Discussing Google, Apple and Microsoft OS

It is interesting reading the latest reporting of Google’s OS and where they are going.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Google's dual-pronged operating-system strategy will likely produce a single OS down the road, according to Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Many Google observers were puzzled when the companyannounced plans for Chrome OS in July, coming amidgrowing acceptance of the company's Android operating-system project as a smartphone and Netbook OS. After all, why design an open-source operating system with the goal of reinventing the personal computing experience when you're currently developing another open-source operating system with the goal of reinventing the mobile computing experience?

Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, have downplayed the conflict ever since, asking for time to let the projects evolve. And a few days after Chrome OS was revealed, Android chief Andy Rubin said device makers "need different technology for different products," explaining that Android has a lot of unique code that makes it suitable for use in a phone and Chrome has unique benefits of its own.

But Brin, speaking informally to reporters after the company's Chrome OS presentation on Thursday, said "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time," citing among other things the common Linux and Webkit code base present in both projects.

As part of my 2 year anniversary writing this blog, I am taking more time to share my background and  perspectives.

I am writing this post on a plane trip from SJ to Seattle, so I have a bit of time to reflect on my latest trip. And, one of the ways I consider myself extremely lucky is to understand different perspectives.

Let me share some ideas of Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT).  And, none of what I am sharing is based on visiting these companies on my latest trip or direct interviews.  Huh?  On my trips to the bay area I try to meet one of my smartest guys I know.  We worked together at Apple and Microsoft, so we have known each other for over 20 years.  We have another mutual friend who we worked with, and we compare perspectives on where things are going.  20 years ago, we were all working on the Mac OS, now we are all working on data center related issues, so we are used to be able have complete control over things at Apple, but now we have smaller parts in a much bigger problem.

Now, when we get together we rapidly bounce from what Apple is doing to Microsoft, then Google, and a bunch of other companies.  Discussing who is working on the most interesting computer technology.

We were talking about how cool it is that Google gets these guys to talk about what they are doing in technologies.  One point I made of why this is good is the act of trying to explain your ideas forces you to simplify and articulate the value of what you are working on. Repeating the presentation forces you to iterate on where the value is and why it is important.  Your audience gains value, but the presenter and its company gains knowledge figuring out what is of value. Valuable content is more viral and spreads.  And, this has a connection to your products.

We briefly discussed Microsoft as we worked together at Microsoft, and discussed the developer community.  We both have worked on the Mac OS and Windows OS, so we are used to discussing new OS technologies and the developer benefit.  Without apps that use the platform, the value of an OS feature is minimal.  Which brings me back to the previous paragraph on sharing ideas.  You can look at OS developer features as the challenge of explaining ideas that are viral and have value.  Those developers who can explain their ideas better, iterating on the explanation, have a higher probability developing features that users want.

Now what has this got to do with the data center.  Well, not much yet.  But, let’s now continue to where the developer community is going.  Windows and Mac OS API developers are in decline.  Java, AJAX, Ruby, and HTML are growing much faster.  And, the platform is the browser -  Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and IE.   As browser apps grow, the cloud is more important which fits in a cloud computing model which has the all the hype.

So, even though I write about data centers on this blog.  There is a bigger plan on how the data centers fit in the changing computing environments.  Data Centers are resources for computing.  It was client-server applications in the past.  Now it is becoming browser-cloud apps.

The Green Data Center is going to be one that doesn’t just have the best PUE, but the one that in the overall system enables the lower resource use.  Shifting computing to be in data center, using less resources to low power devices is more efficient than having high powered clients.  Smart phones and netbooks are the high growth devices, and the utility is growing fast to do more and more of the things you used to need a laptop or desktop.

Not to say efficient power and cooling systems are not important, but they are only one part in a complex systems.  The interaction of all the pieces are not well understood to figure out the most efficient use of resources.  Solving this complex problem is what drives me to keep talking about the subject of green data center.  Constantly iterating on what is of value.  As I figure out what has value, it helps figure out what people should do.  What people should do is what I share on this blog.  And, it helps create better products and services that use less resources.

In my past life, I traveled a lot giving presentations.  With my blog www.greenm3.com ,  I can share more ideas and quicker to a world-wide audience.  Which is a lot greener, saves money, more effective, and better for my family life.

Thanks for continuing to visit my blog.

-Dave Ohara

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Greening the Data Center in conflict with outsourced Cloud Computing suppliers

GigaOm has a post on green computing in the data center.

Green Computing Needs a Data Center Whisperer

By Stacey Higginbotham | Friday, November 20, 2009 | 5:05 PM PT | 0 comments | 17 tweets

As compute demand increases, demand for power in data centers is soaring. To help IT professionals halt the spread of watt-consuming servers, the industry needs to develop software that can communicate the ways in which the various layers of the data center perform and interact. They need a binary version of Cesar Millan — a data center whisperer.

