Microsoft, HP, and Digital Realty Trust win Green Data Center awards at Uptime Symposium, recognizing top achievement

May 20, 2010 Dave Ohara

Here is a summary of Three winners of Green IT awards at Uptime Symposium. Being Green in the Data Center is now becoming an accepted behavior and leadership like below helps others with their own plans.

HP has their press release for the Wynyard facility.

Green Enterprise IT Awards showcase organizations pioneering energy-efficiency improvements in their IT and data center operations or providing technology that can significantly reduce energy consumption.

HP was recognized as the winner in the Data Center Design category for its Wynyard facility in the United Kingdom. Commissioned in September 2009, the data center uses a large quantity of fresh air supplied by fans through high-efficiency filters to reduce the energy required for cooling. The building features an energy-efficient and sustainable design that incorporates recycled materials as well as harvested rainwater.

here is a video of the air side economizer system.

Microsoft received a Green IT Award for its Chicago data center.

Chicago Datacenter Wins Green Enterprise IT Award from Uptime Institute

Today, Microsoft won a prestigious Green Enterprise IT Award from the Uptime Institute for the bold IT initiatives we utilized in our recently opened datacenter in Chicago. The facility integrates new design solutions which have led to greater efficiencies and carbon waste reductions. This includes a significant reduction in water and material usage enabled by the deployment of containers and other IT innovations. The Uptime Institute is an organization that is focused on providing education and thought leadership for the enterprise datacenter industry and for datacenter professionals. The Green Enterprise IT Awards are the Uptime Institute's highest honor.

By incorporating containers we have reduced carbon waste from extra packaging of servers and equipment and individual transport shipping consumables such as cardboard, styrofoam, plastic, and other packaging materials. The highly innovative approach to design, construction and operations has also allowed us to fully deploy thousands of servers within a few hours, with a drastically reduced carbon footprint and great cooling efficiencies, with a reduced PUE of 1.15 - 1.22 across the facility.

Digital Realty Trust also won an award for its leadership in LEED Data Centers.

Digital Realty Trust received the award for its commitment to sustainability and innovation in the construction of a LEED certified data center utilizing full airside economization for more than 65 percent of each year. The LEED Platinum-certified datacenter project in Santa Clara, California is expected to save 3.5 million kilowatt hours of energy annually saving more than $250,000 per year at today’s energy prices.

“The construction of the green datacenter in Santa Clara demonstrates Digital Realty Trust’s strong commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability,” said Thomas Freeman, Managing Director and head of the Data Center practice at Jones Lang LaSalle. “Their adoption of industry best practices ensures a reduction in energy use, cost and associated greenhouse gas emissions.”

Here are photos from the presentation on DataCenterKnowledge.

DATA CENTER DESIGN: HP was honored for its design of the Wynyard data center in northern England, which makes extensive use of free cooling. Accepting for HP is Ed Kettler (with plaque), a fellow in the Chief Technologist Office at HP Enterprise Services.

AUDACIOUS IDEA: The data center team from Microsoft was recognized for its IT PAC container technology. Accepting for Microsoft are Dan Costello (center) and Sean Farney (second from right). Representing Uptime are Ken Brill (left), Lex Coors of Interxion (second from left) and Tom Freeman of Jones Lang LaSalle (far right).

Google Voip fits with Google TV

May 20, 2010 Dave Ohara

With today's Google TV announcement, Google acquisition GIPS for VOIP services makes sense. Google is becoming a utility for TV, Voice, and Electricity - in addition to the web.

Pete Cashmore Talks Google’s Venture into TV and VoIP on Bloomberg [VIDEO]

Google has been very busy in the last few days. First came rumors of Google’s venture into TV space with SmartTV. Then, Google offered to acquire Global IP Solutions (GIPS), followed by a slew of announcements at the Google I/O Conference in San Francisco, the biggest being the release of an open source, royalty-free video format called WebM.

Google, Intel and Sony’s SmartTV project could reshape television as we know it, and Android-based set-top boxes could open a whole new world to developers of Android apps.

Google is taking the Microsoft playbook reaching out to developers with an expanded platform while Apple is shutting down developers that don't fit in Apple's licensing model.

Could you imagine the Apple Board meetings if Eric Schmidt hadn't resigned? :-)

Google TV connects the Home TV viewers to the Data Center

May 20, 2010 Dave Ohara

Google announced their Google TV platform.

