Ventura County.
Industries of all types rely on the cloud, the internet and vast gigabit connectivity to survive
and thrive in today’s global economy. The amount of data enterprises are transmitting and
receiving continues to increase exponentially. Recent trends also include a hybrid or
remote work environment where employees and customers are accessing data from home
or from the coffee shop. It’s not surprising that businesses and consumers have made the
availability and affordability of gigabit broadband a key driver for decisions about where
companies locate their headquarters and remote facilities and where people choose to live.
Given these trends, as well as regional and state broadband projects occurring in light of
the shift to online work and commerce, the City of Moorpark can leverage its central
location to attract investment and bring in additional broadband options by building a
digital interconnection point known as a meet-me-room (MMR) in the City. Investment in
such a facility would bolster the broadband environment in Moorpark, meeting many of
the goals and objectives of the City’s Broadband Strategic Plan.
Findings indicate that demand for such a facility will largely depend on the success of other
regional projects, including the Ventura County broadband network and the State of
California’s middle-mile broadband network. Therefore, Moorpark’s investment in a MMR
should be contingent upon these plans moving forward with connections that will position
Moorpark as a critical location for broadband interconnections.
CITY OF MOORPARK BROADBAND STRATEGIC PLAN
Magellan Advisors has worked with both the City of Moorpark and with Ventura County on
fiber and broadband infrastructure projects. Moorpark and Magellan Advisors began
working together in December of 2019 to develop a comprehensive Broadband Strategic
Plan.
The original goals of the project were:
a. Increase Access, Affordability, and Reliability of Broadband Services in Moorpark
b. Facilitate the Deployment of Wireless Technologies Citywide
c. Streamline Processes and Workflows and Remove Silos for Coordinated Broadband
Efforts
d. Develop Strategic Partnerships with Private and Public Sector Entities
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e. Support Smart City Applications
f. Produce Cost Savings for Telecommunications Services for Internal City Operations
g. Promote Economic Development
h. Understand the Needs of Businesses
i. Attract and Retain Key Industries
j. Encourage Economic Growth
k. Become a Gigabit City
l. Create a Tech Ecosystem
The final Broadband Strategic Plan developed by Magellan Advisors for the City of
Moorpark was provided to the City in October of 2020. The Master Plan made the
following recommendations.:
1. Incorporate broadband and technology into all planning considerations, especially
the City’s 2050 General Plan update.
2. Implement policies related to the deployment of small cell telecommunications
facilities including an MLA (Master License Agreement), Small Cell Design and
Deployment Standards, an updated telecommunications ordinance, and a Dig Once
ordinance and practice.
3. Include broadband in development agreements with considerations for impact fees
and mitigations for the placement of conduit.
4. Set aside funds of $100-150k to install conduit and/or fiber infrastructure during CIP
projects.
5. Incrementally and opportunistically build connections for a Citywide fiber network.
6. Engage with potential partners about agreements to use City assets for increasing
service offerings.
7. Track and participate in the Ventura County broadband project and other local
initiatives to promote a regional broadband vision and increase interest in the
region.
8. Provide space for a meet-me room in the design plans for the new Civic Center.
Moorpark should consider releasing an RFI or RFP to determine the feasibility of
building an MMR.
9. Continue tracking grant opportunities for funding expansion of broadband assets
including EDA, RDOF, and CASF
10. Should the City desire to further understand the cost and revenue potential of the
network identified in this Plan, it should contract for a full financial analysis based
on further outreach to the business community.
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VENTURA COUNTY BROADBAND NETWORK
Magellan Advisors began working with Ventura County in May 2020, when the County’s
administration began to plan for a county-wide open access middle-mile fiber network that
would bring increased connectivity to the entire region. In addition to connecting key
county facilities, public safety agencies, and other anchor institutions such as city halls,
healthcare facilities and schools, the Ventura County network would also interconnect
municipal networks and facilitate last-mile fiber deployments by competitive service
providers. The middle-mile network owned by the County would provide bandwidth at
wholesale pricing to improve broadband services to all users in the County.
