Google's Emerging Market plans leaked, WSJ covers wireless efforts

Back in Sept 2012 Google announced its fits data center build in LATAM.  Making the jump from NAP of Americas to South America and being in co-location sites can only work for a limited audience.  At some point you'll need MWs of data center space.  

I have long said to my clients that there is an world wide race to provide sub 100ms latency to everyone in the world.  Google is a player and Equinix.  Digital Realty Trust is building out wholesale space.  Carriers are building relationships and capabilities to span the world.  Netflix is expanding in emerging markets which drives demand for AWS globally as well.

The WSJ covers Google's efforts in Africa and Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Google to Fund, Develop Wireless Networks in Emerging Markets

Google Inc. GOOG -1.07% is deep into a multipronged effort to build and help run wireless networks in emerging markets as part of a plan to connect a billion or more new people to the Internet.

These wireless networks would serve areas such as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia to dwellers outside of major cities where wired Internet connections aren't available, said people familiar with the strategy.

The networks also could be used to improve Internet speeds in urban centers, these people said.

Google plans to team up with local telecommunications firms and equipment providers in the emerging markets to develop the networks, as well as create business models to support them, these people said. It is unclear whether Google already has lined up such deals or alliances.

One of the areas I have been watching for is when servers will show up in cell tower installations to improve the performance and latency of mobile devices.  With Google's acquisition of Motorola they can create a wireless data center solution.  And there is even speculation Google will launch an airborne wireless fleet.

As part of the plan, Google has been working on building an ecosystem of new microprocessors and low-cost smartphones powered by its Android mobile operating system to connect to the wireless networks, these people said. And the Internet search giant has worked on making special balloons or blimps, known as high-altitude platforms, to transmit signals to an area of hundreds of square miles, though such a network would involve frequencies other than the TV broadcast ones.

Google has also considered helping to create a satellite-based network, some of these people said.

Some people may think this is new news, but there have been discussions even back in 2007 that Google was looking at wireless networks.

Sometimes the rumours are both outrageous and true. Google is experimenting with new ways of bringing broadband connections to consumers, by blanketing parts of Silicon Valley with Wi-Fi networks. It is planning to enter an auction for valuable radio spectrum in America, and thinking of radically new business models to make money from wireless data and voice networks, perhaps a free service supported by ads.

Who has the data on the social media wars? uh, search engines

Social Media is the big battlefield.  News.com has an article on Twitter's strength of hashtags vs. Facebook.

#Hashtags: Facebook's missing link to pop culture

The # symbol has become the key to connecting to people and events you care about on social media. It's also an obvious hole for Facebook.

Is this insight really meaningful?  And can you make a business decision on this?  Are adding #hashtags the answer?

Who knows better what to do in social media?  A bunch of analysts and media reporters? Or?

Who has the data?  Ohhhhhh, Google does.  One thing I have noticed running this blog site is seeing the amount of robots, search engines that hit my site.

Google and other search engines - Baidu, Bing, Yandex all have the RAW data to understand the social media wars - what works and what doesn't.

The battle for Mobile and Social are like wars where data is key to define strategies.  But, in any battle the winners are not those who have the most amount of information.  If that was true then the CIA with all its analysts and computer systems should have been able to win every war.  Too much data can create a problem of analysis.

The problem with data is it shows the past, not necessarily the future.  Yet, some people will stand on the piles of data and use it to justify their position of analysis.

Sometimes the winner in the war is the one who takes a different strategy that the data doesn't support.

Ender's game is finally coming to the screen at the end of year and is a science fiction classic.  Did Ender win because he had more data, or he saw things from a different perspective than others.

Robotics in the data center

DatacenterKnowledge has a guest post by an MTM Technologies consultant on robotics in the data center.

Robotics in the Data Center

As the reliance on the data center continues to grow, full software and hardware robotics automation is no longer a question of if, but a matter of when, technologists predict. Robotics organizations, like Chicago-based DevLinks LTD are already having conversations and creating initial designs for data center robotics automation.