Industry Leaders Announce Open Platform to Bring Web to TV

Google, Intel, Logitech and Sony Join Together to Deliver Google TV Platform
DISH Network, Best Buy, Adobe to Support Bringing Devices to Market

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (May 20, 2010) – Today at the Google I/O developer conference in San Francisco, leading industry players announced the development of Google TV – an open platform that adds the power of the web to the television viewing experience, ushering in a new category of devices for the living room. Intel, Sony, and Logitech, together with Best Buy, DISH Network and Adobe, joined Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) on stage to announce their support for Google TV.

Over the past decade, the Internet has created unprecedented opportunity for innovation and development across the world, but so far the web has largely been absent from living rooms. With Google TV, consumers will now be able to search and watch an expanded universe of content available from a variety of sources including TV providers, the web, their personal content libraries, and mobile applications.

Eric Schmidt discusses the connectivity CEOs - Intel, Sony, Logitech, BestBuy, DishNetwork, and Adobe. Eric has his own version of upstaging Steve Jobs.

Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman and CEO said, “We are very proud to be working with this distinguished set of partners, all of whom have decades of experience in hardware, design and retail.”

Sony announced plans to introduce “Sony Internet TV,” the World’s first TV lineup incorporating the Google TV platform. The first models are planned to be introduced in the U.S. market in the Fall of 2010 with the lineup featuring both a standalone TV model and set top box-type unit incorporating a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Howard Stringer, Chairman, President and CEO, Sony Corporation said, “I am delighted to announce the unique alignment of Google’s rapidly growing, open source Android platform with Sony’s unparalleled expertise in the field of TV design and technology. The addition of ‘Sony Internet TV’ will further bolster Sony’s comprehensive TV lineup and will fuse new levels of enjoyment and interactivity into the TV experience.”

Logitech will introduce a companion box that brings Google TV to existing HDTV home entertainment systems, easily integrating with any brand of HDTV and set-top box. The companion box will incorporate Logitech’s Harmony® remote control technology, and will include a controller that combines keyboard and remote control capabilities. The company also has plans to introduce an HDTV camera and video chat for Google TV, along with additional choices for navigation and control, including apps to turn a smart phone into an advanced controller for Google TV and home-entertainment systems.

Gerald Quindlen, President and CEO, Logitech said, “We committed to Google TV early on because it aligns with our strategy to support open platforms that enable new immersive experiences in the digital living room. While Google TV enables seamless discovery of all your content, Logitech enables seamless control over how you experience that content. We look forward to continued collaboration with Google and the developer community to create new Google TV experiences that have yet to be imagined.”

The Intel Atom CE4100 processor will power both the Logitech and Sony devices. Paul Otellini, Intel President and CEO praised the collaborative effort and said TV as we know it was being “reinvented.” "Today marks the next step in the evolution of TV to Smart TV. TV’s are becoming smarter as a result of the microprocessor and the Internet. Traditional TV programming will be merged seamlessly with the infinite amount of content on the Internet to enable every viewer to determine what they want to watch, when they want it. This is Moore’s Law transforming television, powered by the performance of Intel microprocessors."

DISH Network has been a key partner with Google on advanced integration development for Google TV. The two partners began a joint trial over a year ago with more than 400 DISH Network and Google beta users. Based on the continuous feedback from the trial, Google and DISH Network have built the optimized Google TV experience that seamlessly integrates traditional TV, DVR and web content.

Charlie Ergen, Chairman, President and CEO of DISH Network, said, “Google TV marks the next evolution in television, and we are excited to be the first to partner with Google to bring this experience to our customers. Only DISH Network Google TV customers will be able to enjoy a unified search across TV, DVR and web; easily find related content; and manage their entire TV viewing experience. Additionally, the advanced integration will allow developers to create new and exciting applications to enrich the TV viewing experience.”

Best Buy will bring their retail experience and consumer expertise to the project, with Google TV devices being sold at Best Buy locations nationwide later this year. “Every day, our 180,000 Blue Shirt store employees and Geek Squad Agents work with our customers to get them the best home theater experience possible”, said Brian Dunn, CEO Best Buy, “We are thrilled about the new and exciting experiences smart TVs, like Google TV, provide to our customers – and we are looking forward to showcasing those experiences in our store and ensuring customers get connected to all the products and services that bring those experiences to life.”