Cities, such as Moorpark, that participate in the project will be able to use the County’s
network to connect back to internet points-of-presence (POP), which could save the City the
cost of having to lease these connections from a private telecommunications carrier. It
should be noted that there will be a limited number of locations where cities and service
providers will be able to connect to the county network. The City of Moorpark has an
advantage of being centrally located in the County and can leverage this to become a hub
for the network. The proposed Ventura County network developed by Magellan Advisors is
shown below.
Figure 1. Proposed Ventura County Network
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CALIFORNIA OPEN ACCESS MIDDLE MILE NETWORK
The State of California announced a $6 billion broadband infrastructure plan on July 12,
2021. The focus of the funding is un-served and under-served communities. It includes
$3.25 billion to build, operate and maintain an open-access state-owned middle mile
network. The middle mile is critical as it connects each city’s central office, or fiber
aggregation point, to the big city inter-connect facilities.
Figure 2. Proposed California Open Access Middle Mile Network – Ventura County
MMR RECOMMENDATION
The recommendation for Moorpark to explore a Meet-me Room (MMR) was based on the
premise that telecommunication service providers will need to interconnect with the future
County and state-wide fiber networks and that the City of Moorpark would benefit from
having the interconnect location within the City. As illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 above,
both proposed networks go through Moorpark on the 118 from the west and then go north
on the 23 to the 126. They both traverse Moorpark near the rail alignment along with the
private long-haul fiber companies. CenturyLink (Lumen), Hudson Fiber, Level 3 (Lumen),
Sprint/T-Mobile and Zayo all have fiber running through this area.
Due to Moorpark’s central location, the County and State proposed fiber networks and the
presence of these long-haul providers along the rail alignment, it was surmised that the
City would be an ideal place to locate an MMR. This central location would further attract
investment in additional digital infrastructure within the City, putting Moorpark at the
center of the broadband crossroads of Ventura County.
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WHAT IS AN MMR?
Fiber optic and wireless networks are deployed by a wide array of companies. These
include telephone companies (such as AT&T), cable TV companies (such as Spectrum), long-
haul fiber companies (Zayo), middle-mile fiber companies (such as Crown Castle), mobile
network operators (such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile), wireless internet service providers
(such as Geolinks), and other retail and wholesale providers of active and passive
infrastructure such as fiber and bandwidth. It is critical that service providers interconnect,
or peer, with each other to exchange traffic. For example, users need to be able to call an
AT&T cellphone user from a Spectrum landline phone. The interconnection between these
networks can only occur at a small number of locations where each providers’ network is
terminated. An MMR makes this interconnecting simple and economical.
In the MMR, a service provider wanting to interconnect, or “peer,” with another provider
would physically connect a wire from their equipment to the other provider’s equipment. A
separate wired connection would be required to connect to each provider. The number of
connections increases rapidly as more service providers participate. This connection
matrix is solved by the MMR. One of the largest MMRs in the world is at One Wilshire
Boulevard in Los Angeles. It has over 250 services providers interconnecting amongst
themselves. The figure below provides a diagram of how an MMR would connect networks
in Moorpark.
Figure 3. Meet Me Room Diagram
POWER
The power system merits its own section due to its importance, complexity and both high
capital expenditures (CAPEX) and high operational expenditures (OPEX). The power
system takes in electric power from redundant connections to the power grid and
distributes it throughout the facility, including to the tenants’ electronic equipment. It also
needs to include an on-site backup power generation system.
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Communications is critical infrastructure for governments, enterprises, and communities.
Redundancy and resilience are expected. Thus, the power system is a critical component
that requires dedicated expertise.
CUSTOMERS OF THE MOORPARK MMR
The key success factor to any facility, such as an MMR, is whether it can attract sufficient
paying customers to be financially sustainable. Having a diverse customer base reduces
the risks and improves the likelihood of achieving financial breakeven or better.
