Next Advisor for GreenM3 NPO, Peter Horan, pushing the edge of the network to be close to customers

April 5, 2010 Dave Ohara

Our first industry advisor was Mike Manos, our next is Peter Horan. Peter is unknown to most of the data center audience as he is an executive who has worked on the edge of innovation, not in the hub of data center activity. Peter does have data center experience as the Sr. VP executive for InterActive Media at the time of ask.com's data center construction at Moses Lake, WA. Chuck Geiger was CTO of ask.com at the time, and stated.

“Moses Lake is an ideal location due to its cooperative business environment, access to low cost, renewable power and superior network connectivity,” said Chuck Geiger, Chief Technology Officer of Ask.com. “With these inherent benefits, Eastern Washington is the right choice for Ask.com as we expand our computing infrastructure to support our growth and expanded search services.”

Peter has had the executive's view of building a large data center, yet he has some very innovative, forward thinking ideas and a powerful network. Which brings up a presentation that Peter made discussing the "Edge of the Network."

I've known Peter for many years, including his time as Sr. VP/Publisher of ComputerWorld, CEO of DEVX.com, about.com, allbusiness.com, and was an obvious candidate for the GreenM3 NPO.

Here is a video where Peter presents the ideas to get closer to customers. In the same way Peter encourages the audience to get close to customers, the goal of GreenM3 is to build a closer connection to customers, using open source techniques.

A person who we want to talk to in Peter's network is Chuck Geiger.

Chuck Geiger

Partner - Technology

Chuck has significant experience running some of the largest online transaction product organizations and most visited sites in the world, including as CTO of Ask.com, CTO of PayPal, VP Architecture of eBay, and executive positions at InterActive Corp., Gateway and Travelocity.

At InterActive Corp, Chuck was responsible for managing a consolidated data center strategy for IAC portfolio companies including Ask.com, Evite.com, CitySearch.com, Ticketmaster, and Match.com. Chuck also was responsible for the technology organization at Ask.com including Engineering, Architecture, Program Management, QA, IT, and Operations.

At PayPal, Chuck was responsible for the product development organization which includes Product Management, Design, Engineering, Architecture, Operations, IT, QA, Project Management, Content, and Localization, running a team of approximately 550 professionals.
At eBay, Chuck was responsible for the migration to the new generation system architecture and platform.

BTW, Peter's day job is Chairman of Goodmail.

About Goodmail Systems

Goodmail Systems is the creator of CertifiedEmail™, the industry’s standard class of email. CertifiedEmail provides a safe and reliable means for consumers to easily identify authentic email messages from legitimate commercial and nonprofit email senders. Each CertifiedEmail is sent with a cryptographically secure token that assures authenticity and is marked in the inbox with a unique blue ribbon envelope icon, enabling consumers to visually distinguish email messages which are real and sent from email senders with whom they have a pre-existing relationship.

We welcome Peter's passion for technical innovation and the environment.

Mobile Devices shifting power to the users, away from IT departments

March 29, 2010 Dave Ohara

When I was visiting Mizzou last week, I was able to visit Clyde Bentley. Clyde writes a blog on Mobile Journalism and the conversation with Clyde was quite useful to build future discussions on mobile devices and its effect on information publishing.

Below is a video of Clyde discussing the change in journalism caused by Mobile Devices.

Clyde Bentley: Why editors should make the move to mobile now from Bill Densmore on Vimeo.

And, what got me thinking more was this post on AgileOperations.

Agile Operations is a concept which combines lean, low-cost service delivery with flexible, just-in-time response to business demands, helping you keep your department relevant and competitive with trendy low-cost solutions available outside the business. In a sort of technology judo, Agile Operations seeks to use the strengths of these alternatives against them, keeping the flexibility and the savings in house and under the control of the IT department without resorting to heavy-handed prohibitions and lock-down measures which simply serve to force users further and further from a state of trust and understanding with the CIO.

This post on AgileOperations and Mobile discusses the impact on IT departments.

The challenge to the IT department in this scenario is to provision and support users with these devices and solutions. This is a far different prospect than traditional IT provisioning and support, and many IT departments are having trouble keeping up. It's not the first time IT has had trouble staying on the same plane as users when new technologies emerge, but this time, the devices and the online solutions are sufficiently cheap that those users don't need the IT department to implement them. While IT has held the keys to the kingdom for many years, there is an increasing chance that the IT department will simply become irrelevant as users bypass it for easier, cheapers solutions. As this Wall Street Journal article outlines, that day is coming.

We have all been frustrated with IT departments who standardize the desktop and laptops we use to reduce IT costs. In Mobile, this is the strength of RIM's Blackberry server and the ability to manage the Blackberry device. But, the rest of the industry is moving so fast, and managed mobile devices are not a priority for many.