Finally, Adobe Flash Player 10.1 will be integrated directly into the Google Chrome browser on Google TV, enabling viewers to experience tens of millions of web pages with rich Flash content including games, animations, applications, videos, audio and more. Shantanu Narayen, President and CEO, Adobe said, “An open web ecosystem offers endless opportunities for creativity and innovation. Flash Player 10.1 extends the advantages of full web browsing and consistent, rich experiences to smartphones, tablets, netbooks and Internet-connected TVs. We’re thrilled to be part of the Google TV initiative with other industry leaders who share a common vision of enabling access to the best web experiences possible.”

This is potentially a huge use for Google Data Center build out. Watching the video, reminds me of Microsoft's mishandling of the WebTV acquisition. Microsoft owned the early mover on much of these ideas, but Google was the one who connected the whole system to the data center assets, and inserted Android where people have used Windows MediaCenter PC.

Sony's participation would also signal future directions for Playstation 4.

Google has launched a new platform that should worry Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and any others who want to leverage video. The YouTube acquisition allows Google to analyze what video is popular.

Building your First Data Center, learn some lessons from Microsoft who say they can build for 50% less

May 20, 2010 Dave Ohara

Building your first data center can be a challenge. Many have tackled this task over the past few years - Microsoft, Yahoo, Intuit, ask.com, eBay, Apple, and Facebook. Building your first is an opportunity to consolidate your IT loads and reduce costs. Given the difficulty of getting all the ducks lined up to get the project going, the budget for the first data center can be over $250 million.

DataCenterKnowledge reports on Microsoft's latest Quincy data center.

The new data center is being built next to Microsoft’s existing 470,000 square foot data center in Quincy, which was built in 2007 and is now one of the largest data centers in the world. But the new facility will be dramatically different in both its cost and design. After years of investing up to $500 million in each data center project, Microsoft plans to spend about $250 million or less on each data center going forward.

One trap I have seen many fall into is to build a big data center as the first. Why? Well, part of what drives this is data centers are the highest profit margin business for the construction industry and there are plenty of people who will tell you bigger is better. The analysts will help you justify a $250 million dollar data center is the sweet spot of getting an ROI.

But, a different way of thinking about this problem is to build Ten $25 million data centers instead of one. The first one may be a bit more than $25 million, but you can cut costs on the next, and the next, then after your third, you realize "hey there is a different way we can be doing this. Let's change the design. Build three more, then you go "wow we learned a lot, let's really push for something innovative." The last three now cost $12.5 million instead of $25 million.

This is what Microsoft has done, but spending $500 million a data center. They built Quincy 1, San Antonio, Dublin (air side economizer), and Chicago (container). And the 4th generation data center is next.

One additional benefit of building a $25 million data center is you don't end up with consultants, designers, and construction companies swarming to get your business. If you choose an incremental data center design you'll learn a lot on what is real and what is hype. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon can do this why can't you too?

BTW, another thing Microsoft has done is figured out how to build the 4th generation data center faster than the 1st generation. Part of the reason the first data center is so big is because it was so hard to get the project going. Speed is important in addition to capabilities.

I've discussed these ideas with a few data center designers, and we have used the metaphor that data centers are designed like Battle tanks. But not all businesses, so not all data centers should be same and if you have geo redundant SW like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, it can be more cost effective to build different data center types for the same reason why there are light and heavy tanks.

Which brings up another benefit of the Microsoft 4th generation data center, the design is not in a concrete bunker which means it could be moved much easier if need be.

This next-generation design allows Microsoft to forego the concrete bunker exterior seen in the original Quincy facility in favor of a steel and aluminum structure built around a central power spine. The data centers will have no side walls, a decision guided by a research project in which the company housed servers in a tent for eight months.

What happens if you focused on building iterative data centers with a range of capabilities to adapt to business needs and could be moved if business or power conditions change in a location. Doesn't this sound like a better way to spend $250 million. But, the data center ecosystem is not going to promote this idea as it changes their profits and business models.

Microsoft, Google, and Amazon's battle for cloud computing is going to continue to drive some of the most innovative thinking. And you don't have to wait to start thinking like they do.

Freedom to think of things others don't, accepting different belief structures - Human Factors and the Data Center

May 19, 2010 Dave Ohara

Last week I blogged about some big thinking I participated in Portland with a cloud computing director and ten others. One of the things I do in big meetings is drop into an analyst mode watching the conversations, saying little, listening and watching the dynamics in the meeting. Normally, I would be discussing big ideas, but with 12 people in the room and plenty of brain power going and an extremely smart guy presenting I could be quiet. I frequently find I learn more and figure out things being quiet and watching the dynamics between the people. Isn't it funny how your brain stops listening when you want to talk.