There are many entities in the City and Ventura County that would benefit from having the
ability to interconnect to the future county and state networks and to each other. The
value of a local MMR includes:
Reduced costs of transport
Increased flexibility
Improved performance and attraction of multiple service providers to serve local
businesses.
Customers and users of the MMR shown in Figure 3 include the following:
The Ventura County Network is the proposed county-wide fiber network
connecting county anchor institutions and providing wholesale middle-mile
bandwidth.
Private Long Haul Fiber Providers are companies that connect facilities in
major cities in a long-distance point-to-point network. The Moorpark MMR
would enable them to connect to the future county and state network and to
other providers in the City and county.
California Open Middle Mile Network is the planned $3.25 billion middle mile
fiber network. This network will be based on many parameters including the
availability of interconnect facilities.
Residential Providers such as Spectrum and AT&T could use the Moorpark
MMR to interconnect to the county and state networks and to other providers.
Mobile Network Operators, AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile could use the
Moorpark MMR to connect to the county and state networks and other providers
such as Spectrum and Comcast.
Private Metro Fiber Companies that serve local businesses could use the MMR
to connect to the county and state networks and other providers.
The City of Moorpark could use the MMR to connect to the county and state
networks and other providers.
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2. RFI Response Summary
In June 2021, The City of Moorpark issued a Request for Information (RFI) to judge interest
in the Moorpark MMR. Two locations were proposed as possible sites for the MMR as
indicated in the Figure below.
Four companies responded. They are:
Ridge Communications (San Ramon, CA)
Smart Fiber Networks (San Francisco, CA)
Onward (Rancho Cucamonga, CA)
AT&T (Dallas, TX)
The first three expressed a high level of interest in actively participating in the Moorpark
MMR project. Their proposals are complementary and could represent future partnership
opportunities. AT&T responded that they are not interested and would prefer that the City
work with them for their communication needs. The RFI responses are summarized below.
Ridge Communications
o Ridge Communications is interested in engineering, permitting,
constructing, and maintaining fiber and cables, power, and stand-by
power for the MMR.
Smart Fiber Networks (SFN)
o Smart Fiber Networks is interested in assisting the City with building and
supporting the operations of the MMR and they expressed interest in
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deploying a city-wide full fiber-to-the-premises network using the facility
as a central office.
Onward
o Onward (formerly Inyo) proposed a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) to
construct, manage and operate an MMR. They proposed that the City to
designs/builds/owns the building and Onward designs/finances/owns the
telecom equipment.
AT&T
o AT&T prefers to use their own infrastructure and partner with the City for
favorable treatment and concessions to build out residential fiber-to-the-
home (FTTH).
SERVICE PROVIDER OUTREACH SUMMARY
After reviewing the RFI responses, Magellan Advisors implemented a service provider
outreach program to gain insight from regional providers into their interest in participating
in the Moorpark MMR. This section highlights the interviews conducted with select service
provider representatives. The results are as follows:
i. Southern California Edison
1. MMR usefulness depends on what happens with the Ventura
County network.
2. It is a good location and would consider using it if everything in the
County falls into place.
3. Initially, would use it just for interconnect and as things grow,
would consider it as a data center.
ii. T-Mobile
1. Would find the MMR useful, not immediately, but in the future.
2. T-Mobile doesn’t run its own fiber; they use Crown Castle.
3. Would be helpful to some of T-Mobile’s fiber partners.
iii. Geolinks
1. Likes Moorpark location.
2. Interested if providers that they purchase IP Transport from co-
locate there.
3. Also want to connect with content providers including Netflix and
YouTube.
4. Must have carriers: Zayo and Crown Castle. AT&T would be good
to have.
5. Interested if there’s a robust datacenter as part of facility.
iv. Key Information Systems
1. If the City built the building “shell” they would be interested in
discussing operating it as a co-location facility.
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2. They would want to build around the MMR and the Data Center by
adding executive suites, shared office space, etc.
3. Ideally, would prefer 10-12K square feet of space.
4. Their current Agoura Hills facility is at 80% capacity.
v. Astound/Digital West/Wave Communications
1. Liked the location and indicated they would be interested in using
it.
