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Price of Power in a Data Center
mstansberry writes "Much like the rest of the country, IT is facing an energy crisis. The utilities are bracing companies for price spikes this winter and according to experts and IT pros, those prices aren't going to come down any time soon. This is thefirst article in a four-part series investigating the impact of energy issues on IT."
Oil still costs about $15 to pump out of the ground, but instead of the $25 price before we invaded Iraq, it's pushing $70+ as a "permanent high". Maybe Congress and the White Hosue can exercise some accountability for their totally failed energy policies (including sending us to war) by stopping the price gouging the oil corporations are abusing us with. I know those corporations are their best bribers^Wcontributors, and their foreign sources are our best traitors^Wallies, but Americans will vote on the entire House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate in elections next year. We might be willing to put up with a lot of BS on faith, but there's no denying we're not getting the spoils of all of our "superpower" status.
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make install -not war
I agree that crisis is not the correct term for energy price increases however it is becoming a great concern for everyone. I see this concern as a needed factor to promote chip innovation.
/. Your server gets hammered. A solution could be load balancing but that usually requires that all of the nodes be online all of the time. What if processing nodes could boot almost instantly using flash memory or RAM disks from a powered off state? The master node would request processing nodes to power up based on need and power off when not needed. Instead of hard drives, RAM disks would be used. A small amount of voltage would be supplied to the RAM at all times.
I am glad to see the widespread adoption of hybrid cars and SUVs in the United States. By widespread I mean that automakers are actually promoting hybrid technology. In my lifetime (I am 21) I don't think we will find a source of energy that will replace gasoline in automobiles. People cite Hydrogen as a source but most the available Hydrogen production is a byproduct of fossil fuel refining. Currently, solar panels are far to expensive and the production methods require vasts amounts of energy (often more than the panel will ever produce) Of course the majority of the energy used to producce the panels comes from fossil fuels.
Power production from Wind is a risky venture at best for most of the country. There are only a few select locations where there is sustained wind. These locations should be used to their potential. Also, electric only cars will only become accepted if they can recharge in the same amount of time it takes you to fill your gas tank. I drive a Honda Insight. It takes about sixty seconds to fill up and I can drive it in town for 2-3 weeks before I need to fill it up again. I typically get 375 in town miles and around 550 highway miles on a single tank.
I have always been a supporter of nuclear energy however I don't think America is ready for a nuclear reactor under the hood. Besides, the evil dooers could use them for WMDs.
So, right now it appears fossil fuels will continue to be the primary source of energy. I would like to see a cleaner alternative but am glad consumers finally have a choice. Like everything, burning fossil fuels is ok in moderation. Our problem is that the earth cannot absorb our output fast enough. This is just my opinion of course.
I would hope the chip designers would give the consumer and business alike an alternative. Design desktops and servers to lower their voltage to the CPU when the system is idle. I have an Asus board with an Athlon64 3500+ that has this capability and I use it. I am sure there are many servers out there sitting idle yet running at full power. Hopefully businesses will realize this and buy technology that is adaptive based load.
Here's an idea I have been thinking about since we are on this subject. Why not have a system that acts as a cluster but only the needed nodes are used. For instance, you are running a website. Most of the time a single server can handle the load perfectly. Some jackass posts a link to your site on the frontpage of
Of course you could buy servers with CPUs that are effecient. You would still be wasting energy during idle times.
These of course are my original thoughts. Companies should not take them from me unless of course they thought of it first. In that case, please do not sue me for thinking creatively. Perhaps you could hire me. Perhaps not. Either way, don't be an asshat. Turn off the (light/computer/whatever) when you are not using it. The energy companies operate on demand. If there is less demand, they will produce less energy, and we will all benefit.
Migrate all your servers to Mac Mini's.