Asia Pacific Nations agree to cut duties on Green Technologies

Reuters has a post on an agreement between APEC nations.

Will slash tariffs on environmental technology by 2015

* U.S.-led regional free trade talks to push ahead

* Pacific rim trade forecast to grow rapidly

* APEC leaders hold summit at weekend

By Douglas Busvine

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations have made a breakthrough in promoting trade in 'green' technology, and the United States is pressing ahead with efforts to carve out a regional free-trade zone, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

I can't find the exact list of technologies, but there are 54.

Ministers agreed on a list of 54 green technologies that will be subject to import duties of 5 percent or less from 2015, following through on a commitment made by leaders at the last APEC summit in Honolulu a year ago.

Google Announces LATAM Green Data Center Construction, Where are the other two?

Google announced its first LATAM data center in Chile.

Quilicura, Chile

Located in a community just outside of Santiago, Chile, this will be Google's first data center in Latin America.

Read more about our Chile data center

Hello Chile!

In September 2012, we announced our plans to build a data center in the municipality of Quilicura, near Santiago, Chile. We’re now beginning construction, and we plan to start bringing the facility online by the end of 2013.

Building this data center in Chile is an exciting step for us. As Internet usage in Latin America grows, people are looking for information and entertainment, new business opportunities and better ways to connect with friends and family near and far. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users across Latin America and the world have the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services.

We are also really excited about the facility itself. We estimate that our long-term investment in this data center will reach $150 million USD and will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Latin America, built to the same high standards we use around the world. Once operational, the data center will employ up to 20 people in a variety of full-time and contractor roles, including computer technicians, engineers and catering and security staff.

The news coverage is pretty good, but I haven't found anyone who asks the questions, where are the other two.   What other two?  Google building reliable Web 2.0 services tries to have three sites for availability.

One of the more interesting site is emol.com's coverage.  Google's Dan Costello was the data center spokesman and makes the good statement for a Green Data Center, being energy efficient with air cooling and low water use.

As revealed Dan Costello, director of data center operations for Google, the company's growth has made each day receive 3 billion searches, to climb 10 years of video to YouTube and 5 million businesses use Google Apps services . The data center facility will allow users Chilean and Latin America have better access to all services of the company, "fast and reliable" and promoting the migration to cloud computing.

Costello noted that Chile's temperate climate is ideal for the operation of the center as it will allow the cooling air through the atmosphere and water use will not affect the drinking water system Quilicura.

The data center of Gauteng will join other eight centers installed in the northern hemisphere (North America and Europe), plus four others that are currently under construction. Is expected to be ready by mid-2013.

So, where are the other two?  Well, maybe three.  I've known about this for a while, but didn't have a good reason to blog it.  How, just look at the Google job postings.

Operations Program Manager, Geo Operations - Sao Paulo - Google Jobs   Operations Program Manager, Geo Operations. Location: São Paulo. Team: Program Management. Apply now. This position is based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. ... www.google.com/.../operations-program-manager-geo-operations-sao-paulo. html

Data Center Program Manager - Latin America - Google Jobs   Data Center Program Manager. Location: Belo Horizonte. Team: Program Management. Apply now. This position is based in Latin America. ... www.google.com/.../data-center-program-manager-latin-america-2.html

Data Center Program Manager - Latin America - Google Jobs   Data Center Program Manager. Location: Lima. Team: Program Management. Apply now . This position is based in Latin America. ... www.google.com/.../data-center-program-manager-latin-america-7.html

When you map theses locations it looks like this.

Doesn't that make sense for a Google presence in LATAM vs. this?

Note, the other LATAM data center locations do not mean that Google will construct a data center.  The spaces could be in wholesale data center space.

Goldilock's Storage Solution, not too cold, not too hot - Pogoplug adds Amazon Glacier

Last week I got a chance to talk to PogoPlug CEO Dan Putterman.  And, what came to mind is Pogoplug's Amazon Glacier integration is a Goldilocks story.  Not too hot (expensive, yet fast).  Not too cold (cheaper, but slow).  Something just right which is a mix of hot and cold.