2. Could see using the facility to expand their last mile network in the
City and county.
vi. Google Fiber
1. Would be interested in an MMR/data center in Moorpark if they
made a commitment to serve the entire county.
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3. Early Research Conclusions
Our early research discovered that MMRs tend to be part of larger datacenters, and not
stand-alone facilities. In many cases, the MMR is the driver to build the data center. Here,
data center users can interconnect with a large array communication service providers very
cost effectively. The architecture of the proposed facility is illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4. MMR/Data Center Architecture
WHAT ARE DATA CENTERS?
Organizations of all types need systems to run their business and operations. These
servers, storage and networking systems need to be physically located in a safe, secure,
and environmentally resilient facility. This can be in an on-premises room in the basement,
in a cage in a local data center, or on a public-cloud’s server thousands of miles away.
More likely, it includes all the above and more.
The term “data center” encompasses a wide range of facilities and capabilities. They range
from co-location data centers to hyperscale data centers. In all cases, data centers are
critical infrastructure-grade facilities.
For many reasons, including business continuity, disaster recovery and economics, most
organizations are looking to locate all, or part, of their critical IT infrastructure in off-site
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data centers away from natural and civil hazards such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and
wildfires. When the entity chooses to rent space and bring their own equipment, they need
a Colocation Data Center.
At the other end of the spectrum are hyperscale data centers. Hyperscale data centers can
be massive campuses that are measured in hundreds of Megawatts of power. One of the
largest in the world is the Citadel campus in northern Nevada. It supports 650 Megawatts
of 100% renewable energy and has over 7 million square feet of data center space. Google,
Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Facebook, and Apple are the top hyperscale companies.
These are where “The Cloud” resides.
The Cloud has grown from a remote disk drive to store photos to the mainstream storage,
compute and application platform driving the world’s economy. All aspects of personal and
corporate life are being cloudified or are going cloud native.
Cloud providers need proper facilities to put their electronics (e.g., servers, switches).
Traditionally, these locations were at or near the big centers such as LA, New York, and
Ashburn, VA. For many technical and economic reasons, the edge is expanding outward
from these big Internet edge cities to smaller cities and towns closer and closer to the end
users.
As cloud companies desire to expand their edge locations closer and closer to commercial
and residential customers, they need robust facilities. Wherever large amounts of fiber is
aggregated, such as a central office or a meet-me room, it is an ideal location for the edge
data center to reside. These trends of everything moving to the cloud and the desire to
move the edge of the cloud closer to end users makes having the MMR/Data Center
connected to multiple fiber networks and providers in Moorpark even more relevant for
the next many decades.
COLOCATION DATA CENTERS
Co-location data centers sell space and power. Space is available in a “cage”, a rectangular
steel structure where the customer brings their own equipment and sets up their data
center within the ‘caged’ space. Space is also available in a “rack” and “half-rack” basis.
Data center customers bring their own equipment and bolt it into their rack space.
In addition to providing space to their co-location customers, the data center operator is
also responsible for power, security, cooling, and regulatory compliance.
Security
o This is focused on physical security and access to the building and to the cages
and racks within the data center. This could include cameras, biometric locks,
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and strict access control. Data center customers are responsible for their own
cyber security of their servers and systems.
Power
o In addition to measuring data centers in terms of area (ft2), they are also
measured in terms of available electric power. Large data centers are measured
in tens and hundreds of megawatts. Thus, power is a critical subsystem of the
data center. In coming feeds from the power company (companies) must be
redundant to prevent an outage should one get interrupted. In addition, on-site
back-up power in the form of diesel generator increases both capital
expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX) costs and on-going
complexity.
Cooling
o Modern servers run exceptionally fast and that translates into running hot. This
heat needs to be removed to protect the equipment. Thus, the data center must
have sophisticated and redundant cooling systems to remove the heat from the
environment.
