Economist has an article about the number of Chinese graduates applying for gov't jobs.

Aspiring mandarins

Testing time for college graduates

China's civil service

Dec 16th 2010 | BEIJING | from PRINT EDITION

“A HEALTHY society cannot come about when people study not for the purpose of gaining wisdom and knowledge but for the purpose of becoming government officials.” When Ye Shi, a Chinese philosopher, bemoaned this 800 years ago, China had already been choosing officials for hundreds of years on the basis of exams that required rote learning of ancient classics. The exams are different now but Ye would still have much to complain about.

Growing numbers of Chinese graduates aspire to join China’s massive bureaucracy. On December 5th over 1m would-be mandarins spent a Sunday sitting the annual civil-service exam. Many of them had not planned to get a government job when they entered university. But college enrolment in China has boomed in recent years (see chart). New graduates face a brutally tight jobs market.

The competition is fierce.

This year there were 16,000 jobs on offer, one for every 64 test-takers.

And the most sought-after post?  Energy Conservation and Technology Equipment Officer, aka Green IT.

There were nearly 5,000 applications for the most sought-after post, that of “energy conservation and technology equipment officer”.

You may wonder what the selection tests are like.

Jessica Zhang of Beijing Foreign Studies University, who applied for a job this year in the foreign ministry, says she found the multiple-choice general knowledge questions easier than she expected. But she was caught unawares by the written section, which required several essays about management of the Yellow River.

Some worry that the craze for government jobs may be bad for business. But Mr Shu says surprises like the one for Ms Zhang are good tests of bureaucratic talent. He says that civil-service exams, unlike in imperial days, “emphasise thinking and innovation and not just repeating the same old thing”. Some consolation for Ye Shi.

I would feel more comfortable with China's test methodology than the USA's method to select a civil servant for Green IT.

What about you?

The big OEM server vendors have got into the data center business.  Quanta Computing has joined the OEMs with a partnership for a Shanghai data center with Digital China.

Digital China cooperates with Quanta Computer to set up data center in China

Yen-Shyang Hwang, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Thursday 16 December 2010]

China-based IT service provider Digital China at TecMall Forum in Taiwan, revealed that the company is in cooperation with Quanta Computer to establish a data center in Shanghai. Quanta will provide hardware infrastructure and Digital China is responsible for developing the application platform, according to Digital China CEO Guo Wei.

Guo pointed out that the two firms' cooperation has just started and still needs to get approval from the Shanghai government to proceed; therefore, he expects details of the cooperation to be clearer in 2011, when an official announcement will be made.

As for Digital China's sales performance, Guo pointed out that the company has seen over 30% on-year growth each year in the past and believes the company will continue to see strong growth in the future.

As system consolidate, there will be more efficiency which is part a greener data center.

Equinix is expanding in 2011 in Hong Kong with 1,450 rack capacity in HK2.  Assuming 5kW/rack that's about 7.5 MW of IT load.  China Tech News covers the Equinix Hong Kong expansion.

Equinix Plans Data Center In Hong Kong

November 22, 2010 |

U.S.-based Equinix Inc. announced plans to spend USD63 million to build its second international business exchange data center, HK2, in Hong Kong.

The new IBX data center will provide total capacity for more than 1,450 cabinet equivalents. Targeted for opening in the third quarter of 2011, the USD20 million first phase of the HK2 IBX center will offer an initial 450 cabinet equivalents.

Also mentioned is Shanghai.

launched a new market in Shanghai with its partnership with Shanghai Data Solutions.

Shangai Data Solutions is the Equinix partner.

Shanghai

• SH1 Shanghai: Equinix Partner Data Center

Shanghai, the largest city in China, is the home to a vast base of multinational corporations because of its sophisticated infrastructure and a pool of English speaking labor force. It is also one of the largest commerce and financial centers in China.

Equinix customers looking for premium colocation services in the region, especially those in the enterprise and financial segments can leverage Equinix through its Shanghai Data Solution (SDS) strategic data center partnership.

The partnership for Equinix makes a lot of sense to get access to the China Network.

Network

IDX has realized the network connection with six domestic Tier1 operators (including CTC, CNC, CUC and CM etc.). Besides, Data Solution can also provide users with multi-line access service including ATM、SDH、DDN and E3 supplied by major foreign operators like AT&T and SingTel to well meet different requirements of users.

  SDS IDX, besides its traditional access service, also provides BGP access to solve    single outlet fault and realize the mutual connection of operators.

  SDS's BGP access is capable of high-end access service of connecting with multiple    internet operators simultaneously and enjoys such superiorities as line stability, high    security and network availability and self load balancing etc.

  SDS has completed its BGP connection with CTC, CNC and CUC.

Here is something you don't see often the Power System design.

Power

The power supply of the data center includes utility power supply and emergency power supply
Utility power: double-circuit heteroclinic power supply

Emergency diesel power generator set

  Single unit power capacity exceeding 2,000KVA with the general system meeting    Tier4 standard

  N+1 backups of diesel generator set

  Equipped with oil tanks of sufficient capacity including underground oil tank outdoors    daily oil tank at power generator room and all oil pump facilities including oil pump and    oil pipe etc

UPS

(3+1) backup in the 1st phase to be expanded to 2（3＋1）in the latter phase

UPS main frame and batteries are physically separated

MGE Galaxy 6000 series supply clean and stable power

Duel-conversion operating pattern supplies clean output waveform

12 pulse + active power filter with THDI controlled within 3%

 

Power supply and distribution system

  Full redundancy power supply system can completely meet Tier4 standard

  Complete set of Suhneider framework low-voltage switch system

  GE 4000A PC-level with bypass ATS

The above power supply system is located on the two sides of the power area on the 1st floor with solid wall standing in the middle for separation. In this way, even if one side of the floor explodes or is destroyed, the power supply system on the other side is still capable of providing the hosting room with power not lower than Tier3 standard. In one word, SDS’s IDX hosting room has, in a real sense, realized redundancy backup for every part of power supply system.