About 4 years ago I started playing around with the idea of robotics in the data center and 2 years ago I spent a good 6 months diving into subject.  Some of the design concepts I figured out would not be intuitive for someone who doesn't understand the way data centers are built and the economics.   

One example of an issue is mentioned in the DCK article on the ability to go up in height.

Grow vertically instead of just horizontally. Robotics allows the data center to be extremely efficient with space. After all, robotics will allow us to reach higher and go much further than we’ve been ever able to go. The ability to scale upwards allows data centers to create new designs utilizing floor space much more efficiently.

Anyone who has built data centers and operated them knows a good rule is to have 100-150 watts/sq ft of IT white space.  Any denser increases costs and increases the probability of stranding power.  Going higher is going to cause more heat problems as well as the top of rack equipment could be 2-3 degrees warmer.

It is nice to see the robotics in data center ideas is getting more attention.  When I was talking about the idea two years ago people thought I was really out there. :-)  I was going to write more on the topic, but only threw up two posts.  /gdcblog/category/robotics.  Well, this is the third.

Microsoft's Xbox One announces 300k servers, trouble for Sony and Nintendo

The TV console wars are between Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.  Sony had a serious outage that brought down its service.

The PlayStation Network outage was the result of an "external intrusion" on Sony's PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, in which personal details from approximately 77 million accounts were stolen and prevented users of PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles from playing online through the service.[1][2][3][4] The attack occurred between April 17 and April 19, 2011,[1] forcing Sony to turn off the PlayStation Network on April 20. On May 4 Sony confirmed that personally identifiable information from each of the 77 million accounts appeared to have been stolen.[5] The outage lasted 24 days

I would guess anyone who has worked in Sony's online services group has a bad taste in their mouth and it is hard to get more resources.  

Xbox One launched this past week and Xbox Live is a big part of the services.

DatacenterKnowledge mentions that Microsoft will have 300,000 servers as part of Xbox One.  Running a Google Search, Bing search didn't show up the source of the information as a Microsoft transcript of the event.

When we launched Xbox Live in 2002, it was powered by 500 servers. With the advent of the 360, that number had grown to over 3,000. Today, 15,000 servers power the modern Xbox Live experience. But this year, we will have more than 300,000 severs for Xbox One, more than the entire world's computing power in 1999. (Cheers, applause.)

This matches the DCK article.

“When we launched Xbox Live in 2002, it was powered by 500 servers,” Microsoft’s Marc Whitten said in introducing the new platform. “With the advent of the 360, that had grown to over 3,000. Today, 15,000 servers power the modern Xbox Live experience. But this year, we will have more than 300,000 servers for Xbox One.”

Curious I wanted to see what was actually said, so I found the Xbox One Launch event on Youtube and at 23:13 mark is where the Xbox server reference is made.  And thanks to Youtube transcript here is the text.

23:13
when we launch xbox live in two thousand two it was powered by five hundred
23:16
servers
23:17
with the advent of the three sixty that number had grown to over three thousand
23:22
today
23:22
fifteen thousand servers power the modern xbox live experience
23:27
but this year
23:29
we'll have more than three hundred thousand servers for xbox one
23:33
more than the entire world computing power in nineteen ninety nine
 

NewImage

Part of what I do for some clients is provide research services and it is important to get to the original source of information and show where the public disclosures were.  Thanks to YouTube and other online services it is so much easier to get to the source of information which is transforming how news is reported and how analysis can be done.

People just don't get it, Green is important, employees (the talent) care

I read this post by IDG's James Niccolai.  I know James so I was curious what he writes on the Green topic at Uptime Symposium.

Datacentres show signs of 'green fatigue'

Success stories from cutting-edge firms such as Google and Microsoft are causing a backlash at less capable data centers

A new survey from the Uptime Institute suggests fatigue is setting in when it comes to making datacentres greener, and it may be partly due to overachievers like Google and Microsoft.

 

 

James continues with input from Matt Stansberry.