Daniel Putterman

President and CEO

Daniel, our fearless leader, President and CEO, is an industry-leading digital media entrepreneur. He founded Mediabolic in 1999 and served as CEO until its sale to Macrovision (now Rovi) in 2007. Mediabolic's software now powers millions of next generation digital consumer electronics devices. Additionally, he founded MaxInfo, the first collaborative Web media design software for the Internet (and acquired by NetManage), as well as EoExchange, a multimedia search engine for the Web. Over the last 20 years, Daniel has worked as an entrepreneur advocate, and has invested and teamed with colleagues to launch numerous Silicon Valley companies.

Daniel spent the earlier part of his career in senior management positions at Borland International and Symantec Corporation, where he was responsible for product management, business development and worldwide evangelism. He is a passionate and outgoing speaker on technology trends and issues. His dog, Riso, is our office mascot, troublemaker and vacuum cleaner.

It's one of the things I like about blogging is getting a 1/2 hr to talk to executives about their product from my home office, and learn a bit more. 

The press announcement that PogoPlug released this morning is for integration with Amazon Glacier.

September 06, 2012 09:00 ET

Pogoplug Introduces New Cloud Storage Service Using Amazon Glacier

New Service Combines Safe, Affordable Cloud Backup With Instant Access and Sharing

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Sep 6, 2012) - Pogoplug today announced its new cloud storage service for families and small businesses. The service seamlessly integrates Amazon's Glacier storage with Pogoplug-enabled storage in the home or office. The combination provides the most affordable and safest multi-user cloud backup, with instant access and sharing from anywhere on the Internet.

"Amazon is revolutionizing cloud storage with Glacier. Our new offering provides the missing link by eliminating the three to five hour retrieval time intrinsic to Glacier -- making all content instantly accessible," said Daniel Putterman, CEO of Pogoplug. "By keeping data synchronized between Amazon Glacier and a Pogoplug device in the home or office, we are offering unprecedented pricing for safe, fast cloud storage."

The Amazon Glacier support provides a tiered storage strategy with your local PogoPlug device, Amazon S3, and Glacier.  This range gives the benefits of hot local storage, cloud for Internet access speeds, and cold tape back-up for peace of mind. 

Part of geeking out with Dan was discussing Mac Time Machine support and how his device compares to the Drobo-FS I have in my office.

Not you don't have to store everything in the cloud if you don't have the Internet bandwidth.

Archive

Once your data is safely stored on your Pogoplug, with one click you can choose to have a second copy of all or part of your data automatically and continuously archived to Pogoplug’s secure cloud. This additional backup protects your most critical files in case of a disaster at home, keeping your data twice as safe.

I am kind of surprised how much press there is one the announcement, but that is the benefit of being one of the first with Amazon Glacier support. 

