Big Data, Hadoop, Dell, and Splunk, where is the connection?

I have been busy working on a Big Data paper, so my blogging is not as often.  Getting into Big Data technical details has been easy, and then it hit me that Big Data in data centers and IT has a lot in common with monitoring and management systems.  Collecting gigabytes or even terabytes of data a day to monitor operations is a big data center problem.

Researching the Big Data topic it was interesting to see the intersection of Dell, Hadoop, and Splunk in Big Data.

Barton George has a post on Splunk.

Hadoop World: Talking to Splunk’s Co-founder 2 Votes Last but not least in the 10 interviews I conducted while at Hadoop World is my talk with Splunk‘s CTO and co-founder Erik Swan. If you’re not familiar with Splunk think of it as a search engine for machine data, allowing you to monitor and analyze what goes on in your systems. To learn more, listen to what Erik has to say:

Barton references a GigaOm post on Splunk and Hadoop.

Splunk connects with Hadoop to master machine data

By Derrick Harris Nov. 8, 2011, 6:49am PT No Comments

• in Share42

Splunk has integrated its flagship product with Apache Hadoop to enable large-scale batch analytics on top of Splunk’s existing sweet spot around real-time search, analysis and visualization of server logsand other machine-generated data. Splunk has long had to answer questionsabout why anyone should use its product over Hadoop, and the new integration not only addresses those concerns but actually opens the door for hybrid environments.

Dell's Barton George is interview himself as well at Hadoop World.

Hadoop World: What Dell is up to with Big Data, Open Source and Developers

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Besides interviewing a bunch of people at Hadoop World, I also got a chance to sit on the other side of the camera.  On the first day of the conference I got a slot on SiliconANGLE’s the Cube and was interviewed by Dave Vellante, co-founder of Wikibon and John Furrier, founder of SiliconANGLE.

-> Check out the video here.

DatacenterKnowledge posts Poll on whether Renewable Energy is a factor now that Facebook and Greenpeace collaborate

DatacenterKnowledge has a poll post.

Poll: Green Power and Data Center Site Selection

• By: Rich Miller
• December 16th, 2011

Facebook said yesterday that its data center site location policy “now states a preference for access to clean and renewable energy.” The announcement ended a long-running feud between the social network and the environmental group Greenpeace, which had targeted Facebook in a social media and PR campaign because the company’s two data centers in Oregon and North Carolina each relied upon utility power that originated primarily from coal.

You find out the results when you take the poll.  I put my vote in and saw I was the first to vote. so, now 100% say renewable energy is a factor. :-)  But, of course I am biased thinking Green Data Centers are important.  Is there such a thing as an unbiased opinion?

Banning Cellphone use while driving, where is the data and who will fight the ban

WSJ has a post on the NHTSA's call to ban cellphone use while driving.

Next Up in the Distracted Driving Debate: Where’s the Data?

The National Transportation Safety Board’s call Tuesday to ban all cellphone use in cars will put a spotlight on the conflicting data about how common and dangerous such behavior is.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration earlier this month released the results of the “National Occupant Protection Use Survey” – conducted by researchers who watched drivers at intersections. This study concluded that about 5% of drivers were holding cell phones behind the wheel. That study also found that 0.9% of drivers were manipulating a hand-held device – a proxy for texting.

Part of this discussion is where the data is to support the conclusions.

The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a separate study earlier this month – this one a telephone survey conducted in November and December of 2010 – that tracks closer to State Farm’s findings. http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/traffic_tech/tt407.pdf This survey found that 80% of men and 73% of women will answer calls while driving, while 43% of men and 39% of women said they would make calls on the road. The NHTSA said its survey had 6,002 respondents.

Both the State Farm and NHTSA telephone use survey found that respondents were more tolerant of talking while driving than texting. In the State Farm survey, 74% said they strongly agreed with the idea of banning texting while driving, but only 36% strongly agreed with the notion of a ban on talking on the phone.

And, who do you think would argue most against this data?  Who has the most to lose if this goes into law?  The cell phone carriers.  You can imagine the carrier lobbyists in Washington maneuvering.

Maybe we should ban talking while driving as that is distracting.  Or ban kids from being in the car.

