As Cloud Growth Booms, Server Farms Get Super-Sized

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As Cloud Growth Booms, Server Farms Get Super-Sized

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 14, 2015 @04:29AM from the scooters-no-longer-enough dept.

1sockchuck writes: Internet titans are concentrating massive amounts of computing power in regional cloud campuses housing multiple data centers. These huge data hubs, often in rural communities, enable companies to rapidly add server capacity and electric power amid rapid growth of cloud hosting and social sharing. As this growth continues, we'll see more of these cloud campuses, and they'll be bigger than the ones we see today. Some examples from this month: Google filed plans for a mammoth 800,000 square foot data center near Atlanta, Equinix announced 1 million square feet of new data centers on its campus in Silicon Valley, and Facebook began work on a $1 billion server farm in Texas that will span 750,000 square feet.

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Next is Borg cube by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 04:54 · Score: 0

2D -> 3D, Borg Cube is obvious next step to gain density
OK, earth simulator did it already.
Economies of scale? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 04:57 · Score: 0

I wonder how large data centers can get until the bottleneck is the geographic proximity of usable fiber backhauls.
1. Re:Economies of scale? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2015-07-14 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  It's certainly possible that someone attempting a rapid expansion could butt up against the limits of the location; but the handy thing about fiber is that the cost per strand drops pretty dramatically as you run more of it to the same place. The actual fiber certainly isn't free; but the necessary rights of way, support/protection for the cable, labor for installation, etc. cost much the same until you get to some impractically gigantic bundle. It may be necessary to make upgrades; but if a location is already well served enough to start building a datacenter, it's a good bet that adding the necessary capacity there will be cheaper than dealing with more, smaller, links to more locations.
2. Re:Economies of scale? by jbolden · 2015-07-14 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  New datacenters are generally built on top of new fiber construction. The point is to remix signal every 100km on the fiber for the telco. So a bigger center just means they lay slightly more fiber when they first lay it/
locations.... by magarity · 2015-07-14 05:04 · Score: 1

Texas? Georgia? Not exactly ideal for cooling costs. What happened to the green data center movement; put it in North Dakota and all the server cooling can be handled by a vent coming in from the outside.
1. Re:locations.... by netsavior · 2015-07-14 05:13 · Score: 1
  
  Ah, the south... Plenty of sun, wind, infrastructure, and tax breaks.
  
  "green" is more of a checkbox than an honest mindset.
  
  isn't that the human/hubris way? As long as you are going after free energy, what does it matter if you use X KWH vs X+1 KWH?
2. Re:locations.... by mlts · 2015-07-14 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  Only problem with NoDak is that if it gets snowed in, some type of outage can take days to weeks to get fixed if the weather is bad, and with temperatures well into the negative 40s, it takes specialized equipment to fix things. Texas and Georgia have their problems, but generally, the worst one encounters are ice storms which make an area impassible for a few days, and those are relatively infrequent. The occasional snow is manageable.
  Well, the absolute worst are twisters... but that's what insurance is for.
3. Re:locations.... by LWATCDR · 2015-07-14 05:15 · Score: 1
  
  Depends where in Georgia and Texas and they could be using Wind for renewable power in those locations.
  Frankly the place that I would think is logical is in Tennessee using all those TVA dams for power and the lakes for cooling.
  What I do not get is why the heck is anyone building one in "silicon valley". The costs of power, land, and cooling would seem to be very high.
  
  --
  See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
4. Re:locations.... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 05:16 · Score: 0
  
  Insurance!? LOL thats what guvmint is for!
5. Re:locations.... by Tough+Love · 2015-07-14 05:30 · Score: 1
  
  Alaska is not exactly ideal for latency.
  