I had a blackberry curve last year and now have an iPhone 3GS. There is no way I would go back to a Blackberry device. If anything I would try a Google phone.

Maybe one of the most rapid innovations and growth for Mobile's is the fact they are not in control of many IT departments.

How many of you think you would have a better mobile experience if your IT department made your purchasing decision?

Feel sorry for all those blackberry users who have a choice of one. Unless you are an executive and you can get the more expensive Blackberry one with a touch screen. Ooohhh!!!!

Bill Gates has the data for connection between energy and climate, sees opportunities for Gates Foundation and his own money - Terrapower

March 26, 2010 Dave Ohara

Bill Gates recently presented at the TED conference.

His video is below and it is 30 minutes long so I know most of you will not watch the whole thing.

There are a few things I learned from his talk that most will miss. I've been in a variety of BillG meetings while at Microsoft and have watched from the inside and outside how Bill operates.

One funny story I used to tell ( the story is over 10 years old) is a BillG keynote at Seybold Seminars. This was back in late 1996-1998 when Bill wanted Windows to win the battle for desktop publishing. He wanted the data on what Microsoft needed to do to win vs Apple. Seybold Seminars no longer exist, but here is bit of background.

Jonathan Seybold sold the company, and various successors ran the conference into the ditch, with the seminar, once the biannual gathering of the print tribes, disappeared a year ago. Jonathan was the oracle of desktop publishing, whose late-80s mantra ("standard platforms, shrink-wrapped software") set the direction for desktop publishing, and, later, the open source movement for all content production.

I had researched the topic before the event and collected detailed notes on Apple and Adobe's presentations to prepare Bill for his keynote. I also prepared discussion material for Jonathan Seybold visited Microsoft for a Bill Gates meeting and sat in the meeting. Bill is a data driven guy and the night before his keynote the rehearsals was a data driven discussion on what to discuss. There were at least eight Microsoft guys surrounding Bill as he practiced his presentation and asked for clarification or more data.

Where was I? 200 ft away in the audience sitting with the Seybold Seminar event staff, five women I was joking with watching the Microsoft guys jockey to get a word in. I figured out a long time ago, there was not a huge upside to getting in front of Bill. It's not like he says "great job Dave, here are more options." But, he can say "that's f*** stupid." and you now need to fight your point to prove Bill is wrong or admit Bill was right and I am stupid. How much fun is that? Vs. sitting with five women for 1 1/2 hrs having pleasant conversations. Also, one of the five is now my wife.

I tell this story, because I look at Bill's speech from a different view. So, back to what I saw in Bill's speech.

Bill has the data that shows the same people he is trying to help with health initiatives at the Gates Foundation are impacted to a greater degree by climate change and availability of energy. (seemed kind of obvious to me) If there is a drought caused by global warming, then crops and water supplies are effected for the population. This is explained in the first minute above video.
The cost of energy has the most impact on the poor. Here is a graph of the price of energy.
He has a simple formula. The sum of CO2 increases temperature has a negative effect
Bill asks his scientist. Can't we just reduce carbon to solve the problem. His scientist say until CO2 from energy generation hits zero the temperature will continue to rise.
Bill next goes into what can be done to get to zero. Asking the question can any of these go to zero. Walks through each the conclusion is C02 per unit energy
What Bill says is we need Energy Miracles that are cheap and no CO2.
Bill identifies the areas he think miracles can be done.
Bill makes this excellent point on energy storage. All the batteries on the earth only store 10 minutes of energy.
Then he gets to his answer for a miracle. Terrapower a travelling wave nuclear reactor.
And last, Bill appeals that there are many things that need to be done to reach the goal of 1/2 cost power with no carbon.

One other big point that was made after Bill was presenting when discussing Terrapower.

Intellectual Ventures^® investments in energy inventions have evolved to become TerraPower, an expert team that is investigating innovative ways to address energy needs. TerraPower’s most advanced work centers on radically improving ways to make electricity using nuclear reactors.

At minute 21:10 in the video, the question is asked where Terrapower and Bill's team is discussing who to work with. The answer is China, Russia, and India. Conversations with US Secretary of Energy are mentioned as well, but I can imagine the regulatory and political activists issues in the US have Terrapower seriously looking at countries outside the US to develop the technology.

On my next trip to Missouri I hope to get a tour of their nuclear reactor, and maybe I can ask them if they have had any discussions with Terrapower.

Here is a presentation by Terrapower's John Gilleland.

