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Actually, having the disks at the back is more reliable. As the temperature doesn't really impact the life time too much. It's humidity that kills drives especially good.

http://www.datacenterdynamics....

Microsoft has put a video on Youtube, and a new blog [post about Natick today. They are both linked from my article. http://www.datacenterdynamics.... The Youtube video is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Peter Judge

Did you just make the case for following other countries laws? Is that you Kim Jong-un?

And actually, just for the example you thought was hard to find: http://www.datacenterdynamics....

TL;DR version: Microsoft refused to give an American court user data.

Or someone dropped an anchor on it [1]

http://www.datacenterdynamics....

Yes -- Google took over an old paper mill in Finland, and adopted a system that uses seawater for secondary cooling. http://www.datacenterdynamics....

Whatever the drawbacks, it's worth pointing out that there are at least three other companies in this field, two of them are already offering service.

Qarnot Computing of France has around 300 Q-Rad servers installed in homes, offices and schools, carrying out specialised work, including risk calculations for a French bank
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

In Germany Cloud&Heat offers a generic OpenStack service to "cloud customers", and free heat to "heat customers" who have its cabinets installed in their buildings.
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

And in New York, Exergy is still at the Kickstarter phase, but has some interesting ideas
http://www.datacenterdynamics.... Peter Judge

Whatever the drawbacks, it's worth pointing out that there are at least three other companies in this field, two of them are already offering service.

Qarnot Computing of France has around 300 Q-Rad servers installed in homes, offices and schools, carrying out specialised work, including risk calculations for a French bank
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

In Germany Cloud&Heat offers a generic OpenStack service to "cloud customers", and free heat to "heat customers" who have its cabinets installed in their buildings.
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

And in New York, Exergy is still at the Kickstarter phase, but has some interesting ideas
http://www.datacenterdynamics.... Peter Judge

Whatever the drawbacks, it's worth pointing out that there are at least three other companies in this field, two of them are already offering service.

Qarnot Computing of France has around 300 Q-Rad servers installed in homes, offices and schools, carrying out specialised work, including risk calculations for a French bank
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

In Germany Cloud&Heat offers a generic OpenStack service to "cloud customers", and free heat to "heat customers" who have its cabinets installed in their buildings.
http://www.datacenterdynamics....

And in New York, Exergy is still at the Kickstarter phase, but has some interesting ideas
http://www.datacenterdynamics.... Peter Judge

I can see applications for DC power distribution in certain circumstances. High-density computing, for one - why have a full mains PSU in every server? It's expensive, more points of failure, and you end up going from mains incoming to DC for the UPSs inverted to AC to send back to the servers converted back to DC for use inside - and those inverters are not that reliable too. It makes more sense to feed all the servers off of DC (Usually 48V - any lower and current gets silly), and have the power supply stuff all centralized. All the servers need is a DC-DC converter for each rail.

Telcos have been doing exactly that for decades now: all their exchanges and much of the optical kit runs on -48V: it's a low enough voltage to be safe to work on when live (negative rather than positive because that protects against corrosion on the wires), easy to combine sources (a diode will do it), no need to "switch" to backup power (just connect your load, battery and source together, job done).

Facebook went the other way for a large server farm, though: running 480V 3-phase AC to the racks (277V per phase). Cleverly, though, they don't need to convert DC from the batteries to AC in power cuts: the mixed DC/AC bus feeds switch-mode power supplies which convert incoming power to DC anyway, so switching between AC utility power and DC battery power doesn't matter. Pretty clever really, IMO.

http://www.datacenterdynamics....

Yeah, major drug cartels and especially Iceland have massive data centers that rival what the US has. Right. That must be why so many of the job postings for those with related skills are in Columbia and Iceland.

Iceland is building a 50 to 70 acre data center. And they're hiring tons.

The mexican drug cartel has a massive national wireless network. They're hiring too, but you have to apply in person; They don't take online resumes.

Look, we know that the NSA hires shills to mock all of us who are concerned with this stuff. You're probably not one of them. You probably just do it for free.

Well, you got one thing right: I do this for free. I suppose 1 out of 6 is better than your usual average though.

At 200MW? 80-65-megawatt 'power' upgrade seem to the quoted in some press too. Take off some power for the protester zapping electric fence and see how many chips you can power and cool with that mw range :)
http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/focus/archive/2012/03/light-shed-nsa’s-massive-supercomputer-project-spying

As of 10/11, Phoenix had 830K, with plans to add 160K and maybe even a million more feet later. source.

However, just one building in North Carolina has 500K of space (source), and Apple is by no means alone out there, with at least Google and others. Central Oregon and Washington are also big; Facebook has 300K in Prineville and another 300K on the way. Apple is also building in central Oregon, Google has a large facility, and yahoo and microsoft have large facilities in Central Washington.

Phoenix is a player, but by no means has "as much DC capacity as the rest of the US combined." They may have more colo space, and more individual 100k+ size units than elsewhere, to but consider all of the domestic DC capacity you are including self-builds in that statement.

The University of Illinois generates much of their own power, and has relatively low electric rates because of this. This year the rates are posted as $0.0754/KWh. Its also doubtful they will be operating continuously at peak capacity.

And on a related note, the building housing Blue Waters has been certified LEED Gold by the USGBC in an effort to minimize the energy and cost impact of operating the new facility.