  --
  When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
6. Re:locations.... by cdrudge · 2015-07-14 05:32 · Score: 1
  
  What I do not get is why the heck is anyone building one in "silicon valley". The costs of power, land, and cooling would seem to be very high.
  Equinix is a colo. They don't care what the energy costs are as it's just passed on to the customers that want local access more than they want lower price.
7. Re:locations.... by LWATCDR · 2015-07-14 05:40 · Score: 1
  
  I guess it makes sense for a startup that wants access to hardware. Still seems like a large waste of money.
  
  --
  See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
8. Re:locations.... by joelsherrill · 2015-07-14 06:06 · Score: 1
  
  Google has announced the conversion of a TVA coal->steam plant in Stephenson Alabama to a data center. It is on the Tennessee River and they expect it to be a net energy producer. TVA has cheap electricity and they always have the river to aid cooling.
  I am sure there were/are tax breaks but this is a plant scheduled to close in a small town. If Google's energy claims are semi-correct, it is a good move.
9. Re:locations.... by joelsherrill · 2015-07-14 06:10 · Score: 1
  
  The Stephenson Alabama Google data center is where the TVA Widows Creek facility was. It is halfway between Chattanooga and Huntsville. It is ~20 miles from the TN/AL border. It will benefit from TVA water and nuclear power being cheap.
10. Re:locations.... by RabidReindeer · 2015-07-14 06:13 · Score: 1
  
  Only problem with NoDak is that if it gets snowed in, some type of outage can take days to weeks to get fixed if the weather is bad, and with temperatures well into the negative 40s, it takes specialized equipment to fix things. Texas and Georgia have their problems, but generally, the worst one encounters are ice storms which make an area impassible for a few days, and those are relatively infrequent. The occasional snow is manageable.
  Well, the absolute worst are twisters... but that's what insurance is for.
  Think again. Georgia and Texas are both hurricane targets.
  A company I used to work in Florida had a hurricane contingency plan that involved shipping a trailer full of mainframe tape files up to Charlotte.
  The hurricane that was supposed to hit Florida swept around an nailed Georgia/South Carolina instead. The truck with the tapes was stranded between 2 flooded-out sections of road.
  Atlanta is far enough inland that few hurricanes would have enough direct force to faze it (excepting something like what Hugo did to North Carolina), but the more economical place to locate cheap data centers would be among the peanut farms of the Southern reaches of the state. Which do tend to get more hurricane-related storms.
11. Re:locations.... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 06:50 · Score: 0
  
  Texas? Georgia? Not exactly ideal for cooling costs. What happened to the green data center movement; put it in North Dakota and all the server cooling can be handled by a vent coming in from the outside.
  Microsoft built a huge data center in San Antonio back in 2009 - just nobody seems to realize it's there. They donated $1M to the Texas Sustainable Energy Research Institute to research to find ways to reduce costs, and use wastewater for cooling. Power is provided by CPS Energy which supposedly is the largest publicly owned purchaser of wind power in the country. They also committed to purchase 100 percent of the power generated by the Keechi Wind Farm Project in Texas for 20 years.
12. Re:locations.... by ShanghaiBill · 2015-07-14 07:36 · Score: 1
  
  Only problem with NoDak is that if it gets snowed in ...
  By far the biggest problem with ND is the job market. The unemployment rate is 3%, the lowest in the nation. It is even lower for construction and tech workers. Wages are sky high. Good luck getting your data center built and staffed.
13. Re:locations.... by CrimsonAvenger · 2015-07-14 09:41 · Score: 1
  
  Think again. Georgia and Texas are both hurricane targets.
  Atlanta GA is not on the coast. It's not NEAR the coast. Hurricanes are not an issue near there.
  Fort Worth TX is not on the coast. It's not NEAR the coast. Hurricanes are not an issue near there.
  
