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On Dec 19, 2012 10a will be a webinar discussing the ARM chip in the data center. The webinar is here.
Power matters: using ARM to reduce data center costsA consumer using a computer to shop, email, search, or any of the other myriad tasks now possible, usually measures power consumption by the dollar figure on the monthly electrical bill. But as two recent, highly controversial articles in the New York Times reiterated, U.S. data centers backing up those tasks consume as much as two percent of the nation’s power consumption. Long before the articles appeared, data centers were aware of the problem and had begun employing various strategies to lower cooling costs, eliminate redundancies, and improve power usage effectiveness (PUE).
Another solution is deploying ultra-low power servers that reduce data center power needs – in a sense, reinventing the server. How does the efficiency of this solution stack up against the alternatives? What are some specific use cases? And, what’s the future for ARM-based server solutions? For answers to these and many other questions, join GigaOM Pro and our sponsor Calxeda for “Power matters: using ARM to reduce data center costs,” a free analyst roundtable webinar on Wednesday, December 19, 2012, at 10 a.m. PT.
I'll be on the webinar and Barry Evans from Calxeda.
Our panel of experts includes:
- Adam Lesser, Cleantech curator at GigaOM
- Dave Ohara, GigaOM Pro analyst and founder, GreenM3
- Simon Anderson, CEO, DreamHost
- Barry Evans, CEO, Calxeda
3 years ago I was introduced to how differently Google thinks of the word infrastructure when a Google guy I met said he worked on Google Infrastructure. My context was from thinking of the definition.
Definition of INFRASTRUCTURE
1: the underlying foundation or basic framework (as of a system or organization)2: the permanent installations required for military purposes3: the system of public works of a country, state, or region;also : the resources (as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity
So, he worked in the data center group. No, he worked on Google Infrastructure. Search - the underlying foundation or basic framework of the company. Cities are built on infrastructure which is where we commonly get the use of the word.
The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads,bridges, water supply, sewers, electrical grids, telecommunications, and so forth, and can be defined as "the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions."[3]
Google goes far in its use of Infrastructure to the point where Urs Hoelzle says he is an Infrastructure Czar.
Urs Hölzle, Google’s infrastructure czar tells us what the Cloud really is and what it is supposed to do.
It was nearly five years ago when I last spent time with Urs Hölzle, Google’s infrastructure czar. (His official title is SVP of operations.) It was around that time he introduced me (and several others) to many of the concepts (such as cloud and big data) that are now part of the technology sector’s vernacular. Hölzle was company’s first VP of engineering, and he has led the development of Google’s technical infrastructure.
Hölzle’s current responsibilities include the design and operation of the servers, networks and data centers that power Google. It would be an understatement to say that he is amongst the folks who have shaped the modern web-infrastructure and cloud-related standards. When I had a chance to chat with him recently, my question was, “How do you define the cloud?”
...
Others might disagree, but Hölzle believes Google’s common infrastructure gives it a technological and financial edge over on-premise solutions. “We’re able to avoid some of that fragmentation and build on a common infrastructure,” says Hölzle. “That’s actually one of the big advantages of the cloud.”
Do you have an infrastructure czar or VP at your Web2.0, cloud company? If not, you may have a hard time competing against those who have figured out how important infrastructure is.
If you asked an experienced data center person how many times a day they are blind to what is going on. They don't know. Why? Because, you are asking them to see what they don't perceive, how many times you miss seeing something.
i-Perception has a post on research done to discover the frequency of when people miss a fight.
If you don't think this research applies, then you are probably of a mindset that you have a photographic memory and can remember all kind of details. But, it is impossible to have a perfect photographic memory.
The Truth About Photographic Memory
It's impossible to recover images with perfect accuracy. The myth of photographic memory.By William Lee Adams, published on March 01, 2006 - last reviewed on August 07, 200859-year-old Akira Haraguchi recited from memory the first 83,431 decimal places of pi, earning a spot in the Guinness World Records.
He must have a photographic memory, right? Not so. According to mounting evidence, it's impossible to recall images with near perfect accuracy.
When a professor studied Eidetic (photographic memory), he found they were not perfect.
Alan Searleman, a professor of psychology at St. Lawrence University in New York, says eidetic imagery comes closest to being photographic. When shown an unfamiliar image for 30 seconds, so-called "eidetikers" can vividly describe the image—for example, how many petals are on a flower in a garden scene. They report "seeing" the image, and their eyes appear to scan across the image as they describe it. Still, their reports sometimes contain errors, and their accuracy fades after just a few minutes. Says Searleman, "If they were truly 'photographic' in nature, you wouldn't expect any errors at all."
Now, you may think you are the exception, but consider this reason why we don't have photographic memory.
Although psychologists don't know why children lose the ability, the loss of this skill may be functional: Were humans to remember every single image, it would be difficult to make it through the day.
And, even if you do have photographic memory, does everyone else in your data center team?
So, how many mistakes and errors in judgement are made because people are absolutely sure they saw something or sure that something did not occur, when in fact they are wrong.
Being wrong is painful, and the reality is we are blind every day. Yet, how many systems, processes, and management decisions all make the assumption that you see everything and remember all the details. That everyone has a perfect photographic memory.
Real-time computing is typically thought of control systems for mission critical computers - airplanes that cant' fall out of the sky, nuclear plants, oil refineries, pharmaceutical manufacturing.
(Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) denoting or relating to a data-processing system in which a computer receives constantly changing data, such as information relating to air-traffic control, travel booking systems, etc., and processes it sufficiently rapidly to be able to control the source of the data
The desktop could do real-time things, but it wasn't designed to be a real-time computer. Sometimes there are long delays where you get hour glass or spinning wheel. A real-time system was used because failure of the system to respond in an accepted amount of time was not acceptable.