Regulatory Compliance
o Regulatory compliance is a complex issue for data centers. The regulations that
apply depend on the types of users within the facility. Healthcare companies,
financial services companies and other businesses often deal with sensitive,
confidential information and they need to adhere to specific compliance rules.
They need infrastructure that is in accordance with federal and state regulations.
For example, if a health care provider locates their corporate servers in a data
center, HIPPA regulations will be in effect for the facility. Thus, even though the
customers of the data center are setting up their own equipment, the facility
itself must also be compliant.
Data centers are classified by the level of redundancy, resiliency, and security in four
categories called “tiers”. The requirements of each tier will drive both the construction
costs and on-going operational costs. Most enterprises will not consider using a Tier 1 or
Tier 2 facility, with Tier 3 being the most common. The requirements of each tier are
summarized in the table below.
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Table 2 : Tiers of Data Centers
Tier Minimum Requirement
Tier 1 Data Center •No more than 28.8 hours of downtime per
year.
•Zero redundancy
•99.671% uptime per annum
Tier 2 Data Center •No more than 22 hours of downtime per year.
•99.741% uptime per annum
•Partial cooling and multiple power
redundancies
Tier 3 Data Center
(RECOMMENDED)
•No more than 1.6 hours of downtime per year.
•99.982% uptime.
•N+1 fault tolerance.
•No maintenance related downtime.
•72 hours of protection from power outages.
Tier 4 Data Center •No more than 26.3 minutes of downtime per
year.
•99.995% uptime per annum.
•2N+1 “fully redundant” infrastructure.
•Zero single points of failure
•No maintenance related downtime.
•96 hours of protection from power outages.
CO-LOCATION DATA CENTER CUSTOMERS
The key to The City of Moorpark MMR/Data Center achieving financial stability is having a
stable and long-term customer base with multi-year leases. As previously discussed,
organizations of all types need data center space. This includes the City itself and local
and regional businesses.
As the cloud expands outward, companies interested in serving businesses and residences
with high bandwidth low latency services could likely find Moorpark an attractive location
as well. The convergence of the state network, Ventura County network, and the private
long-haul providers at the MMR will greatly increase the attractiveness of the proposed
facility. Thus, there is a diverse customer base of the potential co-location data center
which reduces the economic risk of the proposed investment.
Potential data center co-location customers include:
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o City IT Infrastructure
The City of Moorpark needs a data center to house their IT infrastructure.
The co-location facility would be an ideal location.
o Regional/Local Business
Businesses are looking for an alternative solution to having their critical IT
infrastructure located on-site. They are looking for facilities that are
secure and resilient. This is even more effective when the off-site data
center is located within a short drive from the company headquarters.
Additionally, businesses of all types want to connect to a variety of public
and private cloud providers that have a presence in One Wilshire area
facilities. The proposed facility would enable them to access them
economically by connecting the Moorpark facility and then
interconnecting to the abundant fiber to One Wilshire.
o LA Data Center Users
One Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles is often described as the most
connected location in the US. This facility has also resulted in numerous
data centers and carrier hotels being built across the street and in the
near vicinity.
These facilities are mission critical for many entities and they are looking
for expansion and back-up locations to ensure business continuity.
Given the increased demand for redundancy and disaster recovery, many
entities are adding Las Vegas and Phoenix data centers to their
infrastructure. A data center in Moorpark would give these customers
the redundant infrastructure they demand in a facility that’s a
commutable distance from LA.
o Cloud and Saas Companies
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has emerged as the dominant method for
enterprises and residential users to consume software. Salesforce.com
and Microsoft Office 365 are SaaS offerings.
Traditional software was loaded on each PC and executed on the PC’s
CPU (Central Processing Unit). With cloud-based SaaS, the software
resides on a server in a remote data center and is executive remotely as
well. The closer the server is to the end user, the lower the latency and
the better the user experience will be. Thus, SaaS companies looking for
low latency solutions to serve Ventura and Los Angeles Counties could
find Moorpark an attractive option.
o Service Providers
Communication service providers including local, metro, and long-haul
providers need data centers to house their networking equipment and
servers. All participants in the MMR are likely to lease space to support
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their interconnections as well to locate servers for both internal network
management purposes and to improve the customer experiences.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Building and operating a Tier 3 Co-location data center with a Meet-me Room is a
substantial endeavor. The three primary functions to design and operate within the
proposed facility are the co-location data center, the MMR and the power sub-system. The
City would have the choice of participating in all or none of these functions. This
architecture creates a number of Public-Private Partnership opportunities that will reduce
the risk to the City.
