You're exactly right about the sale/leaseback trend. Several of the well-heeled data center developers are actively marketing the sale/leaseback option, targeting companies who have expansion space left in their data centers. The existing tenant keeps their space, sheds a lot of overhead, retains some expansion rights, and the new owner fills the rest of the space with colo.
The article briefly mentions a survey on cloud computing released today by Pew Internet, which warns that "sloud users show high levels of concern when presented with scenarios in which companies might use their data for purposes users may or may not fully understand ahead of time. This suggests user worry over control of the information they store online." That includes using personal information for ad targeting.
Earlier this year Princeton University held a forum on cloud computing, which included an in-depth session of data ownership in the cloud and the issues it raises. It's available on YouTube in its 90-minute entirety.
They're not the first ...
on
The Google Navy
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· Score: 2, Informative
A San Francisco startup is working on a fleet of data centers on cargo ships, as discussed here on Slashdot earlier this year..
True, but Washington State recently withdrew a tax break for data centers, ruling that they're not eligible for a tax incentive for manufacturers because they don't actually make anything. I think the savings from the power benefit are larger than the tax cut, but some companies want both. Iowa's ready to deal, and it's not alone.
The Olympic organizers need those high fees to pay for the Digital Beijing data center, the 11-story high building designed to resemble a circuit board.
Hawaii = Huge Data Center Power Bill
on
Pimp My Datacenter
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· Score: 5, Informative
If you're in Hawaii, you better be pimping the dickens out of your data center. Hawaii has the most expensive electricity in the United States, according to state-by-state energy prices, which show Hawaiian power prices at 16 to 17 cents per kW hour.
That's a good point, and one of the reasons that data center site location specialists are focusing on markets where there's a local college or university with a program that trains IT staff, especially if they offer secruity certifications that meet NSA standards.
On the "how a data center gets built" front, last week I had a tour of a new $250 million data center facility in Virginia that is getting ready to open later this month. The facility manager provided a walk-through of the power and cooling infrastructure, explaining the company's approach to designing these systems for energy efficiency and scale. I shot video, which is now posted online. The data center operator, Terremark, separated most of the electrical infrastructure from the IT equipment, putting them on separate floors and housing the generators in a separate facility. They have 11 generators now, but will have 55 Caterpillar 2.25-megawatt units when the entire complex is finished.
Here's an interesting related issue: how many people does it take to operate a data center? Google always says that it will create 200 full-time positions at each of its new data centers. But an analysis of data center staffing for new Yahoo and Microsoft facilities in Washington State suggests that these companies can run a data center with 30 to 50 staffers.
Data center employment often comes up in discussions of economic development. Many communities are eager to attract data center projects, but struggle to define the economic benefits of these facilities. Jobs have always been the primary benchmark by which economic development projects are measured. Incentive packages offered by state and local governments are often based on the number of full-time jobs created by a new business. And do data centers really hire locally, or do trained data center engineers migrate from other existing data center hubs? In some cases, local officials try to stipulate local hires, which is a sticky wicket.
For those who couldn't sit through the 80-minute video (or don't have Silverlight), Gates said that in the future Microsoft's mega data centers will have many millions of servers". It currently has "hundreds of thousands" of servers, but expects to pack up to 300,000 into its new Chicago container farm. Gates also predicted that only a select number of companies (presumably including Microsoft and Google) will be able to compete on this scale.
There are also videos available showing tours of the Rackable ICE Cube 40-foot container and Sun's Project Blackbox (now renamed to the immensely more boring Sun MD) in a 20-foot container.
Those are pretty compact. A little while ago the Tzywen blog featured a number of novelty micro-servers that make the Plat'Home servers look like heavyweights.
Then there's an oldie but goodie: the World's Lowest Power Web Server, running on a single AAA battery and a bank of potatoes.
Many Slashdot readers may remember Pipe Networks from their effort to build a data center in 60 days, which also used a blog and webcam to provide a window into the process.
The development of solar thermal power is of interest to the data center industry, where the push for "green" energy has thus far focused primarily on hydro and wind power, prompting Google and Microsoft to build huge facilities near Northwest dams andf MidWest windmills. Some companies would love to incorporate solar generation to supplement grid power, but photovoltaic doesn't produce enough capacity to make a significant dent in overall data center energy usage. Solar thermal can at least generate "utility-scale" power.
That's probably why Google has invested $10 million in eSolar, a solar thermal startup. The speculation is that Google would like to use solar thermal power in some locations to whittle down the percentage of its data center power bill that comes from coal, which would make it easier for the company to meet its promise of carbon neutrality.
Iceland's not alone. Manitoba, Canada is shaping up as another region that is an getting attention from data center builders due to its climate and energy profile. Large power customers in Winnipeg paid an average of 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour in 2007, cheaper than the average rate in virtually every state in the U.S. except Idaho. That's all clean, green power from Manitoba Hydro, which operates 14 hydroelectric generating stations and also buys the output of a 99-megawatt wind farm.
