Slashdot Mirror
Inside Las Vegas' Biggest Data Centre
twoheadedboy writes "Las Vegas data centres are just as opulent as the casinos which litter the vibrant city. SuperNAP is the biggest in all Las Vegas, with 400,000 square feet of servers using around 100 megawatts of power. There's some serious security too, comprised mostly of ex-US Marines who patrol the perimeter on foot and in Humvees, all armed with assault rifles. Private military contractors are needed in the IT world too, it seems. IT Pro got a look around this impressive DC."
Don't think so !!
When I think of Las Vegas I think of warm temperatures year round. I realize that evaporative cooling in pretty cheap, but water in Las Vegas is becoming expensive and scarce. Why not build data centers in cold climates so you can run the economizer on your HVAC a good portion of the year?
Due to its government contracts the security force (made up mostly of ex-marines armed with assault rifles) can requisition fuel wherever they find it locally in the event of a power outage???
Say, that's reassuring.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
Come to think, I wonder if a DC is classified as commercial or industrial? I'm guessing it'd be industrial because of the size, but a DC could be commercial because of the locality restrictions (you want them sparsely covering everywhere - I think). I've got data on the one but not the other.
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Speaking as somebody that has been inside the facility, the security can get a little bit of an "itchy trigger finger".
It's hard enough to do a job at the last notice, but having some beefed up ex-military guy from Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. is not all that it is cracked up to be. They walk around all dressed in black with pistols and assault rifles. That part is not a joke at all, and this is inside the facility.
So when you are trying to take a server out of a rack and service it, or take equipment out, it makes it just a ohhh so fun fun day to have one of those hopped up alpha male psychopaths have one hand on their weapon and the other hand on the radio. Seriously? I am inside a locked down facility. Get your fucking hands off the assault rifles when you start talking to me. I'm a fucking IT guy.
All because shit is moving fast in my world and some desk monkey did not talk fast enough to another desk monkey in their company.
It sounds great in literature and brochures, but when you actually have to walk down aisles and deal with those guys it is another matter entirely. I would rather just be in another data center where there are not armed guards walking around every corner with live ammo.
Intriguingly Switch claims that it can shave 25-40%
off its customer's internet connection costs due to a
project it inherited from Enron before that infamous
company went under. Enron had planned to create
a bandwidth marketplace so bandwidth could be
traded like any otherfinancial instrument or
commodity.
I am sure that there is some Vegas IT going through this building, however I would be surprised if that makes up 10% of the funds flowing through here, I would be willing to bet that the more lucrative hosting being done is for the pr0n industry. The security theater and such is very impressive to those clients. (While not really helping much from a realistic security standpoint, I mean the valuable stuff is the data, not the hardware!) Still an impressive data center nonetheless.
Okay...Supernap it is.
JFGI, or search /. for this same article aged to perfection...
if they didn't put a datacentre in the middle of a desert.
I would rather just be in another data center where there are not armed guards walking around every corner with live ammo.
Did you inspect that weapon? Its nearly a certainty that the chamber was empty and likely that the magazine in the weapon was also empty. Live rounds are probably in magazines in a pouch. Active duty Marines sometime carry their weapons in such a state. Why the empty magazine, closing the dust cover and inserting an empty magazine helps keep the weapon clean.
... it just a ohhh so fun fun day to have one of those hopped up alpha male psychopaths ...
I think this is the most telling part of your post. You seem have some phobias and prejudices.
"the security force is apparently empowered to requisition fuel wherever it finds it in the city.". I guess this is the same empowerment that allows the *government* to requisition fuel from wherever it finds it in any country...
I don't believe it. If there were that much IT in LV then there would be IT jobs. I haven't seen a single IT job in LV in years - have you?
While you may be correct about the lucrative side of the business the article does mention that clients include government agencies, financial institutions, and quasi-fiancial companies like ebay (paypal). I think you are focussing too much on the local industry. Its a data center, clients do not need to be local. Think geographic diversity regarding offsite backups. Somebody in New York or San Francisco may think that Vegas makes a good secondary data site, something immune from a local NY or CA disaster.