  --
  
  "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
14. Re:locations.... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 11:00 · Score: 0
  
  That was earlier this year when oil was booming. Now that oil prices are lower, the ND oil fields are being shuttered, and the boom towns are going to be ghost towns very soon.
  A data center will have plenty of people wanting to staff it. It isn't going away, unlike oil wells sucked dry.
15. Re:locations.... by tomhath · 2015-07-14 11:15 · Score: 2
  
  Cooling is done with water, air temperature isn't that important.
16. Re:locations.... by RabidReindeer · 2015-07-14 13:05 · Score: 1
  
  Take a look at what Hurricane Hugo did to North Carolina and where it did it.
  If you come inland from Savanna, Atlanta is no further.
  Besides, a hurricane doesn't need to still be an actual hurricane to really mess things up. One storm came West of Florida, went Northeast through Georgia, came out into the Atlantic, turned back into a hurricane and plowed down into Florida again.
  And THAT was fairly recently.
17. Re:locations.... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 18:44 · Score: 0
  
  If it's to warm outside you need compressors and chillers, and those draw far more electricity than simple fans. The water is just a heat carrying medium.
all those feetses in datacentres... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 05:10 · Score: 0

what's that in metric?
1. Re:all those feetses in datacentres... by Himmy32 · 2015-07-14 05:39 · Score: 1
  
  http://lmgtfy.com/?q=800%2C000...
Soon we'll all be in the clouds, virtualized. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 05:11 · Score: 0

Only the legacy servers will no longer serve us, they'll serve as a monument to our legacy servers.
No jobs though by hawguy · 2015-07-14 05:11 · Score: 4, Interesting

Too bad datacenters don't bring jobs commensurate with their size and spending. Once the construction is done, it doesn't take many people to run a modern lights-out datacenter.
1. Re: No jobs though by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 05:25 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about you but most IT centers are overstaffed with clueless PC monkeys who tell you, "did you try turning it back of and on?" When I typically respond, "so the entire department should reboot their PCs because we can't access the terminal server?"
2. Re:No jobs though by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 05:27 · Score: 0
  
  Or, instead of being the perpetual pessimist about it, one could argue that it frees up resources to work on other projects which can herald new jobs.
  Everyone always gets all down and out about things moving into cloud architectures but despite their bad reputation, there are some moments where it can be a good thing. Of course, this all depends on each team making use of such moves and how they're managed.
3. Re: No jobs though by ArcadeMan · 2015-07-14 05:29 · Score: 2
  
  Which is followed by the PC monkey asking "what's a terminal?"
  
  --
  Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
4. Re: No jobs though by hawguy · 2015-07-14 05:37 · Score: 2
  
  I don't know about you but most IT centers are overstaffed with clueless PC monkeys who tell you, "did you try turning it back of and on?" When I typically respond, "so the entire department should reboot their PCs because we can't access the terminal server?"
  Most large datacenters are staffed by a small NOC that coordinates access to the datacenter by service contractors for routine maintenance. The datacenter itself is literally "lights out" most of the time - the NOC uses nightvision cameras to keep an eye on it, but lights are out (usually with motion sensor lights so when you walk through the datacenter, the lighting follows you) There may be a few service techs on staff that go around and replace failed hardware (no hurry since the software routes around dead hardware so it doesn't impact operations, it just sits there until someone swaps it out... or may sit there for a few years until the rack or entire rack or datacenter zone is considered obsolete and all of the servers are swapped out wholesale, but the company will usually fly in their own datacenter team for big replacements like that).
  So a billion dollar 750,000 sq ft datacenter may be staffed by a dozen or two full time staff. In contrast, a 250,000 sq ft Walmart Supercenter may employ 400+ employees -- mostly minimum wage jobs, but in many rural areas, a minimum wage job is better than no job.
5. Re:No jobs though by hawguy · 2015-07-14 05:45 · Score: 1
  
  Or, instead of being the perpetual pessimist about it, one could argue that it frees up resources to work on other projects which can herald new jobs.
  Everyone always gets all down and out about things moving into cloud architectures but despite their bad reputation, there are some moments where it can be a good thing. Of course, this all depends on each team making use of such moves and how they're managed.
  Oh don't get me wrong, I love cloud computing, and I spend most of my day managing cloud infrastructure, which is much better than when I used to manage physical datacenters.
  But still, it's lamentable that rural communities have so little to gain from a multi billion dollar datacenter in their back yard.
6. Re: No jobs though by mlts · 2015-07-14 05:53 · Score: 1
  
