Refugee Promotions

The battle for displaced hosting customers is heating up, as Telehouse America and Switch & Data this week announced "refugee promotions" that waive setup fees and offer a month or more of free colocation services.

With Cable & Wireless and Qwest each having announced major consolidations of their data center networks in recent weeks, competitors are customizing offers to attract new business. As long-time industry players who have avoided bankruptcy, Telehouse and Switch & Data are hoping to benefit from the turbulence.

Telehouse calls its promotion a "rescue package," and features a waiver of all standard installation fees, one month of free colocation space, and a guaranteed turnaround time of three days on a proposal.

“We have been receiving inquiries from concerned businesses, most of them small to mid-size hosting companies, seeking alternative colocation providers as a result of the data center closings,” said Hideki Akazawa, president and CEO of TELEHOUSE America. “We feel it is important to give these organizations short-term priority treatment so that they can quickly resolve their colocation problems in their time of need.”

Switch & Data is offering a "Colocation Migration Program" with free installation and two months of free colo for customers who sign a contract longer than 24 months.

"Our Colocation Migration Promotion assists customers facing impending data center closures to help ease the transition to Switch and Data services," said Mario Galvez, Vice President of Marketing at Switch and Data.

We'll no doubt see similar offers from other providers in coming weeks. Shop carefully, though. Today's migration promotion can turn into tomorrow's migration headache. It's worth noting that one of the providers with an active customer migration program has been Qwest.