Is RIM's Server placement in Saudi Arabia the tipping point for server placement based on politics?

August 6, 2010 Dave Ohara

The media has been covering the RIM Blackberry in Saudi Arabia, speculating on shutting down the service. The easy answer is put a blackberry server in Saudi Arabia, the problem is does RIM want to take on the costs to run blackberry servers in another country. The alternative is lose revenue.

This was bound to happen at some point, and if RIM is smart they'll negotiate an increase in subscription fees to cover the costs of running servers in Saudi Arabia or just consider the costs part of selling in other countries.

MSNBC has an article on the deal between Saudi Arabia and RIM.

Saudi says deal reached on BlackBerry services

Agreement lets government monitor wireless message traffic

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STR / AP

A Saudi customer is served in a mobile shop at a market in the capital Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010. Some Saudis are trying to sell their BlackBerrys ahead of a ban on the smart phone's messenger service in the kingdom _ but with few willing to buy, they're having to slash prices. (AP Photo)

By ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and the makers of the BlackBerry smartphone have reached a deal on accessing users' data that will avert a ban on the phone's messenger service, a Saudi official said Saturday.

The agreement, involving placing a BlackBerry server inside Saudi Arabia, would allow the government to monitor users' messages and allay official fears the service could be used for criminal purposes, the official said.

The deal could have wide-ranging implications for several other countries, including India and the United Arab Emirates, which have expressed similar concerns over how BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd., handles data.

An interesting question for the data center industry is where are the Blackberry servers going to be placed? Who owns the data center? Who has access?

Unfortunately, the deployment of additional servers in countries is most likely not very green for the RIM data center group as centralizing the resources is much more efficient. The plane flights from RIM HQ to Riyadh will increase the carbon footprint as well.

But as cell phone technology matures is it inevitable that country politicians want web services to be in their country.

Who is next? Facebook, Twitter, Google?

The experienced data center executives take into account political environments in data center placement.

Do you?

First reaction to Lee Tech on Tap in Chicago,

August 5, 2010 Dave Ohara

The energy was high at Lee Tech on Tap in Chicago and I can see why people keep on attending. Given how much I have written about the event many people were surprised this was my first one to attend and I am glad my first was where it started.

There are some great people I met there and discussed ideas that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't at the event. Usually when you go to an event you feel good if you make a couple of good contacts. In one night, I made at least 7 good connections that I will follow up on.

The benefit of an event is finding people of the same mindset and people who are different who stimulate new thinking.

A good indicator of the energy and how well things worked is the sub groups that existed. There were over a dozen sub groups and people knew at some point, "hey you need to take to Mike, he is right over there, let me get him."

The support of sub group of discussion is a method to foster better collaboration. This is what Rob Howard discusses in the post I reference on collaboration software.

It should be noted that I am not advocating that communities be limited by membership size. Rather, capabilities should exist within a larger community to support smaller, internal groups that can form around narrow areas of interest. This is validated by both Twitter and Facebook , which have in recent months both introduced capabilities to narrow the scope of conversations:Lists, privacy controls, and so on.

I am still digesting the event, and there are a series of follow up meetings I have today based on the connections I made last night.

It was well worth the plane trip to come to Chicago. And, I am looking forward to my next Lee Tech on Tap event.

Green Data Center Renewable Network in Canada

August 4, 2010 Dave Ohara

It can be hard green your energy supply to one data center as unless you are Google Energy you don't have the resources and use to investigate new ideas. So, in Canada there are a collection of data centers looking to have a low carbon data center footprint.

ITBusinessEdge writes.

The Green Data Center: Pursuing the Big Picture
Posted by Arthur Cole Aug 3, 2010 4:52:30 PM

The quest for the ever-greener data center has long focused on more energy-efficient hardware and software platforms, both to lower consumption for actual data processing and lessen the resulting heat load.

Most of the these initiatives have one thing in common: They target energy use at individual facilities. This has been a problem for supporters of renewable energy in particular, who have faced resistance from those who say such sources are unreliable.

But what if we approached the problem from a broader perspective, say, by linking data centers together and driving efficiencies at the utility level? Is it possible that we could see not only greater conservation but improved service as well?

The GreenStar Network is the Canadian project.

The goal of the GreenStar Network Project is to initiate a Canadian consortium of industry, universities and government agencies with the common goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from information & communication technology (ICT) services.

The expected result is the creation of tools, protocols, procedures, use cases for a growing network of ICT service providers that offers customers the lowest price and greenest services.

The project is innovative because it focuses on the relationship between networks and green datacenters in order to provide Green ICT services. Canada and Canadians will benefit by a continued growth of ICT with significantly reduced carbon footprint and an international leadership role in Green ICT.

Scientific computing comments.

Solar-Powered Datacenter Launches in Green Internet Network

A rooftop solar-powered datacenter has been connected to Canada’s first “green” powered internet network. On June 29, 2010, Cybera, with national partners CANARIE and the GreenStar Network (GSN) Project, connected the Calgary node, which is managed by Cybera, will draw more than 1,840 watts of power from eight solar panels (230 watts each) installed on roof space donated by Calgary Technologies in the Alastair Ross Technology Centre. Over the next few months, the GSN Project will connect five different nodes across Canada, each powered by renewable energy sources as they store and transfer research data for pilot user groups.

Is is more likely that green data centers can occur on a campus type of network?

I think so, this approach is what we have been discussing with the folks in Missouri and their data center site.

Helmet Cam hardware for Remote Data Center Operations

August 3, 2010 Dave Ohara

The momentum for the helmet cam idea for remote data center operations continues to grow. My friend who started the solution 3 months ago is buying three more sets of hardware.

When you think Helmet Cam you may be thinking images like this.

Well what it looks like is this.

There are three pieces of hardware - the wireless helmet camera, the Bluetooth noise cancelling headset, and a video streaming server.

As soon as I have video that is approved for posting, I'll post again. And soon I'll provide the list of hardware used.

There are a handful of people I am working with to continue the evaluation. If you think you want to be an early adopter, you can contact me.

Attending Lee Tech on Tap in Chicago - Aug 5, 2010

August 2, 2010 Dave Ohara

Thanks to the folks at Lee Technologies I was extended an invite to attend the Lee Tech on Tap event in Chicago on Aug 5, 2010. I've written about the event so much, it will be good to see the people and event in person.

I would live blog the event, but I think I'll be too busy talking to people. I don't expect any press releases surrounding the event so there is no need to hurry and post.

As the event is hosted in an Irish Pub, I am sure I will get the question isn't your name Ohara Irish.

I’ve been to Ireland many times visiting Apple and Microsoft facilities, and my name Dave Ohara so many times my name gets spelled with an apostrophe (like O’Hara). But I am not Irish even though I have kissed the Blarney stone and bought a family crest for my Dad of O’Hara. My Ohara surname is Japanese, but I still enjoy Ireland. I don’t have this problem when I go to Japan. :-)

Ohara is a Japanese surname (e. g.: 小原,尾原,大原)

For those of you attending, I'll probably be one of the few Japanese Americans there, so I should be easy to spot.

Here are a list of things I am looking for:

Why people like the event and how it compares to other data center events?
What are top issues/problems that people think need to be addressed in data centers?
What do people think of the helmet cam idea?
What should I be blogging more about?
Do people think Green is an issue for data centers?

I'll be at the event early and staying late.