Green Data Center Blog

Sun visits Rackable's Ice Cube, leaves Green with Envy

At Uptime Institute Conference, Rackable Systems has their Ice Cube Container parked in the parking lot open for all to visit. While talking to the Rackable staff, it became clear how brilliant they were to have their container easily accessible.  Their traffic has been high, because they are open during the whole conference vs, the few hours the exhibit area is. This means they are open the whole conference to potential customer's visits with their undivided attention with no competing traffic. Rackable staff says this is one of their best shows for interest in containers from qualified customers.

While I was in the Rackable container, Mark Monroe, Sun's Director of Sustainable Computing visited the container to get a little tour. I asked the Rackable guys how the conversation went. They joked, "he left green with envy."

It's funny, and he may have.  I am blogging from the session on modular "containerized" computer room concepts with Sun, Rackable, Intel, and Verari participating in a panel discussion.  There is lively engagement discussing the issues of using containers. The IBM and Dell guys were in the audience as well.

What is interesting to hear is all the different scenarios where people are thinking containers make sense for data center deployments.

One particular interesting piece of data is Verari Systems said the Microsoft Container Data Center deployed in Boulder, CO is operating at a PUE of 1.3, and should be expected to go to 1.2.

Digital Realty Trust gets LEED Gold,transforming a 90 old print plant to a Green Data Center

ComputerWorld reports on Digital Realty Trust achieving LEED Gold certification for Data Center upgrade.

Upgrading older hardware with energy-efficient components is an arguably green business choice: By extending the life of your machines rather than trading them in for brand-new ones, you reduce the world's e-waste pile -- while saving yourself some cash. Digital Realty Trust Inc., which owns, acquires and manages technology-related real estate worldwide, took that philosophy a step further. The company transformed part of a 90-year-old printing plant in Chicago into the world's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold-certified data center.

"This project shatters the myth that LEED certification can only be achieved within newer facilities," says Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty.

And, passes on a best practice on monitoring the data center.

Measurements are key

Features of this project include sophisticated tools for measuring energy consumption. "These are not expensive, but they provide critical data that let you understand what is happening in the data center. Every data center should have this, particularly since it is such a small investment and provides such valuable information," Smith said. "Step 1 for energy-efficient operations is always to have a way to measure."

There are also tools outside the facility to monitor the air temperature. "The equipment makes sure the air is clean and helps us improve performance of the ventilation system and improve indoor air quality," he said.

Ken Brill Champions Energy Czar as Path to Green Data Center at Uptime Institute Conference ,will it work?

In Ken Brill's opening keynote, after going through the background of energy studies in data centers, the path Ken Brill presents is the idea of an Energy Czar, an executive top down position to support a Green Data Center initiative.

This is nice in theory and is a method to sell a green data center program at the executive level. I question whether this is effective though. Part of my skepticism is raised by the fact that McKinsey is the sponsor of the study.

The problem with an Energy Czar is the job becomes a political job negotiating ownership and control of data center capital expenditures and operating expenditures while negotiating new SLAs and technical requirements. The term Czar is appropriate to describe the hierarchy and politics for the job.

I am trying to imagine how this would work.

One simple concept Mike Manos explained in his keynote is to use PUE to communicate the overhead to run data centers. Overhead costs are numbers executives understand. And, once execs understand how Green Data Center programs can affect overhead, projects are approved to improve efficiencies.

Is the PUE method a simpler way to put a Green Data Center initiative in place?

Can you get the executives all nodding their head when they understand how Green Data Center initiatives reduce overhead?

On Weds, there will be a presentation of the McKinsey report, and I'll be able to comment more on the idea of an energy czar to Green Data Centers.

Microsoft's Mike Manos Opening Keynote Uptime Institute, Green Enterprise Computing

The opening of the Uptime Institute Symposium started with Pitt Turner, saying "what are we doing here?" Green Enterprise Computing is a timely topic for the industry event. I've seen Mike present before, and here is what I got out of Mike's latest presentation as new information to digest.

1. Mike's call to action for all was to stop being information hogs, and to share with the industry. He gave numerous example, and here are a few Mike shared.
2. Mike emphasized that in spite of a focus on technology. Microsoft has found having the right people and processes makes bigger impact than technology . Mike states over 50% of data center outages are caused by human error. This contrasts a common method to invest in multiple layers of infrastructure redundancy to achieve uptime.Mike was proud of Microsoft's ability to have a 100% facilities uptime over 7 years by implementing strong and disciplined maintenance programs. Also, redundant infrastructure creates more energy waste.
3. Technology is not the only answer to energy efficiency. People are the opportunity. Microsoft achieved a PUE improvement from 2.2 to 1.8 with no new technology just by people making changes to existing systems in one of their older facilities.
4. Mike didn't say this, but bottom line he emphasizes an Amazon.com approach in getting data on everything, and they'll figure out what to do with it after by giving people the information to do the right thing.