  Those days are long since past. Most datacenters tend to have iLO networks, ability to remotely power up/down equipment, extensive monitoring, decent switches, so the only thing SiteOps has to do is plug the cables into the proper ports, and everything is done from remote. The days of walking around with a CD and/or an external hard drive to reimage a PC are long gone... long since replaced by PXE for hardware, or templates and provisioning servers for VMs.
7. Re: No jobs though by RabidReindeer · 2015-07-14 06:17 · Score: 1
  
  I don't know about you but most IT centers are overstaffed with clueless PC monkeys who tell you, "did you try turning it back of and on?" When I typically respond, "so the entire department should reboot their PCs because we can't access the terminal server?"
  The PC monkeys are in an outsourced call center in South Asia. They've probably never seen a server.
  The idealized data center these days is a dark building with a handful of cable monkeys scurrying around like rats in the woodwork. They jack boxes in and out and plug in cables and that's about it. Everything else can be handled from a remote control center.
8. Re: No jobs though by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 06:18 · Score: 0
  
  The uptime of a true data center is far better than your local POS server run by a clueless nose picker.
  My 12 year old could do better network analysis and PC configurations than many so called professionals!
9. Re:No jobs though by RabidReindeer · 2015-07-14 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  Or, instead of being the perpetual pessimist about it, one could argue that it frees up resources to work on other projects which can herald new jobs.
  One could argue that, but the actual state of affairs indicates that there are too many "freed up" resources already.
  That's how Jeb Bush got in trouble. By intending to say that today's underemployed need to be able to work more (paying) hours. And got lambasted by Hilary who countered that there are too many people who already work multiple jobs/overtime without their work producing enough income to do anything other than tread water.
  Which is the paradox of our times. They're both right, in a way.
  There has never been any proof that eliminating jobs creates more jobs. Just because it worked that way in the 1900s doesn't guarantee that that's some sort of simple straight-line function. As they say on Wall Street, "Past performance is no guarantee of future results".
10. Re:No jobs though by ShanghaiBill · 2015-07-14 08:56 · Score: 2
  
  Too bad datacenters don't bring jobs commensurate with their size and spending.
  Prosperity is generated by the efficient creation of goods and services, not by "keeping people busy". Generating value without requiring a lot of work is a GOOD THING.
11. Re:No jobs though by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 09:24 · Score: 0
  
  I haven't been following this, but from your post it sounds like the plan is to have the dreaded Bush vs Clinton election. This dynasty stuff is just offensive, or at least it should be.
12. Re: No jobs though by cusco · 2015-07-14 20:53 · Score: 1
  
  Add to that two or three dozen guard staff, facilities personnel, a few shipping/receiving people, and lots of contractors to maintain and expand the cable plant, security system, power system, cooling system, UPS, etc. Still fewer people than a WalMart, but good, interesting jobs that are worth having.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
On the plus side... by QuietLagoon · 2015-07-14 05:21 · Score: 1

These ginormous data centers are far more efficient per gigabyte of data stored and processed than the typical home computing setup.
.
On the other hand, you are effectively donating all your data to some third party knowing that they will be mining it for information to sell, and with little more than a piece of paper to assure you can get it back.
1. Re:On the plus side... by dave420 · 2015-07-14 21:31 · Score: 1
  
  Or you encrypt it and keep one or more copies. Problem solved.
politicians are clueless. by nimbius · 2015-07-14 06:02 · Score: 5, Informative

Politicians welcome them as shining symbols of the new economy
Datacenters are the silver surfer of economies. Ive worked for large hosting companies, and we once broke ground on a new datacenter in rural virginia. I was tasked with arriving on site to oversee bringing it online. i spent most of my time taking pictures with the mayor, and giving tours to school children. The reality I had to explain to parents and kids is this:

