As Cloud Growth Booms, Server Farms Get Super-Sized

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.

Comments

No jobs though

[hawguy]

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.

Re: No jobs though

[ArcadeMan]

Which is followed by the PC monkey asking "what's a terminal?"

Re: No jobs though

[hawguy]

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.

Re:No jobs though

[ShanghaiBill]

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.

politicians are clueless.

[nimbius]

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.

Eventually the first big cloud hack will occur

[KlomDark]

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.

Re:locations....

[tomhath]

Cooling is done with water, air temperature isn't that important.