Based on the RFI replies and Magellan’s provider outreach, we identified three private
companies that expressed interest in participating in the long-term operations of the
proposed facility. They are shown in Figure 5 and include:
Key Information Systems runs a Tier 3 co-location data center in Agoura Hills and
they would be interested in replicating their operations in the proposed facility.
They would prefer that the City builds the building shell and then they would make a
long-term commitment to operating the co-location data center.
Onward proposed a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) to construct, manage and
operate an MMR.
Ridge Communications proposed several partnership opportunities including
designing and operating the Power Sub-System.
Smart Fiber Systems expressed interest in using the facility for a “central office”
and entering the City of Moorpark as a “full fiber” overbuilder.
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Figure 5. Public Private Partnership Opportunities
BENEFITS OF HAVING A DC/MMR IN MOORPARK
The entire globe is going through explosive growth in fiber and wireless connectivity and
cloud-based services. There are no indications that this growth will not continue for
decades. There are substantial benefits to communities like Moorpark and throughout
Ventura County to creating a Meet-Me Room and co-location data center in the City.
Benefits in terms of the original goals of the City’s Broadband Master Plan include:
1. Increase Access, Affordability, and Reliability of Broadband Services in Moorpark
a. The MMR/Data Center should enable current and future broadband providers to
better serve the city. New competitive service providers such as Wave, Zayo,
Onward, American Dark Fiber, Geolinks and Smart Fiber Systems would have
competitive options for middle-mile connectivity to major interconnect facilities to
the south in Los Angeles and north to San Jose and San Francisco. They could also
leverage the facility as a central office or fiber aggregation point for local fiber
deployments.
2.Facilitate the Deployment of Wireless Technologies Citywide
a. To achieve the stated performance of 5G mobile networks, operators such as AT&T,
Verizon and T-Mobile must densify their networks. This means they must deploy
more macro-sites (big towers) as well as small cell sites. Small cell sites provide
coverage over a smaller geographic area and are compact enough to be mounted
on structures such as streetlights. All 5G sites benefit from having fiber to connect
to their network. Each mobile network operator has finite resources, and they will
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prioritize their upgrade locations based on many factors including the actual costs
and effort.
b. The proposed MMR/Data Center will attract regional and long haul private and
public providers of fiber which should create a vibrant marketplace in Moorpark for
fiber and bandwidth services. These new 5G sites will be served by many of the
fiber and connectivity providers that reside in the new facility. This will simplify and
reduce the costs of the densification efforts of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile and
ensure Moorpark is in the first wave of 5G and future upgrades.
3.Streamline Processes and Workflows and Remove Silos for Coordinated
Broadband Efforts
a. The goal is not addressed by the proposed MMR/Data Center.
4. Develop Strategic Partnerships with Private and Public Sector Entities
a. The proposed MMR/Data Center will be the digital infrastructure center of Moorpark
and Ventura County for decades. Thus, it will undoubtedly attract many private and
public sector entities. A primary driver for the MMR/Data Center is the convergence
of the public fiber networks being planned by the county and the state and the long-
haul providers. Additionally, based on the initial RFI replies there are private
companies interested in working with the City on long term public-private
partnerships.
5. Support Smart City Applications
a. The proposed MMR/Data Center will greatly facilitate Smart City applications of all
types. Smart City Applications encompasses a wide range of use cases. Many of
these require remote sensors (Internet of Things) connected to a centralized server.
