Giving Cloud Storage a Try

If you have been thinking about giving Cloud Storage a try here is a blog post on Amazon.com’s Simple Storage Service.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is an easy and inexpensive Internet hard-drive from Amazon Web Services (AWS) with absolutely no limits.

Now some people assume that Amazon S3 is a storage service meant primarily for web start-ups who store data in-the-cloud but that’s not correct because just about anyone (home users included) can benefit from S3.

For instance, you may backup your large music collection or even your entire computer hard-drive on S3. Similarly, bloggers can use Amazon S3 to store web images without worrying too much about their bandwidth bills.

If you never had a chance to explore Amazon S3 before, read the following guide that makes S3 simple even for non-geeks. It has all the information and tools you would need to quickly get started with Amazon S3.

The Basic Requirements:

To use Amazon S3 service, you’ll need an Amazon account (yes, it’s free; you pay only if you buy something from them) and an Amazon AWS S3 account.

Now go to AWS Access Key Identifiers and generate a unique Access Key ID + Secret Access Key pair that is required for using Amazon S3.

The post continues with a variety of tools you can use.

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Intel IT: Relevance of Architecture – Closed Loop Feedback System

I found this following blog post on Intel’s Expert Center for IT best practices. It’s kind of a long post, but makes good points on the importance of architecture for Manageability and Automation which are key methods for a Green Data Center

Intel Open Port: Intel vPro Expert Center Blog: Relevance of Architecture: Part 3 - How Architecture Can Help

The primary role of architecture is to provide an orchestrated plan to meet short term and long term Manageability & Automation (M&A) objectives. Architecture is all about technical planning and can enable reduced operational costs and agility if done correctly. I strongly believe that architecture can help accelerate the rate of change and provide real value for "M" and for "A".

The below graphic is one which does a good job of articulating the need for a manageability bus.

Unfortunately, he misses the simplicity of explaining what you need is a closed loop feedback system as he has this diagram which is drawn backwards.

This is the diagram he should have used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_theory

I am amazed at how often the IT community misses the opportunity to use control theory to explain management systems.  Most IT systems actually run open loop.

On a related topic I had a chance to meet with a fellow consultant, Michael Emanuel who has worked on IT management tools, and knows of a company developing some innovative solutions to the challenge of building a closed loop management tool for a Green Data Center.  After I  have had a chance to review the product features, it will be in a future blog post.

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Boeing and Airbus - Environment Sites

Boeing and Airbus have their environment sites.  This is interesting to look at for companies who have now had to make Green, carbon emissions, energy efficiency part of their everyday communications.

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Pulling the Plug: Summer of '08 Sparks Creative Conservation - WSJ.com

WSJ has an article on how people are being creative turning off their air conditioning. It is 2nd most popular article today behind the US bolsters fannie and freddie.

As the article cites, get ready for the electricity price increases.

Pulling the Plug: Summer of '08 Sparks Creative Conservation - WSJ.com

Because many power plants run on natural gas, which has shot way up in price, utilities in every region of the nation have imposed -- or are planning -- big rate increases this year, some approaching 30%.

In response, nearly two-thirds of families are cutting back on air conditioning, according to a recent Associated Press-Yahoo News poll. They're buying ceiling fans and programmable thermostats; burning up hot afternoons in malls and movie theaters; and bombarding blogger Erin Huffstetler, who writes about frugal living, with questions about the merits of tinting their windows dark to block the sun.

I know the Microsoft guys say they save energy cleaning the roof.  Here is one guy who thinks he saves energy by sprinkling the roof.

On hot afternoons, Mr. Newman runs a hose to the roof and douses the shingles for 20 minutes, which he swears lowers the temperature inside. "I don't know if it's all that good for the life span of the roof," Mr. Newman says, "but when it's 110 degrees, I really could care less."

And WSJ even included a story of a bad move in air conditioning.

And Reba Kennedy, who turned off her central air altogether?

Ms. Kennedy now cools just the three rooms she uses most in her San Antonio home, with window units set at 78 degrees. To her surprise, she has found it pleasurable. With her downstairs windows open, she can smell the honeysuckle in her yard. She loves the look of her sheer curtains blowing in the breeze.

Last week, though, when she reviewed her electric bills, Ms. Kennedy found that her sacrifices haven't translated into savings. In June of 2006 -- with the central air on full blast -- she used an average of 26 kilowatt hours a day. Last month? An average of 44.

Harvey Sachs, a senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, says that isn't surprising, because window units are notoriously inefficient.

But Ms. Kennedy was upset. Since quitting her job as a business lawyer two years ago to take up writing, she has tried to live simply and frugally; conserving energy is central to that goal.

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Are you crazy enough to succeed? - Behavior- msnbc.com, Possible explanation for Extreme Green Behaviors

Saw this MSNBC article and it provides a possible explanation for some people who are obsessed with Green practices that have no science backing their actions.

Are you crazy enough to succeed? - Behavior- msnbc.com

I'm at the Obsessive Compulsive Disorders Institute (OCDI), a residential treatment center in McLean Hospital — Harvard's psychiatric center — to see if my own OCD problem wasn't just my secret but maybe also the secret to my success. All my adult life, intrusive thoughts have alternately halted my progress and saved my ass, and I'd finally like to separate the bad from the good.

The medical director at the center, Michael Jenike, M.D., is both a maverick and a pioneer in the OCD community. He founded this facility, the first of its kind, to help sufferers of what he considers the most agonizing of psychiatric disorders.

"I had a 17-year-old who had kidney cancer that was going to kill him in 5 or 6 months. He also had a bad case of OCD. He said he'd rather get rid of his OCD and live only 6 months, than get rid of the cancer and live with the OCD. That's when it first hit me: This is some serious stuff."
The people seeking treatment at OCDI do not have the minstrel-show version of the disorder acted out by Tony Shalhoub in Monk or Jack Nicholson in As Good as It Gets. The institute's residents are seriously impaired. They have the kind of shattering anxiety that would make the rest of the OCD world — roughly 1 percent of all adults, 2.3 million of them in the United States alone — want to scrub their hands. The real numbers could be even higher, because OCD may be underdiagnosed and undertreated. Half of all OCD cases are serious — and that's the highest percentage among all anxiety disorders. On average, people flail about for 17 years and see three or four doctors before they find the right care.
That horror aside, OCD has become cool. Perhaps it fascinates us because it forces otherwise normal people to carry out insane acts — acts that they know are insane. It has great dramatic tension. We secretly enjoy the dissonance of a perfectly rational man becoming convinced that he is fatally contaminated and washing his hands with bleach and a scrub brush, only to repeat the whole routine 10 minutes later. Paging Lady Macbeth.

For any you have started a green program in your company, I am sure you are familiar with people who could possibly be put in the category of having a Green Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

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