Speaking at a panel held Wednesday night in Austin, Texas, several folks from the large server shops and a distinguished engineer who runs a data center for IBM spoke about the challenges of keeping power consumption down in a world where computing demand is going up. (For a truly in-depth look at this topic, check out our GigaOM Pro report — subscription required.) The panel went beyond just power and cooling (thank goodness) to focus on how companies are increasingly viewing power consumption in the data center as a whole, rather than merely as the sum of of the data center’s processors.

The IBM engineers achieved the results by creating an internal cloud computing initiative.

IBM’s Scott Winters said he saved 30 percent on his energy costs over three years while increasing his computing abilities by 50 percent and his storage by 150 percent. He did this in two primary ways: by virtualizing his data center and creating a pool of shared resources that are used on demand, and by paying attention to software he has running that tells him what’s happening on his servers.

An interesting way to tell the story of being aware of what is going on is the data center is whispering secrets.

“My data center was whispering secrets, and now I have a way to understand them,” Winters said. He said his IBM software and linking that software to the physical infrastructure helped him reach such an understanding, especially in regard to managing power consumption. It’s a strategy that HP has embraced with its products; there are also several startups pushing data center sensor networks that allow the data center’s server hardware and its physical infrastructure like the chillers and air conditioners to communicate.

The IBM expert does a good job of explaining what is next to the writer.

But as the facilities and IT infrastructure merge (the jobs of the facilities manager and the IT manager are also on a path to merge, according to members of the panel) standards are needed. The folks building the physical infrastructure typically use proprietary software in their products and sensors and getting that sensor network to talk to your servers can require a big programming effort. Once folks can manage their physical infrastructure and their hardware, the next step is to tie the physical and hardware layers to the application layer. That’s a big dream, and we’re still far off. But given the demand for computing and constraints on providing the power to meet that demand, it’s an issue that panels like the one Wednesday night will help solve.

Now, here is where the conflict occurs with an outsourced cloud computing company vs. the customer.  Whoever the outsource company is – Google, Amazon, Microsoft or IBM, their goal is to minimize their costs while maximizing revenue.  A cloud computing company wants easy to host services that are inefficient. because they make more money when the customer runs services requiring multiple server instances with more resources.  Their margins don’t improve because the customer runs a high utilization load.

So, in the zest for cloud computing, customers are signing up for suppliers who want you to be inefficient.  They’ll sell you their cloud computing infrastructure as lower cost than your own infrastructure, but is it as low as it could be?

The supplier is not going to do as was mentioned in the referenced post.

Once folks can manage their physical infrastructure and their hardware, the next step is to tie the physical and hardware layers to the application layer. That’s a big dream, and we’re still far off.

Cloud computing has its advantages, but the dominant players are going to run their own cloud computing infrastructure and tune the facilities, IT hardware and applications to be efficient – and be the low cost information suppliers.

If your goal is to be lowest cost in IT services think about your cloud computing whether you own it or rent it.

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Data Center Executive Popularity

I was going over my site using Google Analytics looking at keywords.  As expected Green Data Center are the top three topics.

1

green data center
2

green data centers
3

green data center blog

What I also found interesting is who came up as data center executive names in the keywords.

And, the winner is?

Olivier Sanche, three times more than Mike Manos.

Christian Belady was just as popular as Mike.

And, next was Chris Malone.

Debra Chrapty showed up, but she is no longer a data center executive.

Now to be fare.  My Google Search result for Olivier Sanche shows up #2 whereas my Google Search result for Mike Manos shows up #5.  So, it is not a true popularity test, but an interesting thing as far as what executives bring traffic to www.greenm3.com. 

For comparison the “green data center” words bring in 5 times the amount of traffic.

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Part 2 of Microsoft’s Azure Container, looking closer there are server fans

I wrote the post on Microsoft’s Azure Container referencing InformationWeek’s Bob Muglia quote.

Bob Muglia: In Chicago, we used the previous generation of container. The one on the show floor incorporates advances coming out of Microsoft Research. Our servers have no fans in them

Thanks to smart reader’s ears, they point out there are server fans.

If you listen to this video you hear the server fans that are too familiar.  So InformationWeek’s statement of fanless servers must be a misquote.

If I wanted I could reach out to Microsoft friend to go take a closer better picture of the back of the servers to get a picture of the fans.  But, I am not going to call a favor for something that you can all hear if you listen to the video.

image

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Microsoft Container has evaporative water cooling

Information week has an interview with Microsoft President Bob Muglia.  Which reveals  Microsoft’s container is providing evaporative cooling in the containers.

InformationWeek: There's a next-generation container on the show floor?

Bob Muglia: In Chicago, we used the previous generation of container. The one on the show floor incorporates advances coming out of Microsoft Research. *Our servers have no fans in them. Ambient air is drawn over a membrane onto which a small amount of water is released. I think it's two gallons an hour. The slow release of water drops the temperature of ambient air coming in through a system of louvers by 20 or 25 degrees and that's sufficient to keep the servers cool enough. You have to realize servers run comfortably at 95 degrees. Maybe you and I are not comfortable working at 95 degrees, but servers are.

image

*Note: this quote is struck out due to a reader pointing out the server fan noise.  See this post for specifics.

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