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Google Buys Finnish Paper Mill
raffnix writes "Today, Finland-based paper group Stora Enso has announced that Google is buying the buildings and most of the Summa Mill site, where production of paper was ceased last month, for approximately 40 million Euros ($51.7 million). Obviously the space is most likely going to serve as a data center, which has now also been confirmed by
Reuters."
This is the second article this week that confuses 2008 with 2009. The other was the article on the LHC startup.
"We are currently considering to build a data centre at this site," said Google spokesman Kay Oberbeck.
And on top of that, from the Washington Post:
An earlier (brutally honest) press release from Stora Enso reveals that the mill site was closed down because of "persistent losses in recent years and poor long-term profitability prospects" It continues: "Despite tremendous efforts by its employees, the mill cannot compete in today's and tomorrow's markets using expensive virgin wood fibre, much of which is imported".
So you're arguing that because they need revenue, they bought a failing paper mill in an nonstrategic location (shipping all that paper to the states?! come on!) ... pretty weak argumant AKAImBatman.
It is neither relevant nor informative; it's funny.
Gmail paper was the 2007 april's fool joke...
Informative? This is Google's April 1st joke from 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%27s_hoaxes#Gmail_Paper
Read the personal quotes on the "More Info" page:
"Now that I have Gmail Paper, I understand the difference between labels and folders. I had one message with two labels, but when I tried to stick the paper version into two filing cabinets at the same time, it just wouldnâ(TM)t go."
"It's paper, plain and easy. I sometimes find myself wondering: what will Google think of next? Cardboard?"
Bill K., Armchair Futurist
But what about the environment?
Not a problem. Gmail Paper is made out of 96% post-consumer organic soybean sputum, and thus, actually helps the environment. For every Gmail Paper we produce, the environment gets incrementally healthier.
It is also a very big building with a massive supply of electricity already installed. Paper mill machinery is very large and runs of major amounts of electricity, so buying a defunct paper mill is a very good idea on their part, as the retrofit will not be the total infrastructure of the building.
I think this joke is Finished.
My co worker tells me they have a power plant on site, so tick the electricity box...
The location is right my the sea, and also handily close to Russia. There's a map in this Helsingin Sanomat article:
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Stora+Enso+closing+Summa+and+Kemij%C3%A4rvi+mills+at+brisk+pace+/1135233375617
So basically they can easily lay cable from and to the site, and they can have excellent connections to Russia without actually having to place the hardware there. (Not that I'm sure it would be an issue these days.)
Also, they can literally put the hardware on a ship and ship it right to the location.
.: Max Romantschuk
Actually the e-mail spy law was implemented in Sweden (neighbor) not Finland incidentally a lot of data traffic from Finland Goes through Sweden. Now this data center might just re-route the traffic some other way e.g. through Estonia.
But... Pop-ups and flashy animations are physically possible in the paper medium
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Well, don't know you're just trolling, but FYI the law (Lex Nokia as it is called) has not yet been passed. Also the climate is very favorable, cold winters and not very hot summers...and I suppose the quite cheap electricity, good infrastructure and abundance of highly trained CS engineers in Finland does not hurt.
It is also a very big building with a massive supply of electricity already installed.
Even better: Many paper mills are located next to rapids in rivers, where they have their own hydroelectric generators.
You can't take the sky from me...
Informative? This is Google's April 1st joke from 2007.
Allow me to inform you: Moderation is broken. Funny gives +1 to the article but not +1 to karma. So people have taken to moderating funny comments as informative or insightful, so that when you get moderated down as Overrated you aren't suffering a net karma loss.
That or someone just got taken in, and so they deserve the karma point anyway. Let it go.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Paper mills are designed for heavy machines and heavy rolls of paper. That means that they have strong floors which don't flex, and they don't collapse when you put in a few tons of batteries.
Because of this, telcos (which are largely DC operations and have huge battery backups) love defunct printing buildings and use them for switches.
It makes perfect sense that Google would want such a stable, heavy building.
Lex Nokia, which hasn't been passed yet, would allow the employer to monitor his employees email accounts located at company servers. It as absolutely nothing to do with Russia, unless we're talking about Russians who are employed by Google and use Gmail.
I repeat: this law, if it passes, would let the employer read emails sent to or from his own email servers by his employees. I'm pretty sure that's not "unprecedented", at least not outside Finland.
Probably the same as Google's connections with China: the company will do whatever it's told. What does that have to do with anything?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
Interesting thoughts, but not necessarily valid all around. I worked in pulp and paper for 6.5 years, so I know my way around paper mills and had a few thoughts.
Yes, paper mills have large electric service hook ups. Not diffcult to hook into.
Yes, paper mills use their own closed loop water systems, BUT when the paper mill was decommissionined, most of that equipment was probably taken away and went to another facility of the paper company. Also, the systems are at times "closed loop", but they are also quite often closed loop when you look at the facility entire with the water that hits the floor being recycled back into the water system for reuse.
Also, paper mills water systems usually deal with 10" + diameter pipes I imagine most of the piping would not be a good reuse for cooling in a server environment without sever revamping.
The standards required for server cooling loops and that of a paper mill are quite differnet. In paper mills, it is a routine task to take a hose and spray things down. Because of this, small leaks in pipe, no big deal, the water will flow into the sumps and be picked up and put back in. Imagine reusing the old pipes to do some cooling loops and have a water spray t 140 psi shooting water across your server room or into the cube farm.
Someone pointed out many paper mills are on rivers and generate their own power. Even if not using the river (which they need to dump effluent as well), many have power generating stations associated with them as well. There is a good chance that the mill has a generating station hooked to it. Google coudl have purchased that, or the paper company could have maintained ownership. Either way, the new data center is probably connected to the power station to increase reliability.
So I think the big thing that Google gets out of it is:
A shell of a building (take almost everything out from inside)
Large electrical server
Possible power generating station ownership or being directly connected to the power station.
It's Baltic Sea, not North Sea. Danish straits separate it well from the latter and it gets most of its water from rivers. The salinity is very low for a sea, especially towards the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland, where Hamina is.
Well, those buildings might be better than shanty towns but still... Aalto was a fan of functionalism and was an innovite furniture designer, but his buildings are far from efficient and comfortable. Tiny kitchens and bathrooms, small bedrooms and huge livingrooms. Eeerie, dimly lit staircases. National board of antiquities is hell bent to protect the original look and doesn't give permits for visible modifications, renovations have to be according to original design even if it's failed one.
We actually were thinking to buy one of these, but decided against for the reasons listed above.
Aalto is somewhat a holy cow in Finland. You'll usually get bad looks if you critizise his designs. Even if it's valid, like mocking flat roofs which are total disaster in our climate.
/. ate my post!
Placing a data center near Kotka, Finland is a whole lot safer than placing it in Siberia, and you can serve half of Russia and most of northern Europe from there.
I repeat: this law, if it passes, would let the employer read emails sent to or from his own email servers by his employees. I'm pretty sure that's not "unprecedented", at least not outside Finland.
Actually according to the law draft, the employer wouldn't be able to read the emails, only headers. Still, I don't like the possibly upcoming law.