“The TerraPower Initiative”

presenter:

John Gilleland

Organization:

TerraPower LLC

video:

Click here to watch a recording of the talk

TerraPower, LLC is a privately funded initiative focused on the development of a new reactor and simplified nuclear infrastructure. Objectives include (1) reduction, and eventual elimination, of the need for enrichment facilities; (2) elimination of any future need for chemical separations-based reprocessing facilities; (3) utilization of natural or depleted uranium as fuel; and (4) achievement of a COE competitive with clean coal plants. Participants include 65 individuals from UC Berkeley, MIT, UNLV, ANL, Burns & Row, CBCG, and Intellectual Ventures.
The reactor is based on the travelling wave concept. The speaker will review the concept and discuss the development challenges.

Thanks to some friends at Intellectual Ventures, I have contacts at Terrapower, but Terrapower Nuclear power generation is decades off, and I can take my time until I have more data. :-)

Finding Fiber in Columbia, MO, providing data access for 400 megawatt of power, Mike Manos kicks the dirt again

March 24, 2010 Dave Ohara

I've blogged about the 400 megawatt of power in Columbia, Missouri, and an obvious next question is what is the fiber like. Last year's information was "there isn't enough fiber."

Research the site and the common knowledge is three providers - AT&T, Level3, and CenturyLink/Lightcore. That's not enough. But look at where the data comes from, the salesperson who is ready to take the order.

Mike Manos wrote an entertaining post on kicking the dirt.

Mike Manos discusses data center site selection, you need to “kick the dirt” to find what is real

At Gartner’s Data Center Conference, Mike Manos made an excellent point that “75% of the data center costs are effected by site selection.” Great architecture is designed to a site characteristics. But, the status quo is to design data centers that are built based on past experiences. Green data centers need to be designed to fit with site characteristics.

Mike wrote a post on site selection.

Kickin’ Dirt

December 21, 2009 by mmanos

Mike Manos was out at the Columbia, MO data center site to kick the dirt, and he recalls there not being enough fiber being in Columbia from his past data center research. The team luckily had Mike for a day without his cell phone as he forgot it at home, so they had his undivided attention.

Chicago and Kansas City are midwest centers for cattle which was connected by railway.

And Interstate 70 connects Kansas City and St. Louis.

There must be more fiber available. With a little "kickin the dirt" and willingness to spend a bit of more and time, there are 4 more providers few discuss.

Global Crossing

Sprint

XO Communications

MNA - Missouri Network Alliance

Kicking the dirt further, turns out Level 3 has two fiber paths in Columbia - the typical interstate 70, and a little known WillTel's pipeline fiber.

Also the North South path on Highway 63 is available for future growth.

In general, Columbia is a place to take take a piss and fast food break between Kansas City and St. Louis. There are three fiber trenches running this same path that can be tapped within 30 miles of Columbia. Note the 30 mile separation helps meet the fiber requirement for geographic diversity.

Now that the team has kicked the dirt, it is easy to tell the fiber access story in Columbia, MO. 400 megawatts of power and plenty of available fiber.

400 megawatt smorgasbord meal, 2,500 from nuclear, coal, and hydro plus renewable sources – all you can eat starting at $0.035 kw/hr

March 10, 2010 Dave Ohara

The Ewing Industrial Park in Columbia, MO has a unique power capability few can match. When I first visited the site, they said they had 80 megawatts of power. After seeing all the high voltage power transmission lines, one 345 kv, multiple 161 and 69 kv, they must be able to get more power. I told them go back to all the sources and find out how much they could get with transmission infrastructure. Why isn’t 80 megawatt enough for a data center? Because, if we want to get people to understand the available power infrastructure, we need a bigger number. A week later, they said we can get 400 megawatts.

How can you get 400 megawatts? Here is a summary of the power sources available.

In Summary, Ewing Business Park is within 50 miles of about 2500 MGW of redundant power generation capacity including Thomas Hill Coal(1153MGW), Ameren Fulton Nuclear at reform Missouri( 1159MGW), Ameren Hydro at Bagnell Dam(215 MGW), City of Columbia coal/biomass(39MGW), City of Columbia /Ameren natural gas(140MGW), and Associated natural gas(60MGW). The Ewing Site has numerous redundant feeds and suppliers to this power supply.

Thomas Hill Coal power.

Thomas Hill Energy Center key to providing low-cost energy

Thomas Hill Power Plant

Plant statistics

Unit 1 - 1966 General Electric turbine
Net capacity of 180 MW
Coal burn rate of 2,325 tons/day

Unit 2 - 1969 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 303 MW
Coal burn rate of 3,476 tons/day

Unit 3 - 1982 Westinghouse turbine
Net capacity of 670 MW
Coal burn rate of 8,660 tons/day

The Thomas Hill Energy Center is comprised of three electrical generating units, built from 1966 to 1982 and totaling 1,153 megawatts, and a coal mine that is actively being reclaimed after closing in 1993.

AECI employs about 260 people at the Thomas Hill Energy Center, which has received national recognition for its efficiency and successful conversion to low-sulfur coal that significantly reduced sulfur dioxide emissions.

