Microsoft launches China Cloud Services

Microsoft and 21Vianet have partnered to provide Microsoft Cloud services in China.

Microsoft Partners With 21Vianet to Offer China-Based Cloud Services

By Paul Mozur

BEIJING--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said it is partnering with Chinese data center services provider 21Vianet Group Inc. (VNET) to offer cloud services based on data centers within China.

In a post on its website Thursday, Microsoft said it licensed its cloud-based Office 365 and Windows Azure software to Nasdaq-listed 21Vianet, which will allow clients in China to store data in Chinese data centers.

Microsoft added that it would offer clients in China the option to choose between hosting their data within or outside China. The decision about where to host data for a company can be highly sensitive as it is effectively outsourcing the storage of often critical data to a third party. Chinese storage centers are also subject to Chinese laws, which analysts say can at times provide less protection.

GigaOm's Barb Darrow points to the original Microsoft blog post that announces the new services.

Microsoft takes Azure to China

• BY Barb Darrow
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Chasing a potentially huge market, Microsoft has inked a pact with the municipality of Shanghai and with ISP 21Vianet to offer Windows Azure services in China. The deal could be huge but also problematic, given problems Google and other U.S. companies have had in China.

Here is the Microsoft post.

Cloud OS is coming to China

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Doug Hauger 

1 Nov 2012 2:00 AM

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Today, I’m pleased to announce that Microsoft is bringing our premier public cloud platform Windows Azure to China.  Following our recent launch of Windows Server 2012, this represents the next step in delivering our Cloud OS vision to China by delivering multi-tenant public and private cloud services to millions of businesses in China.

We believe customers should have a choice in how and when they move to the cloud, and Windows Server 2012 and Windows Azure give customers the ability to choose the right cloud solutions for them. Whether it is on premise in their own datacenter or using the public cloud capabilities of Windows Azure, we are committed to giving our customers and partners the best solutions to meet their business needs.

Today, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the municipality of Shanghai; and we have signed a landmark agreement to license Microsoft technologies to 21Vianet, who will offer Windows Azure services in China from local datacenters. This will meet the demands of customers in China.  

We’re excited to soon be able to satisfy the enormous appetite in China for a public cloud platform with the security and reliability features that customers demand from Microsoft.  A recent Forrester Research report on cloud computing (Forrester Research, Sizing The Cloud Markets In Asia Pacific, Feb. 3, 2012) found that the public cloud market in China will grow from $297 million in 2011 to $3.8 billion in 2020. With today’s announcement, Windows Azure is well positioned to have a strong presence in China and to serve local businesses seeking to take advantage of the cloud on their terms.

- Doug Hauger, General Manager, Microsoft Server and Tools Division

Squarespace has retired the diesel bucket brigade, but the fuel filter needs to be changed, adding downtime

This blog is hosted by Squarespace at Peer 1's facility in lower Manhattan.  The media has covered their bucket brigade carrying diesel fuel to the 17th floor.  

And, now they have finally got a fuel pump working to pump the fuel to the fuel tanks.

Update [6:25pm ET]

We have confirmed that the fuel pump is now working. We can now operate off of fuel indefinitely and there are continuous deliveries scheduled.

But, now they are facing a fuel filter change.

Additional issues remain, the largest of which being that our generator will need to be taken offline at some point to clean the fuel filter. We can avoid that downtime if Peer1 can provide a street level generator. If this generator failure does occur, we expect the level of downtime to be on the order of an hour, instead of the multi-day outage we were facing at the onset of this crisis. We remain in a difficult situation, but the most difficult challenge we were presented with is now behind us. As of this writing, Squarespace has miraculously avoided all downtime related to Sandy, but we still have many challenges ahead with respect to getting back to anything normal.

With all these diesel generators running, maintenance events are coming up and standby generators are not meant for continuous operation for days at a time.  

Increased Diesel Tanker shipping rates shows the increase in demand

It is simple economics to know the price increases when there is a shortage of a resource.

NJ.com (Bloomberg) has an article on the increases in diesel shipping costs on the East Coast.

Phillips 66 and Hess Corp’s New Jersey refineries remained shut today, three days after Atlantic superstorm Sandy struck the East Coast. Earnings for tankers shipping diesel to Europe from the U.S Gulf increased by more than fourfold to $12,349 a day, data from the London-based Baltic Exchange showed today.

“So many ships are stuck in New York and running late, and the pipelines are closed, so everything is being sourced ex-U.S. Gulf,” Martin said by e-mail. “It has made a massive impact on this market.”

It would seem like diesel fuel is a scarce resource and someone is going to run out of diesel.

Will Diesel shortages be the next unwelcome event after Sandy?

There are hundreds of diesel generators running to make-up for the power outages after Sandy.

FEMA has deployed hundreds of diesel generators in addition to the existing ones in place.

"Power generation tends to drive all the response and recovery activities," said FEMA chief Craig Fugate on Tuesday, adding that his agency had deployed hundreds of generators around the East Coast before the storm.

The EPA has issued a waiver for low sulfur diesel.

NEW YORK | Wed Oct 31, 2012 4:57pm EDT

(Reuters) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday granted New Jersey a temporary waiver on Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) requirements to help counter a shortfall in fuel supplies in parts of the state following Hurricane Sandy.

The waiver allows for the sale of diesel fuel that exceeds standards of 15 parts per million of sulfur under limited conditions effective immediately, according to a letter from EPA administrator Lisa Jackson to Governor Chris Christie.

The EPA letter is here.

Green Data Center Blog is on diesel generators with manual fuel delivery, up to 4hrs before someone needs to hike up the stairs

Squarespace is the Blog hosting service I use for the Green Data Center Blog.  

Squarespace is in Peer1 facility which is without utility power, and a flooded basement where the diesel fuel is stored.

Yesterday I received this e-mail.

Dear Customer,

I have some unfortunate news to share. Our primary data center, Peer1, in Lower Manhattan lost power yesterday at about 4:30PM local time. At that time, we smoothly made the transition to generator power and took comfort over the fact that we had enough fuel to last three to four days. (Peer1 stayed online during the last 3 major natural disasters in the area, including a blackout that lasted for days.)

At 8:30PM yesterday, we received reports that the lobby in the data center's building was beginning to take on water. By 10:30PM, as is sadly the case in most of Lower Manhattan, Peer1's basement had experienced serious flooding. At 5AM, we learned our data center's fuel pumps and fuel tanks were completely flooded and unable to deliver any more fuel. At 8AM, they reported that the generators would be able to run for a maximum of four more hours.

Luckily, Peer 1 did not go down as expected.  What did they do?  They are hand carrying the fuel to the diesel generator on the 17th floor.  Here is the complete thread with updates.

Update [12:40pm ET]

Good news and bad news.

We were able to give the crew 90 minutes off because the tank is full. That’s about 4 hours of power given daytime usage. We’ll start back up at 1:30. Our awesome teammates are hoofing lunch over the Brooklyn Bridge for us. As we’ve said before, this situation is untenable. We can’t keep manpower going 24/7 for days.

They are trying to pump the fuel, but are finding out how hard a pump has to work to pump up to the 17th floor.

The building’s first attempt at an alternative method for pumping fuel to the 18th floor has failed, as the fuel pump wasn’t powerful enough. They believe they have sourced an alternate pump, but given the situation in New York City right now, we’re in a wait-and-see posture. Fuel- and water-pumps are in short supply.

Here is the flooded basement where the fuel was supposed to be pumped from.

Here are more photos they have shared.