1. water: we drilled our own well, so you wont get a dime form us for cracs. even the urinals flushed with our supply.
2. power: Your politician sold you down the river, as we dont pay taxes on this for a long time. all our lighting inside is solar.
3. Jobs: No. you dont understand. Once I leave, no one goes in or out for six months or so. Emerson power flies their technicians from Los Angeles or a regional hub to our datacenter as part of our agreement. we intentionally ensure your local HVAC company doesnt get the chance to screw this up. we manage and monitor security centrally from los angeles. generators are tested remotely, and if we need new servers we send our teams from LA to rack and power them. we dont need people to change the bulbs, we dont need people to clean the floors, we dont need people to wash the nonexistent windows. Enjoy your poverty.
4. General Contractors: your rural contractors arent qualified to build a datacenter, and probably never will be. We brought our own engineers and foremen to subcontract to your lowest bidder. they will be watched like a hawk. We didnt even allow the subcontractors to add their logo or contact information to substation equipment or even add a logo on the fence.

--
Good people go to bed earlier.
1. Re:politicians are clueless. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 08:38 · Score: 0
  
  You bring teams from LA to install servers in Virginia? You aren't too bright are you?
2. Re:politicians are clueless. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 12:48 · Score: 0
  
  Company is probably based in LA. Why would they want to deal with another state's employment laws. Why would their employees who spend most of their time working in LA doing things besides datacenter maintenance want to live in rural Virginia? Why would they want to hire extra staff in Virginia when they already have qualified staff in LA, and air travel is inexpensive?
3. Re:politicians are clueless. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 13:15 · Score: 0
  
  You bring the servers and staff from Northern Virginia, not LA. Northern Virginia has a ton of data centers and available staff. If you are flying people and servers from LA you are doing it wrong.
4. Re:politicians are clueless. by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 13:25 · Score: 0
  
  Sure, Northern Virginia has a ton of data centers and available staff. Does the company?
  If not, it would sure be expensive to open a new office and make a bunch of new hires or relocations to get people to do a job that takes one week out of every year.
  While it is somewhat surprising they don't do that for replaceable technicians like AC and power system technicians, I don't find it all surprising they do this for datacenter technicians, who need to be familiar with that companies setup.
  You're also assuming their only data center is in VA, and that they don't have dozens or hundreds spread across the country. If they have dozens of datacenters it makes sense they would have their own experts for every part of the build and maintenance.
Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur by KlomDark · 2015-07-14 06:08 · Score: 2

Then a lot of people/companies are going to hightail it back to local data centers. It's just a matter of time. Surprised it hasn't happened yet.
For internet-only companies, the cloud makes a lot of sense, but for a more old-school company it's just too much of a risk that too many are taking.
Some companies will be forced out of business the first long term cloud stoppage occurs, or even worse the first long term internet outage. Their people cannot do any work at all, cause they shipped it all off to the cloud, then the business cannot function. They are really going to be kicking themselves once they realize that all the money they thought they saved by using the cloud will be the thing that puts them out of business.
The cloud is still basically a v1.0 product. Too new to base an entire company's operations on until a few massive security breaches or loss of services occur.
1. Re: Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 08:27 · Score: 0
  
  'Big data center' doesn't necessarily imply 'cloud'(though that makes cutting it up into chunks and selling them easier). Once you get beyond the size where the advantage of being able to poke the hardware in person are outweighed by operating costs, you would likely see substantial economies of scale whether the hardware is running somebody's cloud, being leased, or being colocated. Unless it is a colo that either falls down on physical security or blows all the economies of scale on it; it just isn't going to be easy to beat a larger operation on location, favorable prices for electricity and cooling; backup systems shared across larger loads, and so on. Buying that as VM instances or 'services' may well not be the best approach; but the building will be at least similar regardless of the ownership structure of the hardware inside.
2. Re:Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur by FrozenGeek · 2015-07-14 09:10 · Score: 1
  
  "The cloud is still basically a v1.0 product." Begging your pardon, but the cloud is really still 0.X.
  
