Bechtolsheim talks data centers, Cloud/AWS, and Open Compute

Andy Bechtolstheim presented at GigaOm and discussed a bunch of cool topics for the data center crowd.  I am going to cheat and refer to Barb Darrow's notes as I was sitting next to her during the presentation and why type when I can copy the good stuff. :-)  I saw Andy a few weeks ago in NYC at the Open Compute and was curious what he would say at GigaOm Roadmap.

Bechtolsheim: AWS, open source rewrite rules for startups

By  Nov. 10, 2011, 4:01pm PT No Comments

Arista's Andy Bechtolsheim at GigaOM RoadMap 2011Today’s tech entrepreneurs would be out of their minds to build out their own data centers rather than renting capacity from Amazon or another low-cost provider.

That wasn’t a direct quote, but it’s pretty much the takeaway from Andy Bechtolsheim, the co-founder of Arista Networks(and also of Sun

 

 

 

 

 

Andy made the point people would be nuts to build their own data centers.

A company might build out its own infrastructure only if it’s raised a lot of venture capital, he said. But it needs to be a lot. And even then, maybe AWS is a better way. “Netflix  … uses Amazon for infrastructure. Here’s the leading, largest company in a field deciding it’s cheaper and more efficient to use a competitor for infrastructure rather than building its own.”

Andy mentioned the Open Compute Project.

Bechtolsheim is also on the board of the new Open Compute Foundation, formed by Facebook to propagate specs for standard, energy-efficient data center infrastructure. OCF hopes to bring open-source innovation that so improved software tools into the hardware realm.

For those brave souls wanting to build data centers, the OCF blueprint could help. But, Bechtolsheim said, that’s for truly big companies that need to do huge webscale computing, not for startups.

Bottom Line.

For nearly every entrepreneur weighing a tech startup, it’s better to rent than to buy or build.

The full presentation is here.

Watch live streaming video from gigaomroadmap at livestream.com

Open Compute Project Subscribe Link Lists of Technical Workshops - Virtual IO, DC Design, Openrack, Storage, and HW Mgmt

For those of you Open Compute Project fans that Facebook has hosted in Palo Alto and NYC. The following are the subscriber lists you can get updates on the latest discussions.

NewImage

Hacking Conventional Computing Infrastructure

We started a project at Facebook a little over a year ago with a pretty big goal: to build one of the most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost. We decided to honor our hacker roots and challenge convention by custom designing and building our software, servers and data centers from the ground up – and then share these technologies as they evolve.

 

  • VIRTUAL IO http://lists.opencompute.com/mailman/listinfo/opencompute-virtualio
  • DATACENTER DESIGN http://lists.opencompute.com/mailman/listinfo/opencompute-datacenterdesign
  • OPENRACK http://lists.opencompute.com/mailman/listinfo/opencompute-openrack
  • STORAGE http://lists.opencompute.org/mailman/listinfo/opencompute-storage
  • HARDWARE MNGT http://lists.opencompute.org/mailman/listinfo/opencompute-hardwaremngt
    • Opencompute-datacenterdesign --

     
    About Opencompute-datacenterdesign
    English (USA)

     

    To see the collection of prior postings to the list, visit the Opencompute-datacenterdesign Archives.
    Using Opencompute-datacenterdesign
    To post a message to all the list members, send email to datacenterdesign@opencompute.org.

    You can subscribe to the list, or change your existing subscription, in the sections below.
    Subscribing to Opencompute-datacenterdesign

    Subscribe to Opencompute-datacenterdesign by filling out the following form. You will be sent email requesting confirmation, to prevent others from gratuitously subscribing you. This is a private list, which means that the list of members is not available to non-members.

      Your email address:
      Your name (optional):
      You may enter a privacy password below. This provides only mild security, but should prevent others from messing with your subscription. Do not use a valuable password as it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext. 

      If you choose not to enter a password, one will be automatically generated for you, and it will be sent to you once you've confirmed your subscription. You can always request a mail-back of your password when you edit your personal options. Once a month, your password will be emailed to you as a reminder.
      Pick a password:
      Reenter password to confirm:
      Which language do you prefer to display your messages? English (USA)
      Would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest? No  Yes
    Opencompute-datacenterdesign Subscribers
    (The subscribers list is only available to the list members.)

    Enter your address and password to visit the subscribers list:

     

    Address: Password: 

     

    To unsubscribe from Opencompute-datacenterdesign, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options enter your subscription email address:

     

    If you leave the field blank, you will be prompted for your email address

     

     

     

    Watch your Future Taxes, Facebook keeps an eye on Oregon

    What few know is one of the biggest factors that influences data center locations for the the Web2.0 companies is their tax bills.  Washington Post publishes an AP article about Facebook and the State of Oregon.

    After luring Facebook data center, Oregon pokes social media giant with confusion over taxes

    By Associated Press, Published: October 31

    SALEM, Ore. — The promise of lucrative tax breaks helped persuade Facebook to build a data center in one of Oregon’s most economically depressed counties. Now, the state and the company are in a dispute over how much Facebook may owe in property taxes, and the social networking giant fears it could be taxed on intangible assets like the value of its powerful brand.

    It is interesting how Facebook's industry classification potentially influences its future tax bill.

    Oregon lumps Facebook with 75 other corporations classified as cable and Internet companies. Many of them are television and Internet access providers, but the list includes technology companies including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Inc. and AOL Inc.

    State officials say their decision doesn’t change Facebook’s tax bill — about $26,000 this year — and the money still goes to local governments in Crook County. But Facebook is concerned that the state will someday try to tax the company based on the value of its intangible assets, perhaps including computer files, patents, its labor force and goodwill.