I wonder how many accidents are caused by children in the car vs. talking on the phone?  Of course this is silly, but if you are overly obsessed with making driving safer, you come up with silly ideas.

Facebook and Greenpeace smoke the peace pipe, and join forces for renewable energy

Greenpeace has a press release regarding the new partnership with Facebook for renewable energy.

Victory! Facebook Friends Renewable Energy

Blogpost by Greenpeace International - December 15, 2011 at 9:45

After 20 months of mobilizing, agitating and negotiating to green Facebook, the Internet giant has today announced its goal to run on clean, renewable energy. More than 700,000 people from all over the world joined to make this possible! Facebook's message to energy producers is clear: invest now in renewable energy, and move away from coal power.

Here is a new video that Greenpeace has created.

Facebook has been the target for Greenpeace for carbon impact of data centers, but now that the peace pipe has been smoked Greenpeace will move on to the next targets.  Like who?  Watch this video to see who is on the list.  But don't sigh in relief if your logo is not below.  Who knows who Greepeace will target next to change their ways and have a strategy for a Green (low carbon) Data Center.

Here is what else Facebook says in their press release to give you a hint this is just the beginning.

If all the Internet giants would unfriend coal, it would send a message to utilities and investors that couldn't be ignored. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has shown today what other IT leaders should be doing.

Energy efficiency is important, but for an energy revolution to save the planet we also need to upgrade to green energy. Who will be next?

Here is the full text of the Facebook and Greenpeace collaboration.  Note the use of Open Compute Project to support the collaboration.

Facebook and Greenpeace collaboration

on Clean and Renewable Energy 15 December, 2011

________________________________________________________________________

Facebook is committed to supporting the development of clean and renewable sources of energy, and our goal is to power all of our operations with clean and renewable energy. Building on our leadership in energy efficiency (through the Open Compute Project), we are working in partnership with
Greenpeace and others to create a world that is highly efficient and powered by clean and renewable energy. This effort will include a range of activities:

By Facebook

• Adopting a siting policy that states a preference for access to clean and renewable energy supply

• Ongoing research into energy efficiency and the open sharing of that technology through the Open Compute Project

• Ongoing research into clean energy solutions for our future data centers

• Engaging in a dialogue with our utility providers about increasing the supply of clean energy that

  power Facebook data centers

  By Greenpeace

• Active support for the Open Compute Project, including encouraging companies to join the effort, use the technology, and share their efficiency technology

• Encouraging utility providers to offer ways for customers to get their utility data, including by joining the partnership with Opower, Facebook, and NRDC

• Recognize company leadership in advancing best practices in efficiency or sustainability technology through the open source sharing of design and technology advances.

  Together

• Working together to develop and promote experiences on Facebook that help people and organizations connect with ways to save energy and engage their communities in clean energy issues.

• Co-hosting roundtables and discussions with experts on energy issues.

• Jointly engaging other large energy users and producers to address the energy choice they are facing and develop new clean energy rather than recommission coal plants or build new coal plants.

Tablet's are dominated by wifi only connections, interesting data for highest growth segment

MSNBC has a post referencing a study that shows the internet access for Tablets.

Wi-Fi beats cellular for tablet connections

The NPD Group's Connected Intelligence

By Suzanne Choney

Wireless carriers may be pricing themselves out of the tablet market; a new study shows that more tablet owners are choosing to use Wi-Fi only connections instead of cellular for their devices.

Myself all my tablet type of devices are wifi only as I connect them to my Verizon 4G wifi device.  If you look at the cost of cellular coverage for a tablet it is daunting for many.

Take the iPad, for example; AT&T's data plan for it is $14.99 for 250 MB of data a month, or $25 a month for 2 GB of data. Verizon Wireless charges $30 for 2 GB a month, $50 for 5 GB; and $80 for 10 GB. To boot, a Wi-Fi-only iPad, with 16 GB, costs $499, compared to $629 for a model that also has a cellular chip in it. The same is true for other tablets that come in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi/cellular combinations; there's a premium to be paid for having both.

Honestly, my shared connection device is often less than 1GB a month, but can change when I travel more.

Data above gives you some ideas of what the general population dose.  But, I am amazed there is a percentage of people with None of connectivity.  I wonder how they use their devices?