It is amazing thing  to see how Microsoft has risen from nowhere a year ago to be the leader in the Green Enterprise Computing with Mike Manos, delivering the opening keynote.

I'll keep blogging more, but I should socialize for now.

For good notes on what Mike presented previously at AFCOM Data Center World go to John Rath's Blog post.

Is it Possible Future Government Regulation - Environmental Impact Records

Sitting in the bar last night at the Swan Hotel, the location of the Uptime Institute's Symposium 2008, I met Buck on vacation with his family from St. Louis. It turns out Buck works for Emerson Electric in procurement for electrical components, and it was a fun chat about the industry and the perspective he has sourcing around the world.  He gets an interesting economic view of things when he interacts with markets for copper, plastics, and all the components to build things data centers need to run.

One of the interesting things he mentioned is new regulations have started and are gaining more momentum, requiring companies keep records of complete chemical composition for all components used in their manufacturing process.

With possible eWaste issues for data centers on the horizon, is it possible that data centers would need environmental impacts records from their suppliers? And, then required to pass that information on as part of end life?

You may laugh, but 20 years ago when working on power supplies with Aztec, now owned by Emerson Electric, we would have never thought you would need complete records of chemical composition for a power supply.

Given large data centers are huge resource consumers run by some of the richest organizations in the world, it is easy for government regulators to create new regulations thinking data center operators can afford the costs to support an environmental impact record.

Sun buys Processor Startup to improve performance and power consumption

Sun purchased processor start-up Montalvo systems for asynchronous processor core technology, potentially improving performance and power consumption. The ideas makes sense to mix different processor core technologies to meet the different needs.

Montalvo is believed to be working on a low-power processor that aims to compete with chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. The unique feature of Montalvo's design is the use of asynchronous processor cores. Instead of multiple, identical cores found in Intel's chips, Montalvo reportedly plans to use different types of cores, some more powerful than others, on the same chip to improve performance and keep power consumption low.

Energy Camp, April 28 - Microsoft's Chief Environmental Strategist Rob Bernard Keynotes

Energy Camp, an Unconference event looks like a cool event on April 28 in Las Vegas.  Keynoting will be Microsoft's Chief Environmental Strategist, Rob Bernard.

About Energy Camp

Energy Camp @Interop is a collaborative “unconference” –- a gathering where attendees program discussion topics of their choice into the event’s agenda –- that’s dedicated to the reduction of IT’s global carbon footprint. This one-day, all day, forum will bring a cross section of industry stakeholders together to discuss the growing impact of today’s energy costs on IT’s bottom line, and the overarching importance of energy conservation and utilizing greener IT solutions and methods.

Rob Bernard.
Rob is the Chief Environmental Strategist for Microsoft, responsible for defining and implementing the global strategy for the company's environmental efforts.

Thanks to Tom Raftery for sending this to my attention.

What Changes are in Store for Google's Data Center Infrastructure with New CIO, Ben Fried?

News.com reports on Google's new CIO hire Ben Friend from Morgan Stanley.

Google found its new chief information officer, Ben Fried, on Wall Street--and at least on paper, it looks like a good fit.

Even though Google is a Silicon Valley company thousands of miles away from the buttoned-down brokers of lower Manhattan, the two domains have more in common technologically and culturally than one might think.

Wall Street companies and Google have different objectives, but both have a similar modus operandi. They use lots of cutting-edge computer equipment, often with plenty of in-house customization, to get ahead of the competition.

Most companies buy off-the-shelf software, but Wall Street firms like to write their own. Indeed, one of the areas under Fried's purview at Morgan Stanley was managing source code. Google takes this custom engineering philosophy a step further, building its own hardware, too. That's an important cultural commonality.

"They have a very similar attitude: 'Dammit, we can do it better than anyone else,'" said Illuminata analyst Jonathan Eunice.

This point of being better than anyone else is where it will be interesting what the effects are of Ben Fried's arrival.  How hard is it going to be for Ben to institute changes as an outsider? How good are the Google guys vs. the staff at Morgan Stanley? Does Ben have a doctorate degree?

WSJ wrote about the previous CIO Douglas Merrill.

How do you run the information-technology department at a company whose employees are considered among the world's most tech-savvy?

Douglas Merrill, Google Inc.'s chief information officer, is charged with answering that question. His job is to give Google workers the technology they need, and to keep them safe -- without imposing too many restrictions on how they do their job. So the 37-year-old has taken an unorthodox approach.

Unlike many IT departments that try to control the technology their workers use, Mr. Merrill's group lets Google employees download software on their own, choose between several types of computers and operating systems, and use internal software built by the company's engineers. Lately, he has also spent time evangelizing to outside clients about Google's own enterprise-software products -- such as Google Apps, an enterprise version of Google's Web-based services including email, word processing and a calendar.

Mr. Merrill, who has surfer-length hair and follows a T-shirt dress code, studied social and political organization at the University of Tulsa in Tulsa, Okla., and then went on to earn master's and doctorate degrees in psychology from Princeton University. His education in IT came largely from jobs as an information scientist at RAND Corp., senior manager at Price Waterhouse and senior vice president at Charles Schwab & Co. He joined Google in late 2003.