"A lot of these green initiatives, like raising server inlet temperatures and installing variable-speed fans, are seen as somewhat risky, and they're not something you do unless you have a bunch of engineers on staff," he said.

But there may be other factors at work. Stansberry suspects that managers at smaller datacentres are simply fed up hearing about success stories from bleeding-edge technology companies such as Google, and their survey responses may reflect frustration at their inability to keep up.

"I don't really think that half the datacentres in the US aren't focused on energy efficiency, I think they're just sick of hearing about it," he said. "You've got all these big companies with brilliant engineers and scads of money, and then there's some guy with a bunch of old hardware sitting around thinking, What the hell am I supposed to do?"

I just spent a week in NC and was talking to lots of folks in the data center industry. And you know I think everyone who I spent more than 30 seconds chatting to had a concern for the environment.  So, what is different between the people I was chatting to and the people filling out an Uptime survey? Well, they know I care about the environment, so that biases our conversations given I care.  I wonder if people think Uptime Institute cares about the environment?  

What I did find for a bit of perspective was a post by Mike Manos from 2008 that Uptime's Ken Brill has branded Microsoft and Google as enemy of the traditional data center operators.

I was personally greatly disappointed with the news coming out of last week that the Uptime Institute had branded Microsoft and Google as the enemy to traditional data center operators.  To be truthful, I did not give the reports much credit especially given our long and successful relationship with that organization.  However, when our representatives to the event returned and corroborated the story, I have to admit that I felt more than  a bit let down.

As reported elsewhere, there are some discrepancies in how our mission was portrayed versus the reality of our position.

...

The comments that Microsoft and Google are the biggest threat to the IT industry and that Microsoft is “making the industry look bad by putting our facilities in areas that would bring the PUE numbers down” are very interesting.

Here is Harvard Business Review blog post on sustainability fitting in the battle for talent.

Sustainability Matters in the Battle for Talent

by Jenny Davis-Peccoud  |   1:00 PM May 20, 2013

Employees at semiconductor-chip-maker Intel recently devised a new chemistry process that reduced chemical waste by 900,000 gallons, saving $45 million annually. Another team developed a plan to reuse and optimize networking systems in offices, which cut energy costs by $22 million.

The projects produced financial and environmental benefits, of course. But just as valuable is the company's ability to energize and empower front-line employees. New data shows that sustainability is an increasingly important factor in attracting and managing talent.

This point reminds me of one piece of data I have on the hunt for talent.  When Olivier Sanche was recruiting he once asked me guess how many people have read my post on his going to Apple and caring about the environment? I don't know. 25%?  Everyone.  Every person says they read your post and they expect me to save the polar bears and they want to work for a person who has passion for the environment.  

Look who are some of the most vocal green data center companies - Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft.  You can argue who is the best out of these 4.  These 4 are investing in greener initiatives on a regular basis.  

Green fatigue could be caused by misguided efforts more than whether green is important.

If you were trying to lose weight and get in better shape, would you give up on the diet and exercise that didn't work.  Sure you're frustrated, but that doesn't mean you should give up.

Part of the argument is it takes a lot of money to do these green things, but even Google has shown how it has used very little money to improve its operations. Here is Google's paper on its improvements in a POP room.

Introduction

Every year, Google saves millions of dollars and avoids emitting tens of thousands of tons of . carbon dioxide thanks to our data center sustainability efforts. In fact, our facilities use half the energy of a typical data center. This case study is intended to show you how you can apply some . of the cost-saving measures we employ at Google to your own data centers and networking rooms. At Google, we run many large proprietary data centers, but we also maintain several smaller networking rooms, called POPs or “Points of Presence”. POPs are similar to millions of small and medium-sized data centers around the world. This case study describes the retrofit of one of . these smaller rooms, describing best practices and simple changes that you can make to save thousands of dollars each year. For this retrofit, Google spent a total of $25,000 to optimize this room’s airflow and reduce . air conditioner use. A $25,000 investment in plastic curtains, air return extensions, and a new . air conditioner controller returned a savings of $67,000/year. This retrofit was performed without any operational downtime.