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The New Data Center Capital of America
crimeandpunishment writes "Move over Silicon Valley, here comes... Buffalo. Where the weather might actually be a big advantage. The recent opening of Yahoo's state-of-the-art data center, which uses the region's cooler climate and a high-tech 'chicken coop' design to dramatically lower energy costs is getting a lot of attention in the industry."
not being hosted in the state-of-the-art facility, has its server on fire
was never really known for being a "data center", it's more known for where engineering and development happen.
Data centers don't really need that many highly skilled employees working on site. In the future data centers might have no one employed but security guards and (relatively unskilled) maintainance. In that case it doesn't really matter where they are located, at least in terms of helping the economics of the region.
For those who are curious, the article is about data centers in Buffalo, New York, and not one of the other many Buffalos in the USA.
Well, why stop at Buffalo? We have lots of cheap land in Northern Canada where you would need no cooling for most of the year!!!!
It used be that having people build data centers in your community meant lots of good jobs. These days, though, with advances in lights out management, you can build a huge data center and only need a few low-pay button pushers and forklift drivers on site. All of the high paid engineer and admin positions can be staffed anywhere, and usually end up being primarily existing staff who remain wherever they're already living.
Sure having some jobs coming in is better than no jobs coming in, but data centers alone are not going to transform a community into a high tech mecca any more than building a bunch of warehouses will.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo?
(Yes, I have karma to burn)
^_^
So, per my subject-line above? Yes folks: We "upstate N.Y.'ers" can thank the GREAT Nikola Tesla for his creation of the Niagara Falls power turbine system (sends power as far as to NY City too, afaik/iirc)...
That cheap power? It was "part of the package" they used to attract YAHOO & others, along with tax incentives & plenty of cheap land: CHEAP electrical power via "hydro-power"!!!
APK
Cheap hydro power, no summers ( well actually that is not true we had summer last year, it happened on a Thursday). You can also use the excess heat to warm up the parking garage of the employees because the cars will blow their frost plugs even if they are plugged into block heaters and the batteries will freeze if they don't have an electric blanket around them. -60c (-100c with wind chill) is horrible, most people run their cars 24/7 when it gets really cold.
Geographically speaking, I think Buffalo is better than Silicon Valley for a server -- if you have European customers. My server in Buffalo had good latency for users in both North America and Europe. My server in Silicon Valley had worse latency for my European users. I'm surprised there aren't more data centers in the New York area.
First off, where did they get that picture of a bunch of mini-tower machines on steel shelving, each with one Ethernet cable, one power cord, and one console connection, sitting on raised floor? That looks like clip art of some data center circa 1998. Here's the actual Yahoo data center in Lockport, which, as you'd expect, is a big farm of 1U rackmounts. The "chicken coop" design is simply a low-cost prefabricated metal building with lots of ventilation grills. Looks like something ordered out of the Butler Buildings catalog.
Yahoo got $9 million in grants and 10 years of no taxes for this. Yet it will employ only 125 people. Probably less, once it's running.
Lockport is desperate. The big employer in town, Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems (formerly Harrison Radiator) had 6000 employees a decade ago. Now it has 2100, and has been threatened with closure several times.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/092010-yahoo-opens-chicken-coop-green.html although the original link does a great job of showcasing local boosterism in a rust belt town feverishly hopeful for a better future ('Yay! 100 jobs! Some interest! The town is saved, paw'!), this link actually has details more likely to be of interest to a slashdot reader. The long and narrow design placed in consideration of prevailing winds seems clever, sure, but I don't get the big deal over it. Maybe using common sense really is so rare as to be considered innovative.
you have to be kidding me. the earthquake you linked happened in canada:
"The midday earthquake measured a magnitude of 5.0, and while centered 35 miles outside the Canadian capital of Ottawa, it sent tremors through Western New York and at least eight U.S. states. Locally, the rumbling rattled residents from Springville to Lewiston."
buffalo is hardly an active earthquake zone
... but the rest of America is still sore at those four consecutive Super Bowls you guys made us sit through with your losing teams.
Maybe they can convert Ralph Wilson stadium into a data center once the Bills relocate to Toronto?
Skilled help may be needed by these new data centers. So all they have to do is talk high quality employees into the joys of living in Buffalo. If the cold doesn't kill you and boredom doesn't finish you off the state income taxes may have you wander about hoping that you will freeze to death.
Lockport's in Niagara County. We in Niagara County don't get the storms that bury Buffalo and especially the Southern Tier under 7 feet of snow every year like clockwork. Once Buffalo got stomped and Sanborn (where I went to college, just a couple miles west of Lockport) was still green.
-uso.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
So Eastman Kodak misses yet another opportunity?
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?