Dell Trading Up from Manufacturing Hardware to Manufacturing Cloud Computing

September 5, 2008 Dave Ohara

There is a lot of coverage on Dell selling its manufacturing operations.

GigaOm has one speculating Dell is getting out of the hardware mfg business in preparation for building cloud computing.

Just a day after Dell launched it’s own line of mini Inspirons, and after CEO Michael Dell said carriers would likely subsidize such netbooks, creating smaller price tags, the Wall Street Journal speculates that Dell will sell its manufacturing plants, shrinking its operations. This would be good for Dell because it would give it a chance to ditch an aspect of its business with diminishing returns and go after a growth area, like cloud computing.

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The hardware and operations that comprise a computing cloud will be a low-margin business for those offering it. If Dell can take the lessons of squeezing the costs from a low-margin business like building computers and translate that into helping build, deliver and operate clouds most efficiently, it could win. By tying its range of consumer and corporate devices back into such clouds, it could become a powerful business generator for cloud providers.
When it comes to the utility industry (which is what many cloud providers like to compare their business to), GE sells billions in equipment and services to providers. Dell has made some acquisitions that get it started down that road offering both services and equipment to clouds, but it also has a company culture of exactitude and discipline that can’t be bought. I think if Dell can dump its manufacturing plants, it will head for the clouds.

If there is a Dell built cloud, can Dell build better devices for its cloud?

Virtualization Growth Stronger in Dev, Test, & Quality Server Environments, than Production

September 5, 2008 Dave Ohara

Enterprise Systems has an article with an Avanade Infrastructure Architect

Q&A: Virtualization -- From ROI to Optimization

From determining the ROI to ensuring you're getting the most from the technology, an infrastructure architect offers tips for IT professionals.

by James E. Powell

9/2/2008

Whenever IT undertakes a new project, a project manager must be prepared to answer a key question: what's the value of this project to the organization? IT must overcome any objections, and one effective way to handle this is to present upper management with a thorough ROI analysis. Determining the ROI of a project -- especially one that involves virtualization -- can be tricky.

After a project is approved, the real work begins -- but it's only the beginning. IT must always ask itself how it can get the most out of a technology.

We explore these ideas with Steve Fink, a senior infrastructure architect in the Americas CTO Organization at Avanade, a global IT consultancy. Steve is responsible for managing the opportunity pipeline with Accenture's Technology Consulting, Data Center Technologies, and Operations organization. Steve also plays a role in defining Avanade's "Next Generation Data Center" strategy, particularly concerning physical data center design and virtualization.

It was refreshing to hear Steve Fink make the point virtualization growth has been stronger in the dev, test, & quality (pre-production) environments than production.

We've seen virtualized servers and storage virtualization is getting a lot of buzz lately. Where is virtualization heading?

At Avanade, we believe that server virtualization will continue to proliferate within the operating environments. The take up has been rather strong in DEV, TST, & QUAL server environments for several years already.

As much as people have been focusing on virtualization in the data center, the most underutilized hardware is in the pre-production (dev, test, and quality) server environments. This area has a higher virtualization ROI and is easier to deploy given systems can be down in pre-production to get the virtualization environment right. In general, the PUE’s are significantly worse in these pre-production environments than data centers, so the cooling costs are much higher per watt consumed. Although, companies like Sun and Microsoft are getting smart and centralizing pre-production environments in production quality data centers, taking equipment out of retrofitted office buildings is still rare.

The pre-production area are the early adopter of virtualization and will test VMWare, XenServer, Hyper-V, and other virtualization technologies. Done right virtualization in pre-production should enable a more accurate simulation of the production environment adding infrastructure like networking and Security to the environment.

The pre-production server environment should be part of your green data center strategy. This is where you can test SW/HW and get your own data and filter the greenwash.

Death of DVD Sales in South Korea, Greener Solution – Movie Bits in the Cloud

September 4, 2008 Dave Ohara

GigaOm posts on the Death of DVD sales in South Korea as users download movies.

The Death of DVD Sales in Korea a Trailer for U.S. Coming Attraction?

Hollywood take note: Sony Pictures is the sixth (and final) major movie studio to pull up stakes in South Korea, where blazing fast, ubiquitous broadband has sucker-punched the market for DVD sales and rentals, NewTeeVee reports today.

But here’s the real zinger: In the face of ubiquitous broadband, DVDs won’t be replaced by other physical formats or even VOD services, but by the cloud. At the center of the Korean downloading craze are web-based storage solutions — so-called “webhard” services — originally popularized by LG. Today, there are dozens of vendors, with some offering up to 1 Terabyte of storage space for free. The services are monetized through priority access points that guarantee higher speeds. Rather than fighting the trend, Korean film studios are joining the cloud and starting a webhard-based movie download service by the end of the year.

What is the environmental impact of replacing DVD production, distribution with cloud storage?

The complete Death of DVD story is here.

Protecting Diesel Supply, But What About Water?

September 3, 2008 Dave Ohara

DataCenterKnowledge reports on Digital Realty Trust (NYSE: DLR) securing diesel supply through an exclusive agreement with Foster Fuels.