The sensors require some form of connectivity to reach the server. Depending on
the application and local options, this can be fiber or wireless. Both options should
be available from providers leasing long-term space in the new facility.
b. The MMR/Data Center would benefit the computation side of the Smart City
application too. Those applications that require a centralized server and data tools
such as artificial intelligence and machine learning will benefit from having a cost-
effective co-location data center in the city as well as high-speed connections to
public cloud servers. Any latency sensitive application will be greatly enhanced by
having the edge server in the City itself.
6. Produce Cost Savings for Telecommunications Services for Internal City
Operations
a. The proposed MMR/Data center should attract numerous public and private
telecommunication service providers. This will create a competitive marketplace
that should reduce the costs of telecommunication services for the City’s operation
needs. If the MMR/Data Center attracts a full-fiber competitor to the city, it would
also provide the City with additional competitive dark and lit fiber options for their
internal networking needs.
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7. Promote Economic Development
a.The economic development benefits are intertwined with many of the other
objectives discussed in this section, starting with becoming a Gigabit City. The
foundation of a Gigabit City is comprised of competitive gigabit connections to all
locations and full 5G coverage by AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.
b.The more specific economic development benefits start with the initial construction
jobs and continue to on-going facility operations jobs. In addition, it is expected
that the City of Moorpark will benefit by attracting and retaining businesses to the
area. Within the overall exploding digital economy there are many types of “gigabit”
businesses that will find the new facility and local ecosystem attractive. The co-
location data center and easy access to the fiber backbones of public and private
providers creates a competitive marketplace for businesses connectivity needs.
8. Understand the Needs of Businesses
a.The recommendation of a Tier 3 co-location data center with MMR is based on
meeting the needs of current and future businesses located in Moorpark and
Ventura County.
9. Attract and Retain Key Industries
a.The proposed MMR/Data Center will benefit all local businesses directly and
encourage them to remain in the area. First, it will provide a local co-location data
center to base their digital operations. Second, it will provide them with competitive
high speed connectivity solutions from multiple providers.
10. Encourage Economic Growth
a.The proposed MMR/Data center both promotes economic development (Original
goal 7) and will encourage economic growth for the same reasons. It will create
construction jobs as well as on-going operational jobs and it will retain and attract
businesses of all types. It will also attract gigabit businesses and entrepreneurs to
enhance and diversify the Moorpark economy.
11.Become a Gigabit City
a.The proposed facility supports the stated goal of ensuring Moorpark becomes a
Gigabit City. We believe that there are three key components of local digital
infrastructure to become a Gigabit City.
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Components of a Gigabit City
The first is having competitive gigabit broadband networks. Today, Spectrum is
offering “up to 1 gigabit” services and we expect them to offer more as they upgrade
their systems to the newer standard of DOCSIS 4.0. AT&T has not upgraded their
copper DSL to fiber-to-the-home and has decided to end upgrades to the
technology. Smart Fiber Systems has expressed initial interest in overbuilding the
city with a full fiber architecture and they noted that the new MMR/Data Center
facility will directly impact their financial models by reducing the costs to enter the
Moorpark market.
The second component is ubiquitous mobile coverage by the three US mobile
network operators (MNO) (AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile). The proposed MMR/Data
Center will provide the MNOs with a location for equipment and with
interconnection to their regional and national networks and connectivity partners.
The third component of a Gigabit City revolves around connecting to the edge data
centers. Cities can either ensure they have hundreds of Gbps of bandwidth to the
edge or they must bring the edge to them. The proposed facility will do both. It will
facilitate high speed connections to LA edge data centers and it will create the
foundation for the edge to migrate to Moorpark.
12. Create a Tech Ecosystem
a. The availability of the proposed facility should attract high-tech businesses to the
City. The availability of competitive gigabit access and co-location space with easy
access to a multitude of fiber providers are two key components of a high-tech
ecosystem.
b. The City could also accelerate the creation of the high-tech ecosystem if they
expanded the facility to include spaces for a start-up company incubator, a “maker
space” and other shared offices and workspaces.