AECI also will achieve a system wide nitrogen oxides emission rate reduction of nearly 90 percent with completion in December 2008 of its $424 million environmental controls project at Thomas Hill to meet the Clean Air Interstate Rule.

Ameren Callaway Nuclear

Plant Profile

Location

The plant is located 10 miles southeast of Fulton, Missouri, in Callaway County; 25 miles northeast of Jefferson City, Missouri; 40 miles southeast of Columbia, Missouri; 100 miles west of St. Louis, Missouri; and 120 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri.

Plant Design

Standardized Nuclear Unit Power Plant System (SNUPPS), using a Westinghouse four-loop pressurized reactor and a General Electric turbine-generator.

Generating Capacity

1,190 megawatts (net)

Bagnell Dam

Bagnell Dam impounds the Osage River in the U.S. state of Missouri, creating the Lake of the Ozarks. The 148-foot (45 m) tall concrete gravity dam was built by the Union Electric Company (now AmerenUE) for the purpose of hydroelectricpower generation as its Osage Powerplant. It is 2,543 feet (775 m) long, including a 520-foot (160 m) long spillway and a 511-foot (156 m) long power station. The facility with eight generators has a maximum capacity of 215 megawatts.

Here is more information about the site providing the Ewing Industrial Park engineering team.

The background on the availability is actually quite simple. Ewing Business Park is served electric by the city of Columbia Missouri. They are a member of MISO which is the Midwest independent transmission service operator. The city has purchase/supply transmission agreements with Associated Electric and Ameren. The city also generates some of their own power. Currently Ewing Business park is bisected by a 345 kV line, and served by Numerous 161 kV lines, and numerous 69kV lines. Ewing business Park is directly adjacent to a large city owned regional substation called the Bolstad Sub station. The city has indicted that the Bolstad could serve immediate 100 MGW right now to the Ewing Park with their own infrastructure and purchase arrangements up to 200 MGW if planned. There are 4 other regional substations owned by the City and Central Electric ranging from ½ mile to 4 miles. These substations are tapped to ameren feeders in some cases. This Bolstad substation is directly adjacent to a 140 MGW natural gas fired power plant. (1) This power plant is referred to as the Columbia Energy Center or CEC. This power plant is currently operated as peaking plant that can fire up to 90% capacity quickly. The ownership of this plant is the city of Columbia and Ameren energy. The city has taken the recent steps to acquire total remaining ownership of the power plant. The city has a 39 MGW coal/wood biomass fired plant about 5 miles away. (2) . Associated Electric has a large Coal fired power plant just 40 miles away. It is a 1153 MGW coal fired facility. The Bolstad connection to this power plant is a direct 161 kV transmission line with no other taps. This line is 50 % owned by the city of Columbia and 50% by Central Electric (the wholesale transmission provider for associated). Todd Culley with Boone Electric and Ralph Schulte with Central Electric stated that Associated can serve “ 200 MGW without a phone call to the city of Columbia Ewing site ”. They said they could easily provide 400 MGW with some notice. (3)

Let me further explain

In addition to this transmission line directly from Thomas hill, there is another redundant 161 kV line that comes from the Kingdom city Substation 16 miles away which is directly fed by the Thomas Hill 345 kV line that serves that Kingdom City Substation. In addition, to these two large independent transmission line feeders, Thomas Hill has another independent 69 kV transmission line that comes from the power plant that serves the city and Ewing from the large Prathersville substation that is 2 miles away from Ewing. (4) Associated has a natural gas fired power plant Called the Chamois Plant ( 60 MGW) about 40 miles away. It feeds Columbia by way of one 161 kV line and 2 -69 kV lines. All but one of these lines land at the Central/ Columbia Boone Sub on the south side of Columbia. This sub is about 12 miles from Ewing but the interesting thing is that the City has a 161 kV and a 69kV that both run around the east side of town and come to the Bolstad Substation directly from this Main transmission Tap. (5) From the Chamois plant the independent pathway 161 kV hits the Same Boone sub but from an independent pathway from the east.

Ameren UE has the 345 kV line that bisects Ewing. It does not have a substation off of it at Ewing but lands on the west side of Columbia at the Overton Substation about 19 miles away. There are 161 kV and 69 kV lines that then extend to Bolstad that are considered independent feeders. Ameren Would not state their capcity to serve publically from this line but currently they did say they could serve 200 MGW easily from the 345 kV line. (6) Ameren has Bagnell dam hydro electric power plant 50 miles away. It is rated at 215 MGW. The main services form this plant are through Associated’s 69kV line and Ameren’s 161 kV line that also goes to the overton sub.(7) Ameren has a Nuclear Power Plant 30 miles away at Fulton mo. . It is 1159 MGW. Bolstad serves the Fulton area by a direct 69 kV line. (8).