One of the entertaining moments is when a VC came into the meeting late and spent 2 minutes telling the group how important he is and how much influence he has. I didn't say one word to him, even though he was the man with the money. I had more important conversations, and for a person like this, it is many times difficult to explain my role, and that this meeting wouldn't be happening if I hadn't been architecting the solution.

I was sitting next to my friend and we scribbled notes and whispered ideas during the presentation, taking the time to highlight important concepts. One of the concepts that was big is to model different belief structures to interpret data differently which allows you to put data in context of the user.

A side story, I worked with some data center construction guys and I found their belief and value system was totally different than what I had assumed. The construction guys thought I was not that smart the more I worked with them. What I understood is their value and belief system was brittle when exposed to openness and transparency which is requirement for building a knowledge model for the data center. Luckily I escaped that project. In the process, I learned a valuable lesson why it is so hard to bridge thinking across data center design, construction and operation. Most people are fixed in their belief and value system, they can't translate what others do into their beliefs, and vice versa. Openness and transparency is not compatible with many existing approaches in data centers where keeping things secret is a standard practice. Also, keeping secrets maximizes control and profits for the suppliers as the customers are mystified by the black magic skills to build a data center.

Note: I have met other data center construction guys who don't exhibit this behavior, so don't think I mean all data center construction is this way. And, I have met data center designers who believe data center efficiency can be achieved with simpler designs that are easier to operate and maintain when the black magic is not part of the design.

After this lesson, I've spent more time analyzing people and companies for how well they fit in open approaches like we intend to use in the "Open Source Data Center Initiative."

While most people in the meeting were down in the details reviewing ideas presented, I was watching the people and their beliefs, trying to figure out if they accept other people's belief systems. The more arrogant a person is the less they accept another person's view as being right in their context.

How many different belief systems do you accept as valid in the data center system?

Executive & CIO

Business Unit VP

Facility Operations

IT Operations

Application/Services Operations - Dev and Test

Enterprise Architect

Security

Networking

Database & Storage

Finance

Public Relations

Environmental Impact & Sustainability

Customers

Partners

Suppliers

Government, Finance, and Compliance Regulations

One view I haven't heard is Human factors. I wrote the above yesterday, but knew it was not finished to post, this morning at 6a it clicked. One view that touches almost all of the above, but is not discussed is the holistic view from Human Factors. I studied Human Factors in college and believed it was key to be a better Industrial Engineer. When I interviewed at IBM, one of the questions was "How do you know what to change?" Being young and naive, I said you have to care about the people. The IBM engineers probably thought I was a leftist tree-hugging radical thinker as I was graduating from UC Berkeley.

What is Human Factors?

Human factors involves the study of all aspects of the way humans relate to the world around them, with the aim of improving operational performance, safety, through life costs and/or adoption through improvement in the experience of the end user.

An area where Human Factors shows up in most data centers is in facilities due to the maturity of the equipment used, regulations like OSHA, and safety requirements around large mechanical and power systems. But, the application of Human Factors in data centers is relatively new. In talking to Mike Manos, he described how Microsoft designed its data centers to make it easier to receive fully assembled racks and deploy the heavy racks to their location.

In software and hardware, User Interface design is a more popular term.

In the industrial design field of human-machine interaction, the user interface is (a place) where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the machine which aids the operator in making operational decisions. Examples of this broad concept of user interfaces include the interactive aspects of computer operating systems, hand tools, heavy machinery operator controls. and process controls. The design considerations applicable when creating user interfaces are related to or involve such disciplines as ergonomics and psychology.

Human Factor and User Interface is discussed in isolated areas within the data center, but I don't think I have heard any one discussing human factors and data centers in the same breath.

The #1 risk to data center operations are human related. How much did it cost Microsoft and Hitachi Data Systems for the T-Mobile data loss disaster that was a human error.

While users will be relieved that their information looks likely to be recovered, the episode poses several questions over the competence of Danger’s staff; the technical ability of contractor Hitachi Data Systems; and the inherent stupidity of the Cloud concept.

While we are unlikely ever to be told the full story, it looks very much as if Hitachi’s attempts to upgrade Danger’s Storage Area Network failed big time and that the data was put at risk not by hardware failure, but by good old-fashioned human error.

This one event that had a multiple human errors did hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Hitachi and Microsoft. Can Hitachi sell a storage system? Can Microsoft sell its Smartphones?

This problem was caused by people who didn't spend the time to think how the people are interacting with the data center systems.

This is one of my more rambling posts, there are some good ideas here, I need to think about them a bit more though.