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OTHER DATA CENTERS NEAR MOORPARK
Magellan Advisors also researched the regional data center ecosystem to determine the
availability of facilities near Moorpark. In Los Angeles, 40 miles from Moorpark, there are
two clusters of data centers. The first is One Wilshire Boulevard and a large group of data
centers around it. This is one of the most critical data centers and interconnect facility in
the country. It’s also considered “full”. The second cluster is located near the LAX airport.
There are also four data centers in and around Ventura County. They are as follows:
Cyxtera has a data center in Burbank. Their focus in the local media industry and they are
connected to both LA data center clusters.
IH Networks has a web hosting data center in Chatsworth.
Level 3, now Lumen Technologies, has an interconnect facility in Santa Barbara.
Key Information Systems operates a co-location data center in Agoura Hills. They also
have a fiber ring around Ventura County on leased fiber from Crown Castle. Their data
center is currently 80% full.
CoreSite has recently opened a new data center next to their current data center at One
Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. This new one, LA1, has 200,000 square feet and 18
MWatts of power available. Coresite also has LA2, a 500,000 square foot data center in LA’s
Chinatown neighborhood.
Figure 6. Regional Data Centers
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FINANCIALS
The budgetary costs of building a data center in California is $1,000/square foot. Thus, a
5000 square foot data center would cost approximately $5 Million. A detailed financial
analysis and market assessment of demand is recommended.
4. Conclusions & Next Steps
There are many tangible and intangible benefits to the City and county of having the
MMR/Data Center in Moorpark. It must, however, be balanced with any financial risk to the
City. Moorpark can leverage its geographic location to be the digital hub of Ventura County
with the MMR interconnecting the proposed County and State open access middle-mile
networks, long-haul service provider networks and existing and future last mile networks.
Opportunities exist for a Moorpark MMR to be an aggregation center brokering high-speed
connections to One Wilshire Boulevard and other POPs and resources in the region.
The potential MMR/Data Center facility supports the goals and objectives of the Moorpark
Master Broadband Plan. The MMR/Data Center facility is long-term digital infrastructure
and will generate income for many decades. There are interested private partners that
would consider participating in the design, creation, and on-going operations of the facility.
This will reduce overall operational project risk to the City and provide a number of in-kind
business transactions between the City and service providers.
A primary value proposition of the MMR/Data Center facility would be to interconnect the
proposed county and state fiber networks with long haul fiber providers along the rail
alignment. If one, or both, the county and state networks, are not built, the interconnect
value proposition of the proposed facilities would greatly decrease thereby reducing the
value of a co-location data center. If the county network is not built, or is not built at full
scale, the demand to interconnect to the county network is reduced. Thus, the value of an
MMR in Moorpark is greatly reduced.
A key consideration is whether there is sufficient co-location data center demand from city
and county businesses to support a 5,000 square foot Tier 3 Data Center, that is
expandable to 10,000 sq. ft. with a small MMR.
NEXT STEPS
Given the potential upside of the proposed facility balanced against the risks, we propose
the following strategy.
1. Representative(s) from Moorpark should actively participate in, and monitor, the
progress of the Ventura County Network project.
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2. If Phase 1A, 1B AND 2 of the Ventura County Network are approved and funded,
the City should go forward with further exploration of building the MMR and initial
Data Center. These phases include:
a.Phase1A – along Hwy 126 from Santa Clarita to Ventura
b.Phase1B – Ventura to Moorpark to Simi Valley
c.Phase 2 – Ventura to Oxnard to Thousand Oaks
3. If the Golden State Network approves and funds the network along Highway 126
from Interstate 5 and south on Highway 23 to Highway 101 the City should go
forward with further exploration of building the MMR and initial Data Center.
4. If either, or both, of the events listed in Step 2 and Step 3 occur, the City should
initiate the project by:
a. Identifying the property.
b. Publishing RFPs to identify construction and operational partners in the
facility.
c. Publishing RFPs to identify architecture and builders.
d. Identifying an agent to act as the City’s broker in interconnect agreements.
e. Initiating discussions with private fiber companies.
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