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Germans Can Get Free Heating From the Cloud

Posted by timothy on from the not-just-free-water dept.

judgecorp writes The idea of re-using waste server heat is not new, but German firm Cloud&Heat seems to have developed it further than most. For a flat installation fee, the company will install a rack of servers in your office, with its own power and Internet connection. Cloud&Heat then pays the bills and you get the heat. As well as Heat customers, the firm wants Cloud customers, who can buy a standard OpenStack-based cloud compute and storage service on the web. The company guarantees that data is encrypted and held within Germany — at any one of its Heat customers' premises. In principle, it's a way to build a data center with no real estate, by turning its waste heat into an asset. A similar deal is promised by French firm Qarnot.

6 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Great in the winter .. by ottawanker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    .. but in the summer?

    1. Re:Great in the winter .. by Translation+Error · · Score: 4, Informative
      From the article:

      And the unit is also arranged to vent excess heat outside in summer when no heating is required.

      --
      When someone says, "Any fool can see ..." they're usually exactly right.
    2. Re:Great in the winter .. by kuldan · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, to put it into perspective, power in Germany costs about double than in the US - I pay around 0.30€/0.40$ for power per kw/h in Germany, and I'm with the cheapest provider for the whole region...

    3. Re:Great in the winter .. by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, that's closer to three times that of US rates. You're paying double what I am, and I'm in one of the most expensive regions of the country for electricity. Average in the USA is around 12 cents a kwh. That's about .1€

      --
      I don't read AC A human right
  2. Hello I have a seach warrant for your computers. by nevermindme · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Works well until someone shows up a the door of a 3rd party business with a warrant and all the business servers and laptops are seized because a judge think he knows technology because he owns a IPAD and was the first on his block with a PalmPilot.

  3. Outsourcing by ericloewe · · Score: 4, Funny

    After outsourcing their heating, they can double down and outsource their IT to the cloud, which will run on their on-premises servers.

    All of the costs, none of the advantages, but an MBA feels real smart, which really brings a smile to everyone's faces.