  --
  linquendum tondere
3. Re:Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur by thegarbz · 2015-07-14 10:31 · Score: 1
  
  What era are you living in. We're up to cloud v35. v36 comes out next week and v37 the week after. All our users are currently beta testing v35 and will be beta testing v36 next week. Thanks to agile development we will fix bugs on the fly and introduce new ones for users to test on the run. When something breaks we'll blame the user or delete the critical feature in the next release and claim no one was using it.
  That's not to say we don't have a big development strategy, sometime between v40 and v50 we will randomly change the entire interface without updating any of the product manuals. This should be just after we managed to finally release a stable product, wouldn't want the beta testers ^H^H^H customers to get too used to that kind of thing.
4. Re:Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-15 00:47 · Score: 0
  
  It's not so much that, as much as this: the things that make "cloud computing" work can also work locally. Sure everything's all proprietary for a lot of the vendors right now, mostly because they don't want you to know how fragile it really is, but as soon as we stop using designs by 20 something idiots holding things together with bailing wire with their multiple "agile" releases of stuff per week and have a solid infrastructure designed by people who know what they're doing, it'll be easy enough to box up the management software and sell it alongside servers. You're starting to see this already to some extent. It'll get bigger.
  If you're keeping score, you'll have also noted that basically with virtualization and all the management that needs to go with it we'll have re-invented the mainframe, but that's another story. Don't tell that to the Silicon Valley morons though. They really think they're doing something original.
  So I can run my own "cloud" that I don't have to pay by the hour for, and I can use someone else's for things that's good for (like backups, assuming my organization isn't geographically dispersed) and everybody's happy. Everybody, that is, except the people who threw in with the "cloud only" Internet companies.
  Corporate drones won't figure that out until the cloud vendors stop pricing things below which they actually make a profit of course.
Cloud Growth Booms by OhSoLaMeow · 2015-07-14 06:13 · Score: 1

Don't they call that "thunder"?

--
They can take my LifeAlert pendant when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.
Troll article? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 06:20 · Score: 0

Is this a troll article? Or maybe April 1st? Cause as far as I know, "cloud" services are differently NOT booming. More like tanking.
1. Re:Troll article? by cusco · 2015-07-14 21:04 · Score: 1
  
  Stupid AC. Amazon Web Services and Windows Live are opening data centers as fast as they can pour concrete (literally). The security infrastructure that I help oversee at a major cloud provider has tripled in two years.
  
  --
  "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
We really didn't save the world, did we? by AndyKron · 2015-07-14 07:21 · Score: 1

So much for saving the world using CFL bulbs.
Everything old is new again by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 09:19 · Score: 0

Explain to me how this is really different from timeshare on a mainframe.
Maybe someone will figure out how to have Windows VMs on a Cray.
How long before we want to control our own data? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-07-14 10:07 · Score: 0

I wonder how long it will take before 'we' will want to get our data back?
I like the ability to be able to access all your data on any device, anywhere on the world. But my idea of the cloud (and the Internet based on TCP/IP) was that I would run my own cloud server so I actually accessed my home server/rented server from anywhere. Not this 'streamlined', 'I've no clue where my data resides', kind of setup that is even a worse vendor lock in than the old proprietary file formats (Don't want to pay your monthly fee? Say bye, bye to your data...).
But what happens now? All small and medium sized businesses are 'forced' to move all their data to some cloud while paying a monthly fee to control their own data. How many small businesses I see today that don't even know that their Word and Excel documents are no longer on their computer, but are somewhere on a server on an island across the North Sea or maybe even on the other side of the Atlantic.
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2015-07-14 10:50 · Score: 1

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