The new architecture from the Comcast/BitTorrent effort will be of great interest to content delivery networks (CDNs) who have been sorting out the best way that P2P can be used to assist in delivery of large files. Yesterday a CDN called Velocix announced a hybrid P2P streaming media service combining traditional caching with P2P delivery for live events. Velocix used to be CacheLogic, and worked with BitTorrent to develop the Cache Discovery Protocol, which lets ISPs cache the most popular torrent files, and then seed the files from servers within their network, reducing network traffic.
Microsoft's use of Akamai in 2003 gained attention when it made it appear that Microsoft's web site was running on Linux. In actuality it was just the Akamai caching servers using Linux. Like Google, they've since shifted to using more of their own network as well as Limelight and Savvis (now Level 3).
It could be that those Wikipedia folks just like underground data centers. Wikia Search, the search engine from the founders of Wikipedia, houses its servers in an ultra-secure underground hosting facility in Iowa. There are a growing number of these "data bunkers" that are getting business from folks who are paranoid about security, some of whom do indeed want "nuke-proof" hosting. I'm not sure if that's the issue for Wikia... it's more likely that it's the proximity for Wikia's Jeremie Miller (perhaps best known to Slashdot readers as the developer of the Jabber instant messaging program) who is based in Iowa.
If you're interested in game security and RMT hacks, check out the Play No Evil blog by Steven Davis of Secure Play, which focuses almost exclusively on security in online games. As an example, yesterday he had a post about the real reason game companies care about gold farming - which is not ethics or impact on game play but payment fraud and chargebacks.
Not if they plan to re-use the domain to promote that film.
Which is a no-brainer even for a brain-dead corporation. StarTrek.com's mailing list and existing fan base would be valuable assets in building buzz about the new movie.
Unless, of course, it's a piece of crap and all the existing fans hate it. Whatever the fate of StarTrek.com, the decision to fire/reassign the existing staff raises questions about the stewardship of the franchise.
I think this is pretty significant. It presents a big opportunity for organizations that have experties in a particular niche. It may also reward "curators" who can aggregate the best information sources. Here's some key issues:
- Google clearly envisions that the best entry on a topic will be the first search result for the relevant keyword, a role currently held by Wikipedia in many categories. Google's statement: "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read."
- Google then keeps the traffic inside its own sandbox, instead of sending it to Wikipedia, and can monetize these pages with targeted advertising.
- This system will encourage leading experts to compete for that top spot in a virtuous cycle. For genuine experts, a popular entry will dramatically increase visibility in their field.
- For organizations with many leading experts, existing content could be swiftly repurposed into killer "knol" entries. Many content owners will seek to seize this opportunity.
Spammers and SEO experts will also seek to exploit the "knol" ecosystem. Google will have to quickly find ways to police abuse, or the made-for-AdSense entries will quickly make it an information garbage dump.
Slashdot Mirror
You're exactly right about the sale/leaseback trend. Several of the well-heeled data center developers are actively marketing the sale/leaseback option, targeting companies who have expansion space left in their data centers. The existing tenant keeps their space, sheds a lot of overhead, retains some expansion rights, and the new owner fills the rest of the space with colo.
The good news: You get quoted in the London Times, and they include a link to your web site. Sweet!
The bad news: They use the UK spelling ("data centre") in the link, and don't notice the 404s.
Worse news: The Times story get Slashdotted, and all those readers can't find your site.
Live and learn. Now we own datacentreknowledge.com as well. If anyone was actually looking, our link is below.
The article briefly mentions a survey on cloud computing released today by Pew Internet, which warns that "sloud users show high levels of concern when presented with scenarios in which companies might use their data for purposes users may or may not fully understand ahead of time. This suggests user worry over control of the information they store online." That includes using personal information for ad targeting.
Earlier this year Princeton University held a forum on cloud computing, which included an in-depth session of data ownership in the cloud and the issues it raises. It's available on YouTube in its 90-minute entirety.
A San Francisco startup is working on a fleet of data centers on cargo ships, as discussed here on Slashdot earlier this year..
Even better. Here's a pictorial history of Google's servers (be sure to scroll down).
True, but Washington State recently withdrew a tax break for data centers, ruling that they're not eligible for a tax incentive for manufacturers because they don't actually make anything. I think the savings from the power benefit are larger than the tax cut, but some companies want both. Iowa's ready to deal, and it's not alone.
The Olympic organizers need those high fees to pay for the Digital Beijing data center, the 11-story high building designed to resemble a circuit board.
If you're in Hawaii, you better be pimping the dickens out of your data center. Hawaii has the most expensive electricity in the United States, according to state-by-state energy prices, which show Hawaiian power prices at 16 to 17 cents per kW hour.
That's a good point, and one of the reasons that data center site location specialists are focusing on markets where there's a local college or university with a program that trains IT staff, especially if they offer secruity certifications that meet NSA standards.
On the "how a data center gets built" front, last week I had a tour of a new $250 million data center facility in Virginia that is getting ready to open later this month. The facility manager provided a walk-through of the power and cooling infrastructure, explaining the company's approach to designing these systems for energy efficiency and scale. I shot video, which is now posted online. The data center operator, Terremark, separated most of the electrical infrastructure from the IT equipment, putting them on separate floors and housing the generators in a separate facility. They have 11 generators now, but will have 55 Caterpillar 2.25-megawatt units when the entire complex is finished.