Pogoplug adds Amazon Glacier-based cloud storage, includes gratis devices ... Engadget - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug Team plans enable businesses to leverage existing servers or computers for backup, private cloud storage and team collaboration. Each Pogoplug Team plan includes a fully customizable user interface, and up to 5 terabytes of offsite cloud storage.   Pogoplug debuts first consumer cloud service to utilize Amazon Glacier BetaNews - ‎3 hours ago‎ Consumer and enterprise cloud storage company Pogoplug on Thursday announced it has integrated Amazon Glacier long-term archival storage into the Pogoplug service. In its usual fashion, Pogoplug mirrors content from your local drives in the cloud and ...   Pogoplug hooks up with Amazon Glacier for cheap cloud storage VentureBeat - ‎3 hours ago‎ Backup storage provider Pogoplug has integrated with Amazon's new Glacier cloud storage in a move to make the personal backup storage more affordable and reliable, the company announced today. Pogoplug competes with consumer cloud backup and ...   Pogoplug taps Amazon Glacier for archiving GigaOM - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug's Team Service lets businesses use an existing server as shared and secure storage for authorized users, and a small Pogoplug device brings similar capabilities to home users. Now those Pogoplug devices, using the Amazon Glacier API, will ...   Pogoplug adds cloud caution with Amazon Glacier SlashGear - ‎3 hours ago‎ Pogoplug continues to push its own interpretation of cloud storage, revealing today a new service integrating with Amazon Glacier for a combination of local and remote backup. The deal sees users able to keep copies of their files both at home or the office, ...   Bridging Hot And Cold Cloud Storage InformationWeek - ‎2 hours ago‎ Pogoplug had been quietly developing a way to plug a major hole in its service--namely, what happens when your personal cloud dies or you accidentally delete an important folder? Enter Glacier, a service seemingly tailor made for products like Pogoplug ...   PogoPlug Crushing Competition with 1TB of Cloud Storage for $99 a Year Gotta Be Mobile - ‎3 hours ago‎ PogoPlug offers some unique ways to do cloud storage using your own hard drives by interfacing with their software, website and PogoPlug devices, but they took a huge leap forward today announcing new PogoPlug with Amazon Glacier built-in. This gives ...   Pogoplug partners with Amazon to offer affordable cloud storage family plans TECH.BLORGE.com - ‎34 minutes ago‎ Pogoplug is pairing up with Amazon to offer not only its own storage devices but also online archival storage. That means that your information will be accessible even if your hard drive dies, gets a nasty virus, or you just upgrade your computer. They are also ...   Pogoplug launches Amazon Glacier-powered cloud storage service The Next Web - ‎3 hours ago‎ It's only been a couple weeks since Amazon launched its low-cost Glacier service for infrequently accessed data, but storage solutions provider Pogoplug is ready to take advantage of it. The company's Family and Team services both make use of Glacier ...   Pogoplug Unveils New Family And Small Business Cloud Storage Solutions ... Geeky gadgets - ‎3 hours ago‎ PogoPlug has launched a new service this week designed to provide families and small businesses with a Cloud storage solution which utilises Amazon's Glacier storage services. The new packages start from $29 a year for unlimited private cloud storage at ...

Air cooled State of the Art Molecular Lab/Office, shares its design and assumptions

Air cooling has been a hot topic for the data center industry with some of the most going to Yahoo's chicken coop which people don't really talk much about.  What is disappointing when companies say they have a new and better way, they don't share the details. What kind of details?

UW has opened a new Molecular Biology office/lab that has a focus on clean energy.

SEATTLE (AP) — As a building, the University of Washington's new molecular engineering lab is interesting in its own right — designed with cutting-edge features to make it energy efficient, and bright lab spaces with killer views of Mount Rainier and the Olympics.

But what really marks the newest building on the UW campus is the work going on inside, where scientists are designing proteins that could one day cure diseases, and clean technology materials that could make it easier to convert solar energy into electricity.

The building is mandated to LEED silver, and should be gold.  But what is the best part is the air cooling in this PDF.

It would be nice if the air cooled data center projects shared this amount of data.  Then, people could harvest best practices that would apply to their projects

There are diagrams of the airflow.

Seattle climate data.

Netflix open sources its middle-tier load balancer, Why?

GigaOm's Barb Darrow reports on Netflix's latest open sourcing of its middle tier load balancer.

According to the blog:

In AWS cloud, because of its inherent nature, servers come and go. Unlike the traditional load balancers which work with servers with well known IP addresses and host names, in AWS load balancing requires much more sophistication in registering and de-registering servers with the load balancer on the fly. Since AWS does not yet provide a middle tier load balancer, Eureka fills a big gap in that area.

The consistency of Netflix open sourcing its infrastructure makes it a pattern.  And, to understand the a pattern you need to ask what problems is Netflix trying to solve.  Why is Netflix sharing its infrastructure?

1. The process of open sourcing the code gets the developers to clean up their code and document.  There is some bad open source code out there, but there is also some very good.  The Netflix team takes pride in their sharing, so they want it to look good. 
2. Sharing this infrastructure makes Netflix an active member of the open source community.
3. The open source community then comments and makes input on Netflix contributions which are resources not  paid for.
4. The above makes the developers feel good about their participation in solving plumbing type (fundamental infrastructure) of problems that are not critical for protecting their IP.
5. The above allows Netflix to recruit new people.  Note almost every one of these postings ends with sentence, and we are hiring more people.  Finding really good people is a priority for Netflix.
6. Netflix gets positive PR consistently at conferences as they get mentioned for sharing and innovating in their IT infrastructure.

There are probably many more, but you get the basic idea.