Las Vegas doesn't have Data Centres, they have Data Centers. I don't care what anybody says "TRE" and "TER" do not make the same sound.
Like a lot of other things in las vegas the security at nap is all an illusion.
Half the time, ex-military also means ex-Kentucky trailer dweller.
As someone who has been responsible for the architecture, design and security of many of the IT products and services that you consume every single day of your life AND a U.S. Air force veteran I can tell you first hand that you are absolutely ignorant and know nothing of which you speak.
Is that it has consistent temperatures or reasonably so. Maybe not as I'm not an expert on Vegas. A couple of companies have built data centres in Ireland for this reason though and they can use the wind that comes naturally through for cooling to further reduce costs. Ireland has high humidity so I'm not sure how this plays into the whole humidity theory though. Mostly I'd say it is probably for tax breaks and cheap startup costs giving them a fast return on investment.
"GCA currently uses 120 dedicated physical Cisco blade servers"
Attention IT Pro: This is not impressive.
I can tell you the main reason data centers are placed here is that the climate (while hot in the summertime) is fairly consistent all year round (mild winters, occasionally freezing, and yes, we do get snow on occasion). The average humidity on any given day is 15% or less (so we get static electricity here in the desert).
Anther good reason is that while the Las Vegas Valley does have numerous fault lines, the only areas we normally feel earthquakes from is Boulder City, central NV, or southern California (think Big Bear). We get flooding during monsoon season, but it's not nearly as bad as it was in the 70's and 80's here. No tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.
Real Estate is cheap here, but in terms of serious high tech (not counting casinos and defense), it's hard to get companies to relocate (even in a good economy) due to the state of our K-12 system (usually in the bottom 10-20% in the nation), and our higher education system as well (which has also taken a beating budget wise). A huge concern of many businesses that deal in high tech is 'where are we going to get the skilled workers we need...'
I've heard many presentations and have privately spoken with CEO's and CIO/CTO's on numerous occasions, we routinely get beat out by three neighboring states for technology jobs (Utah, Arizona, Colorado) due to their infrastructure, and in general, better educated population...
I'm fortunate to be an early customer - it's only 1/5 mile round-trip to use the restroom. Parking and the loading-dock are farther. I've walked as much as 60-miles in a week traveling to Vegas. Much is due to schleps in the airports and taking walks after work but I'd estimate that back and forth between the cabinets, car, restroom, break-room and loading-dock accounts for 25-30% of my walking.
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
SDF would be way cooler than this place; if they gave me an assault rifle.
I know people like to be culturally diverse and all, but if it is in American English, it's spelled CENTER!
Despite the presence of the Hoover Dam hydroelectric facility in Nevada, almost all of that output goes to California, so the public grid in Las Vegas derives 60% of it supply from natural gas-fuelled power plants.
That is a lot of resources to have on the power grid. Why they don't build a Solar One style power generator for themselves boggles my mind.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
I worked at Oracle's large (at the time) flagship datacenter in Texas. The guards there were all armed inside of the building, which was protected by embassy-grade security. I only lasted a few months because the environment was so horribly repressive. I did *not* appreciate having my eye scanned or feeling like I was being watched (by armed guards) all of the day.
Thank goodness I found better. :-)
Good timing. I just took a tour of that facility last week while in Vegas for Cisco Live (tour here http://jasonnash.wordpress.com/2011/07/14/cisco-live-2011-day-3/). The physical security is impressive and the armed guards are real. You don't often see a rack of AR-15 rifles behind the check-in desk at a data center. What's more impressive than the physical security was the technology. Their density of power and cooling is just amazing. It's not hype..it's real. The SuperNAP currently handles 100MW of power and they are about to move up to 200MW. The layout and planning was very well done. Nothing needs to be ripped and replaced for the upgrades. It's amazing to see that density of gear in every rack and not need to spread out the racks to account for power and cooling overload. What is also impressive is that a lot of the gear they have there was designed, patented, and specially built for them. Other standard manufacturers (such as Liebert) couldn't or just wouldn't meet their demands so they did it themselves and now they are working to offer those products to the rest of the datacenter industry.