With the rapid growth of Mobile and people's expectation of a good UI experience. What app succeeds that makes users wait? or even worse wait longer at random times. In the users eye, the app is broken. That app will quickly lose users and fail. Guess what users expect real-time response.
I found this table of user response time. The 0.1 second is a general rule of thumb. But, what mobile users would wait 10 seconds?
able 7-1 Maximum acceptable response times for typical events
UI Event Maximum Acceptable Response Time Mouse click, pointer movement, window movement or resizing, keypress, button press, drawing gesture, other UI input event involving hand-eye co-ordination 0.1 second Displaying progress indicators, completing ordinary user commands (e.g. closing a window), completing background tasks (e.g. reformatting a table) 1.0 second Displaying a graph or anything else a typical user would expect to take time (e.g. displaying a new list of all a company's financial transactions for an accounting period) 10.0 seconds Accepting and processing all user input to any task 10.0 seconds
And, does even 0.10 second feel too long. If you are playing a game a 0.10 delay could totally change the game experience.
Guess what users expectations are that systems perform like real time systems.
Within a couple of weeks Microsoft announced a Poop powered data center, and Charlotte Observer discovered in public permit documents that Apple is doubling its fuel cell capacity. The first is a supported PR release, the 2nd is not a PR, but a leak for the Apple paparazzi. Which did better? From a traffic stand point, they look about equal looking at social metrics on news.com.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57552152-71/microsoft-speaks-poop-to-power/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57557187-37/apple-looks-to-double-its-n.c-biogas-fuel-cell-farm/
Microsoft has a bunch of news covering its poop powered data center.
Commence Giggling: Microsoft's New Data Center Will Be Fueled by Poop
Geekosystem -Nov 20, 2012This is really happening!Microsoftannounced in a blog post on Monday that they're building a newdata centerthat will be fueled by the methane from a sewage treatment plant. The newdata centerwill be a 200kW facility built at the existing Dry Creek Water...Turning poop into power: Microsoft building innovative data center to test clean ...
GeekWire -Nov 19, 2012In other words, they're figuring out how to turnpoopinto power. Without energy from a local power grid,Microsoftwill maintain a 200-kilowattdata centerdirectly next to the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility waste water treatment plant in Cheyenne,...Microsoft plans poop-fueled data center
Seattle Post Intelligencer -Nov 19, 2012Page 1 of 1.Microsoftplans to build the firstdata centerthat is completely off the grid, recycling "common waste" to sustainably power cloud services, the company announced Monday. The Redmond-based tech giant is spending about $5.5 million in research...Microsoft speaks poop to power
CNET -Nov 19, 2012Microsoftdoesn't want to risk taking any verbal dung from you on such matters, so it announced today that it is building adata centerpowered by, well, waste matter. Yes, yourMicrosoftcloud uploads could soon be powered by your own personal downloads.Microsoft Uncovers Special Bond Between Computers and Toilets
Wired -Nov 19, 2012ButMicrosoftbelieves this will be the first “zero carbon”data center, meaning it won't be responsible for harmful carbon emissions unloaded onto Mother Nature, and it may be the first to actually power adata centerwithpoop— though this has long been the...Microsoft plans to build data center in Wyoming that runs on human and animal ...
Daily Mail -Nov 21, 2012Microsoftis not a company to let anything go to waste, as it proved this week by unveiling a project to build adata centerin Wyoming that runs, well, on waste. The new plant will be operated out of the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility in Cheyenne,...
And here is Apple's coverage
Apple Data Center Does Fuel Cell Industry a Huge Favor
MIT Technology Review - 3 hours agoApple says the much-watched project (Wired actually hired a pilot to take photos of it) will be one of the most environmentally benign data centers ever built because it will use several energy-efficiency tricks and run on biogas-powered fuel cells and a giant ...Apple to double size of fuel cell plant at NC data center
Apple Insider - 22 hours agoApple to double size of fuel cell plant at NC data center. By Mikey Campbell. A new filing with the North Carlina Utilities Commission reveals that Apple plans to double the number of fuel cells deployed at its Maiden data center, with a total energy output able ...Apple Doubles Renewable Project at Expense of Duke Energy Customers
National Legal and Policy Center - 1 hour agoA data center in western North Carolina built by Apple, Inc. has now doubled the size of its associated power-generating fuel cell facility, one which in April NLPC reported was a conflict of interest for Apple director and former Vice President Al Gore.Apple's Data Center and the Clean Energy Paradox
The Green Optimistic (blog) - 11 hours agoApple 300x137 Apple's Data Center and the Clean Energy Paradox According to the North Carolina Utility Commission, Apple intends to double the amount of fuel cells it will use at its data center in Maiden, North Carolina. In November, Apple filed to ...Apple to double fuel-cell capacity in North Carolina
DatacenterDynamics - 19 hours agoApple wants to double the generation capacity of its fuel-cell plant next to its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The company has filed papers with the state's utility regulators, notifying them of the plan to increase the size of the fuel-cell installation ...Apple looks to double its NC biogas fuel cell farm
CNET - Dec 4, 2012Apple announced in May that it intended to have its $1 billion data center in Maiden, N.C., run entirely off renewable energy by the end of the year. The company said it was building two solar array installations in the area, which when combined will bring in 84 ...Apple to double its already massive fuel cell farm in North Carolina
GigaOM - Dec 4, 2012Apple has decided to more than double the amount of fuel cells it is using to generate power at its data center in North Carolina, according to filings with the North Carolina Utility Commission, and first reported by The Charlotte Observer. Fuel cell provider ...