If a major disaster leaves you without utility power for days, will you be able to get refills of diesel fuel for your generators? Digital Realty Trust isn’t taking any chances. The company has signed an exclusive agreement with Foster Fuels to provide emergency fuel delivery for generators at any of Digital Realty Trust’s Turn-Key data center facilities in the U.S.

Digital Realty, which is the world’s largest landlord of data center facilities, said the new service was “unique in the data center industry” and will ensure that its customers can keep their facilities online even during lengthy utility outages.

The scenario is not without precedent. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York, the Telehouse carrier hotel facility at 25 Broadway experienced diesel fuel shortages and generator problems that left its customers offline for more than two days. In the 2005 aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans colocation provider Zipa had to scramble to find diesel fuel at a time when the city was without power.

StrategyPage has a post about the dangers to electricity, water, sewage, and transportation.

The Lights Are Going Out All Over Europe

August 30, 2008: European nations are alarmed at the recent increase in probes, via the Internet, of public utilities (electricity, water, sewage, transportation). Cyber War experts are divided on whether this is just the next big thing in criminal activity (finding out how to shut down utilities via the Internet, then using the threat of that to extort money), or military Cyber War operations, scouting utilities in anticipation of damaging them in wartime or a time of crises.

A lot of these probes can be traced back to the usual sources (China, Eastern Europe and the Middle East), the places where many of the Internet based criminal gangs hide out. So far this year, there has been an increase in probes, but not attacks. At least as far as anyone knows. However, the most professional Internet attacks are unnoticed (as the intruder gets away with data, or a deep understanding of how the target site operates, and thus a good knowledge of how to take it down.) Utilities, and large corporations in general, are being urged (and sometimes ordered) to check, and double check, the adequacy of their Internet defenses.

When you think of disasters like Katrina or 9/11, was there any water? Did the sewage system work? If you can’t get water or dispose of it, most cooling systems will be shut down. Whenever we lose power, it reminds me the backup generator is great to have, but when there is no water, life really gets tough,. You need to drink from bottled water, and don't flush the toilet.

Keep the issues of water, sewage, and transportation in your disaster recovery plans, and maybe it will help think of the use of these resources everyday. Most people would be amazed at how much water they use per day in a data center. Try to ship that much water in a tanker truck.

Also, if the transportation system is crippled, can you ship the diesel?

Green Rating for Colleges, 11 Get Perfect Score (99)

September 2, 2008 Dave Ohara

Just last week I blogged about Universities being Greener than Corporations. And, this week Princeton review has a press release on its new Green College Rating.

The Princeton Review developed the Green Rating in consultation with ecoAmerica, a non-profit environmental marketing agency. The criteria for the rating (which ecoAmerica helped formulate along with the rating's data collection survey and methodology) cover three broad areas: whether the school’s students have a campus quality of life that is healthy and sustainable, how well the school is preparing its students for employment and citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges, and the school's overall commitment to environmental issues. The institutional survey for the rating included questions on energy use, recycling, food, buildings, transportation, academic offerings (availability of environmental studies degrees and courses) and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions.

11 Colleges scored a perfect 99.

Harvard’s Green Program is interesting for creating a Green Loan Fund.

Harvard College (Cambridge, MA)

Harvard has the largest green campus organization in the world consisting of 24 full-time professional staff and 32 part-time student employees all working to assist the Harvard community in greening all areas of its campus.

Harvard has committed to a 30% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (below 2006 levels) by 2016.

It has established a $12 million revolving green campus loan fund to provide interest free loans to anyone at Harvard that has a green campus project with a payback of 10 years or less.
Since it’s inception in 2001, over $12 million has been lent out to fund 180 projects (lighting, HVAC, heating, cooling and ventilation, behavioral change, insulation, onsite renewable energy etc.).

Atlanta, GA has two colleges

Emory University (Atlanta, GA)

As part of Emory's Strategic Plan and its commitment to positive transformation in the world, sustainability was identified as a top priority of the university. Emory's vision is to develop a model for healthy living on campus that can translate to communities around the globe.

Sustainability initiatives at Emory include: building "green" with all new buildings constructed to LEED standards (with an emphasis on energy and water conservation), integrating sustainability into the curriculum (including the longest-running faculty development programs in sustainability in the country), promoting alternative transportation with a shuttle fleet that is 100% alternatively fueled; recycling Emory's waste stream (65% by 2015), and providing local and sustainably-grown food.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

Located in the heart of Atlanta, the Georgia Institute of Technology is leading the charge in the green policy, practice, and academic arena as evidenced by:
• 21 endowed chairs and 23 research centers that include significant sustainability components
• A goal that every student takes at least one of more than the 100 courses with a sustainability emphasis
• Institutional environmental sustainability programs that embrace green cleaning, solid waste recycling, drought-tolerant vegetation, and storm water capture and reuse
• A Sustainable Food Project encouraging environmentally responsible dining habits and the implementation of a “green” portal providing a central resource to inform, showcase, promote green behaviors, activities, initiatives and events within the Georgia Tech community.

If you are selling Green Data Center solutions you may want to consider partnering with one of these colleges.