Yes...it's overly dramatic with the security and red/blue LED lighting everywhere but they have the technology and facility to back it up.
If you are indeed as magnificent as you claim to be, you would know that appealing to authority without supplying even a shred of verifiable proof isnt exactly a good way to lend credibility to your statements.
Not to say i agree with the GPs assesment of ex-military guys in america (i dont know any at all, so i dont have much of a clue about them), but your internet tough guy style rebuttal is actually more ridiculous.
As someone responsible for the design, architecture and reliability of many of the laws of physics that you rely on every single day of your life AND an honorary member of the penthouse super secret "i had sex in space" club, i can tell you first hand that you're a tool.
People, what a bunch of bastards
"...armed guards walking around every corner with live ammo"
Reminds me of a movie line: "Most things in here don't react too well to bullets."
If there was a problem, I'd prefer my servers and switches not have to be bulletproof.
You weren't in the military, you were in the Air Force. Zoomies aren't soldiers, they're zoomies.
Do they do the disk to disk backups to a semi-trailer or something and drive the entire trailer to the second equally impressive sit each day? I can only imagine how much a site this big costs, considering you would need an identical one hundreds of miles away for disaster recovery. I would love to see an article just on their backup methods alone. Designing a custom backup semi would be amazing.
I live in Vegas and would at least like to comment on a couple of items:
Power in Vegas by Nevada Power (published data) is approximately 23% coal, 67 % Natural Gas, 4% Hydroelectric, 3.8% Geothermal, 0.85% Nuclear, and 0.5 % solar per their generation stats. Nevada Power generate 68% of their power and they buy the rest. Solar is available and it does make sense, but the republican politicians and killing the projects. Nevada Solar One (http://www.acciona-na.com/About-Us/Our-Projects/U-S-/Nevada-Solar-One) works 24/7 and produces 64 MW annually not far from Boulder City and since it uses concentrating solar and salt for thermal production of electricity. Similar solar facilities were planned north of Vegas along with the necessary transmission lines which would also connect the two major U.S. electric grads. Current plans are still on hold (via politics again). While solar energy could be a major source of revenue (along with current mining and tourism industries) for Nevada, solar and transmission lines are currently viewed as a boondoggle. An area of solar approximately 100 miles on a side devoted to solar could power ALL of the U.S. electricity needs using current technology.
I have water concerns about the facility, when using evaporative cooling the DC is using a lot of water lost to evaporation. I suspect 1-2 million gallons per day as an educated "guess". For comparison, a typical golf course minimally uses a million gallons of water per day. While I worked in Arizona (land development) designing master planned communities as an engineer, the water used for golf courses would be reclaimed and/or non potable water. In Nevada, we try to return (after processing) water to the Colorado River to account for a draw that exceeds our allotment. While someone can argue whether living in Las Vegas does not make sense environmentally, my current house (nothing special) uses less electricity, water, and natural gas than anywhere I have previously lived (MI, WA, WV, & AZ).
If you stand on Hover Dam or the Bypass Bridge, you will see plenty of water. Right now Lake Mead water level is rising and regardless of rise or fall a certain minimum flow is regulated to pass downstream of the dam. Most of the water is used for agricultural purposes, none reaches the Gulf of Mexico except in unusual circumstances. Not all of water (there is a lot) is used wisely--for example cotton is not a water wise crop to grow in the California desert. Better decisions could be made with the water.
As for the Data Center in Vegas, I was very supportive until I read about the evaporative cooling. Now I'm suspicious that it not water wise thinking. At my current household consumption rate of 70k gallons per year, and assuming the Data Center is using over a million gallons per day for evaporative cooling (when used), it's the equivalent household water use of 14 years in one day. But wait--at least 50% of my household water goes back into the Colorado River verses evaporation. So, each day of their evaporative cooling is equivalent to 28 years of household water use. Converting to household to an estimate of 200 gallons per day, their million gallon per day use is equivalent to the use of 5,000 households or 10,000 households assuming half their water flows back (though the sewer system) to the Colorado.
Several poor decisions in industry can add up quickly in the desert.