Measures for Emergency Power Cutoff

  The other transformer station starts to work if one transformer station goes wrong

After the two-circuit utility power is cut off and before the emergency power generator starts to work, UPS is capable of full-load operation for 30minutes(normally, UPS does not conduct full-load operation; so, in case of emergency, UPS is capable of supporting about 1hour power supply)

  The alternate diesel power generator set is automatically started for power supply (with    parallel operating system and load management system)

It takes less than 15seconds from the generator set receives the order to support the rated load; and the total capacity of oil tanks is capable of supporting the full-load operation of power generator for not less than 48hours

  When the oil tank reserve of diesel generator goes lower than the alarm line, it will be    shuttled to the nearest oil station for more oil; when at the pre-set alarm line, shuttle    will be used to add more oil

   Notes: we enjoy the high authority of oil station; roundtrip is about 15minutes.

Forbes interviews IBM to discuss data centers in China.

IBM: China the Biggest Data Center Buyer

Dec. 6 2010 - 9:23 pm | 1,559 views | 0 recommendations | 0 comments

Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife

China is on track to be IBM’s biggest customer for big data centers, according to a senior official with the company. Matter of fact, the so-called “developing world” may soon outstrip the more advanced one.

“Forty percent of out business is now from ‘Growth Countries,’” said Steve Sams, IBM vice president for Global Site and Facilities Services. “This year China will probably be a bigger customer for (new data centers) than the U.S.”

Now in the US, I don't know of any of the top data centers designed by IBM.  As far as I know the data center designs by IBM are outsourced.  In fact, I know of two specific projects that started with IBM went on for years and were eventually engineered by RTKL and HP's critical facilities group and IBM was removed from the project.

“We recently retrofitted one data center in China with 1.2 million square feet,” he said. “A telecom company with 20 million people there is small.”

Part of the problem selling in China is the resources and manpower required.  Which IBM has.  Most data center engineering groups are less than hundred engineers.

Even when you count IBM's showcase Blue Water Supercomputer scheduled to be the top Supercomputer in a 15 MW facility.

About the Blue Waters project

Blue Waters is expected to be one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. It will have a peak performance of 10 petaflops (10 quadrillion calculations every second) and will achieve sustained performance of 1 petaflop running a range of science and engineering codes.

Scientists will create breakthroughs in nearly all fields of science using Blue Waters. They will predict the behavior of complex biological systems, understand how the cosmos evolved after the Big Bang, design new materials at the atomic level, predict the behavior of hurricanes and tornadoes, and simulate complex engineered systems like the power distribution system and airplanes and automobiles.

Blue Waters is a joint effort of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, its National Center for Supercomputing Applications, IBM, and the Great Lakes Consortium for Petascale Computation. It is supported by the National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois.

Blue Waters will be based on POWER7 hardware from IBM—makers of more than one-third of the world's 500 fastest computers and almost all of the 40 most "green" supercomputers. It will be the first of apowerful new system design from IBM. The design includes extensive research and development in new chip technology, interconnect technology, operating systems, compiler, and programming environments.

Guess who engineered the high performance power and water cooling systems.  IBM?  No.

HP's EYP Critical Facilities

The data center engineering group has little leverage to say hey we designed that building.

.

I wonder home many data centers the Chinese will need to build before they figure out how to engineer their own?

HP participates in the Suzhou Industrial Park Data Center located near Shangai.

Chinese Cloud Computing On HP's Menu In Suzhou

October 28, 2010 |

Hewlett-Packard has announced that it has established a new information service center and the Chinese hub of its Best Shore global outsourcing service center in Suzhou, to provide customized information technology consulting and outsourcing services to its clients in eastern China.

Named Suzhou Hewlett-Packard Information Service Company Ltd., the new company is currently cooperating with Suzhou International Science Data Center in the construction of a cloud computing platform for the Suzhou Industrial Park, and to help the operation and management of the park to ensure the availability and flexibility of its information technology system, so as to upgrade the service and management level of the park and to improve its investment environment.

Here are pictures from the opening ceremony.

Suzhou International Science-Park Data Center in 4T Standard Opens

The guests of honor activate the ceremony

Suzhou International Science-Park Data Center, the largest third-party data center in East China built by the highest international standard (T4), officially opened for business on October 28. With 840 million yuan investment from Suzhou Industrial Pak (SIP), the Center specializes in providing professional data services of international first-class network communication, information security, data disaster recovery, high performance computing and integrated management system for hi-tech R&D enterprises at home and abroad, enterprises in modern service sector and new-emerging Internet service suppliers, and etc. 

Ma Minglong (R), Executive Member of CPC Suzhou Municipal Committee and Secretary of SIP Party Working Committee, confers the plaque to strategic partners of the Center

And more details on the facilites.

Located in SIP Innovation Industry Park with 42,000-square-meter construction area, the Center is constructed and operated by Suzhou International Science Data Co., Ltd (SISDC). According to the plan, the Center will focus on value-added services of data management, high-performance computing and system integration based on the service strategy of "combination of independent operation and cooperation" and strive to build up the largest center of data disaster recovery, cloud computing and IT outsourcing services in Jiangsu Province and even in East China. Meanwhile, the establishment of the Center fills up the blank of value-added business of Jiangsu Data center. 

The monitoring room of the Center

The Center is located in A2 Building, Innovation Industry Park, 328 Xinghu St.