Cisco, EMC, MIT build Green Data Center

June 17, 2009 Dave Ohara

Reuters and Greenbiz have an article on a Green Data Center effort.

Cisco, EMC Team with MIT to Launch $100M Green Data Center

Thu Jun 11, 2009 8:05am EDT

By GreenerComputing Staff - GreenerComputing Staff
The city of Holyoke, with a ready source of cheap, relatively clean hydroelectic power, will host a new, energy efficient data center that will bring innovation and jobs to the city.
The data center will be managed and funded by the four main partners in the facility: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cisco Systems, the University of Massachusetts and EMC.

This data center is adopting a research approach to innovate.

While the project is just at the launch of a 120-day planning phase, there are big hopes for the facility. "The potential for breakthrough technologies and research is enormous, and both the center and collaboration will undoubtedly serve to lift up the City of Holyoke and regional economies throughout Western Massachusetts," governor Deval Patrick said.

Data Center Water Infrastructure Investment in Quincy, WA

June 16, 2009 Dave Ohara

DataCenterKnowledge has a post on new recycled water for Microsoft’s Data Center in Quincy, WA.

Quincy Plans Recycled Water for Microsoft
June 15th, 2009 : Rich Miller
The city of Quincy, Washington is spending millions of dollars to build a system to supply recycled water for huge data centers operated by Microsoft Corp., Yahoo, Intuit and Sabey Corp. The system will allow Quincy to shift the data centers’ water requirements to a separate “gray water” system rather than depleting the city’s potable water supply.

The water recycling program is similar to one implemented in San Antonio, which Microsoft cited as a key factor in its choice of the city for a $500 million data center. It reflects a trend in which municipalities and data center operators are working to minimize the impact of these facilities on local water systems.

The Quincy project, which will treat up to 5 million gallons of water a day, will cost $9 million. The first phase is being built with a $4.5 million grant from the state, according to the Wenatchee World, which said the city has appealed to federal lawmakers for the rest of the money.

The original post is in Wenatchee World.

Will Lacey, a Yahoo site operations technician from Dallas works on an underground wire system in the Yahoo data center in Quincy. (World file photo/Kathryn Stevens)

Data centers keep economy humming

By K.C. Mehaffey
World staff writer
Posted June 13, 2009

QUINCY — Two years after Microsoft began operating a data center in Quincy, the city is in the midst of a multi-million-dollar project to bring recycled water to the facility.

Eventually, the city wants to provide recycled water to the three data centers there, and any others that sprout up.

Microsoft’s 474,000-square-foot building on 75 acres is one of three massive data centers in Quincy.

Yahoo and Intuit also bought land and built large server farms. This winter, Sabey Corp. bought about 40 acres of land in Quincy and will break ground this summer on a data center. In May, Sabey spokesman John Ford said two 286,000-square-foot buildings and one 125,000-square-foot building are planned for the site.

This is great to see people making recycled water infrastructure as part of data center requirements.

Two years ago I asked questions about the water use of Microsoft’s Quincy data center and back then, no one knew the answer. the common response is “Why are you asking?”

Now I know it is a lot easier to get answer to this question.

Netbook, Small and Disruptive – Always Connected Servers and Devices

June 15, 2009 Dave Ohara

Economist has an article on netbooks titled “Small and Disruptive.”

Small but disruptive

Jun 11th 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO AND TAIPEI
From The Economist print edition

Laptops are evolving—and forcing the rest of the computer industry to change

Imaginechina

IT WAS like waiting for Godot: in the end, the great man did not come. The crowd at Apple’s jamboree in San Francisco this week was visibly disappointed when Steve Jobs, the computer-maker’s legendary chief executive, did not even put in a brief appearance after a six-month medical leave. But another no-show was perhaps more important. Proving many techno-pundits wrong, Apple did not present a “tablet”—a pared-down computer in both size and abilities, with a touch screen. Had it done so, it might have helped settle a question that has preoccupied the personal computer (PC) industry for some time: are netbooks—cheap and basic laptops that are flying off the shelves—just a fad, or the future?

The answer is probably both, as an “iPad”, or whatever Apple’s device may be called, would have demonstrated. Netbooks are already being supplanted by a plethora of new gadgets, including tablets and increasingly computer-like mobile phones (see article). But the idea they embody, that a near-permanent connection to the internet permits simpler technology, is already changing the economics of the PC business.

As companies build low power devices that can be on all the time, connected to servers on all the time there is a disruption in the industry. Energy efficient devices that can be left on all the time are changing how people use computers and what the expect. It is no longer the common case of I am going to sit at my PC to use Word or Excel.

Yet although netbooks have acquired many frills and mutated into new forms, the theory behind them endures: computers do not need to be stuffed with the latest whizz-bang technology if they have a high-speed connection to the “cloud” of services available online. At Computex firms showed devices equipped with WiMAX, a new wireless technology that allows for fast, ubiquitous wireless connections.

It is this combination of connectivity and cloud computing that makes netbooks and their successors so disruptive. Some mobile-network operators now throw in free netbooks if subscribers sign up for a mobile-broadband contract. This will put further pressure on prices, since mobile operators have more bargaining power than individual consumers, although it also opens a huge new distribution channel for computer-makers.

I recently participated in a NDA video shoot for a new product 6 months out which fits in this category, and it got me thinking more on this subject.

So, I placed my order for an iPhone 3G S which I’ll get on June 19.. My Apple friends will be happy to see after all the years at Microsoft, I’ll be back to using an Apple product.

EDS Data Center Pictures, PUE of 1.16

June 14, 2009 Dave Ohara

I interviewed EDS’s Ed Kettler, EDS Fellow and green IT strategist, and have plenty of notes on our conversation, but not enough time right now to write about the interview.

So, for now here are pictures of EDS’s new Green Data Centers in Tulsa, OK and Wynyard, UK.

EDS reports a PUE of 1.5 – 1.7 for Tulsa, and 1.16 for Wynyard.

Some of the technology is in the cooling system and EDS has the following paper on Air Stream Containment.

Tulsa, Oklahoma