We sat down with Mr. Merrill to talk about Google's approach to IT. Excerpts:

The Wall Street Journal: What's the structure of the IT organization at Google?

Mr. Merrill: We're a decentralized technology organization, in that almost everyone at Google is some type of technologist. At most organizations, technology is done by one organization, and is very locked-down and very standardized. You don't have the freedom to do anything. Google's model is choice. We let employees choose from a bunch of different machines and different operating systems, and [my support group] supports all of them. It's a little bit less cost-efficient -- but on the other hand, I get slightly more productivity from my [Google's] employees.

WSJ: How do you support all of those different options effectively?

Mr. Merrill: We offer a lot more self-service. For example, let's say you want a new application to do something. You could take your laptop to a tech stop [areas in Google offices where workers can get technical support], but you can also go to an internal Web site where you download it and install the software. We allow all users to download software for themselves.

What is Live Mesh? Ray Ozzie's Live Mesh Services Strategy Document

There has been lots of news on Microsoft's Live Mesh. A good read to understand the strategy for Live Mesh is Ray's Ozzie's Services Strategy Update.  Here are a few excerpts

At the back-end, developers will need to contend with new programming models in the cloud. Whether running on an enterprise grid, or within the true utility computing environment of cloud-based infrastructure, the way a developer will write code, deploy it, debug it, and maintain it will be transformed. The cloud-based environment consists of vast arrays of commodity computers, with storage and the programs themselves being spread across those arrays for scale and redundancy, and loose coupling between the tiers. Independent developers and enterprises alike will move from “scale up” to “scale out” back-end design patterns, embracing this model for its cost, resiliency, flexible capacity, and geo-distribution.

CONNECTED BUSINESS – We will extend the benefits of high-scale cloud-based infrastructure and services to enterprises, in a way that gives them choice and flexibility in intermixing on-premises deployment, partner hosting, or cloud-based service delivery. Businesses large and small will benefit from services that make it easy to dynamically connect and collaborate with partners and customers, using the web to enable a business mesh. Business customers of all sizes will benefit from web-based business services. This vision is being realized today through the likes of Office Live Small Business. For enterprises, our new Microsoft Online Services provide managed, service-based infrastructure through offerings including SharePoint, Exchange, OCS, and Dynamics CRM. Our enterprise solution platform extends to the cloud through SQL Server Data Services, BizTalk Services, and many more services to come. At the lowest level within the enterprise data center, we‟ve begun to deliver on our utility computing vision, with Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V, and through our Systems Center products including Virtual Machine Manager.

Microsoft's container strategy makes sense to enable Microsoft to deploy and scale infrastructure at a rate higher than the rest of the industry. Ray has pushed Microsoft's Mike Manos to build innovative data centers beyond the rest of the industry. Talk about executive support for data centers. Mike is trying to apply Moore's law to data centers as he needs to in order to support Ray Ozzie's strategy.

Microsoft VP Debra Chrapaty presents The Reality of the Cloud

Appended May 6 - The video of the below is available here.

At Microsoft Management Systems Summit, Microsoft  Corp VP, Debra Chrapaty gives a Keynote presentation. Debra has been a supporter of the ideas behind a Green Data Center, and has built an amazing team at Micrsosoft.

Thursday, May 1: Debra Chrapaty, Corporate Vice President of Global Foundation Services
"The Reality of the Cloud"
A key piece of Software+Services is the ability to have applications and information available “in the cloud” to access when and where customers need them. In reality, we know the cloud is made of data centers filled with racks of servers linked by fast connections. Debra Chrapaty, corporate vice-president of Global Foundation Services, will share her thoughts on building, connecting, securing and managing clouds that support hundreds of millions of customers around the world, around the clock. 
Global Foundation Services is responsible for the strategy and delivery of the foundational platform for Microsoft Live and Online Services including globalization, operational infrastructure, management, business systems, security, networking and datacenters. GFS supports MSN and Windows Live branded services, Microsoft communication and collaboration services, and over 200 other Microsoft online services and web portals. GFS focuses on smart growth, high-efficiency, creative solutions, and client and consumer trust to carry out their organization mission of enabling and delivering winning services to everyone, everywhere.

For more info on Debra go here.

Corporate Vice President of Global Foundation Services, Debra Chrapaty, is in charge of a worldwide team that runs the foundation servers for Microsoft’s data centers, networks, infrastructure and server architecture as part of our software + services strategy. Charles and Jennifer, in their on-going WM_IN Technology journey, talk to this energetic, dynamic, smart woman who fulfilled her childhood dream of being on the cover of Information Week (read geek). She used to be the CTO for the National Basketball Association (NBA) . . . and that’s just the beginning of where this successful woman gets interesting.

There should be plenty of press at the event, we'll see if anything gets reported as news worthy.  Maybe she'll into details on building out Live Mesh.