Data center employment often comes up in discussions of economic development. Many communities are eager to attract data center projects, but struggle to define the economic benefits of these facilities. Jobs have always been the primary benchmark by which economic development projects are measured. Incentive packages offered by state and local governments are often based on the number of full-time jobs created by a new business. And do data centers really hire locally, or do trained data center engineers migrate from other existing data center hubs? In some cases, local officials try to stipulate local hires, which is a sticky wicket.
For those who couldn't sit through the 80-minute video (or don't have Silverlight), Gates said that in the future Microsoft's mega data centers will have many millions of servers". It currently has "hundreds of thousands" of servers, but expects to pack up to 300,000 into its new Chicago container farm. Gates also predicted that only a select number of companies (presumably including Microsoft and Google) will be able to compete on this scale.
There are also videos available showing tours of the Rackable ICE Cube 40-foot container and Sun's Project Blackbox (now renamed to the immensely more boring Sun MD) in a 20-foot container.
Then there's an oldie but goodie: the World's Lowest Power Web Server, running on a single AAA battery and a bank of potatoes.
Many Slashdot readers may remember Pipe Networks from their effort to build a data center in 60 days, which also used a blog and webcam to provide a window into the process.
The development of solar thermal power is of interest to the data center industry, where the push for "green" energy has thus far focused primarily on hydro and wind power, prompting Google and Microsoft to build huge facilities near Northwest dams andf MidWest windmills. Some companies would love to incorporate solar generation to supplement grid power, but photovoltaic doesn't produce enough capacity to make a significant dent in overall data center energy usage. Solar thermal can at least generate "utility-scale" power.
That's probably why Google has invested $10 million in eSolar, a solar thermal startup. The speculation is that Google would like to use solar thermal power in some locations to whittle down the percentage of its data center power bill that comes from coal, which would make it easier for the company to meet its promise of carbon neutrality.
That's an interesting link from the BBC, but perhaps not that interesting.
Iceland's not alone. Manitoba, Canada is shaping up as another region that is an getting attention from data center builders due to its climate and energy profile. Large power customers in Winnipeg paid an average of 3.6 cents per kilowatt hour in 2007, cheaper than the average rate in virtually every state in the U.S. except Idaho. That's all clean, green power from Manitoba Hydro, which operates 14 hydroelectric generating stations and also buys the output of a 99-megawatt wind farm.
The new architecture from the Comcast/BitTorrent effort will be of great interest to content delivery networks (CDNs) who have been sorting out the best way that P2P can be used to assist in delivery of large files. Yesterday a CDN called Velocix announced a hybrid P2P streaming media service combining traditional caching with P2P delivery for live events. Velocix used to be CacheLogic, and worked with BitTorrent to develop the Cache Discovery Protocol, which lets ISPs cache the most popular torrent files, and then seed the files from servers within their network, reducing network traffic.
At least they managed to block the site without knocking YouTube completely off the Web.
Microsoft's use of Akamai in 2003 gained attention when it made it appear that Microsoft's web site was running on Linux. In actuality it was just the Akamai caching servers using Linux. Like Google, they've since shifted to using more of their own network as well as Limelight and Savvis (now Level 3).
It could be that those Wikipedia folks just like underground data centers. Wikia Search, the search engine from the founders of Wikipedia, houses its servers in an ultra-secure underground hosting facility in Iowa. There are a growing number of these "data bunkers" that are getting business from folks who are paranoid about security, some of whom do indeed want "nuke-proof" hosting. I'm not sure if that's the issue for Wikia ... it's more likely that it's the proximity for Wikia's Jeremie Miller (perhaps best known to Slashdot readers as the developer of the Jabber instant messaging program) who is based in Iowa.
Also, the authors of Exploiting Online Games have a sample chapter available, and Usenix has a video of one of Gary McGraw's presentations on their web site.
Which is a no-brainer even for a brain-dead corporation. StarTrek.com's mailing list and existing fan base would be valuable assets in building buzz about the new movie.
Unless, of course, it's a piece of crap and all the existing fans hate it. Whatever the fate of StarTrek.com, the decision to fire/reassign the existing staff raises questions about the stewardship of the franchise.
- Google clearly envisions that the best entry on a topic will be the first search result for the relevant keyword, a role currently held by Wikipedia in many categories. Google's statement: "A knol on a particular topic is meant to be the first thing someone who searches for this topic for the first time will want to read."
- Google then keeps the traffic inside its own sandbox, instead of sending it to Wikipedia, and can monetize these pages with targeted advertising.
- This system will encourage leading experts to compete for that top spot in a virtuous cycle. For genuine experts, a popular entry will dramatically increase visibility in their field.
- For organizations with many leading experts, existing content could be swiftly repurposed into killer "knol" entries. Many content owners will seek to seize this opportunity.
Spammers and SEO experts will also seek to exploit the "knol" ecosystem. Google will have to quickly find ways to police abuse, or the made-for-AdSense entries will quickly make it an information garbage dump.