Could Google's investment in South African Solar Project be an early indicator of future data centers?

Google has an office in Johannesburg.  And just announced a solar project investment in South Africa.

Investing in a South African solar project

Posted: Thursday, May 30, 2013
As we search for investments that can help speed up the adoption of renewable energy, we’ve been looking beyond the U.S. and Europe to parts of the world where our investments can have an even greater impact. We’ve just closed our first investment in Africa: $12 million USD (103 million Rand) investment in the Jasper Power Project, a 96 megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.

Most of the renewable energy projects have had an association with a data center location. Which brings up the question will there be a data center in South Africa for Google?  Well maybe not one of their big ones that get reported when they are larger than 5MW (there are 14 of them), but maybe there is a smaller one.  In fact, there has to be a small one.  

Google does have peering sites in South Africa so there is some kind of presence there.

Teraco House Johannesburg JB1 15169  Johannesburg ZA
NAP Africa  15169  2001:43F8:6D0::a  10000 
NAP Africa  15169  196.46.25.166  10000 

AWS's Sustainable Energy options - Oregon an GovCloud

Missed this one on AWS.  Don't know when it went up.  AWS makes a sustainable energy option statement.

 

AWS and Sustainable Energy

...

Both the Oregon and GovCloud Regions use 100% carbon-free power. AWS customers who want to operate in a Region that uses 100% carbon-free power can select one of these two Regions. We will continue to work hard on our own, and alongside our power providers all over the world, to offer our services in an environmentally friendly way in all of our Regions.

And, amazon adds that the cloud is greener than having your own data center.

Cloud computing is inherently more environmentally-friendly than traditional computing. Instead of each company having its own datacenter that serves just itself, AWS makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of organizations to consolidate their datacenter use into much smaller combined data center footprints in the AWS Cloud, resulting in much higher utilization rates and eliminating the waste that occurs when data centers don't operate near their capacity. Our cloud approach enables a combined smaller carbon footprint that significantly reduces overall consumption.

Are you ready for the future? Mary Meeker updates her Internet Trends 2013

Mary Meeker's Internet Trends presentation has become one of the most relevant presentations in the Internet industry.

Below is the presentation.  You can walk through it.  I did, and I feel good that the stuff I am focusing on aligns with her data.  It's great when you can stay ahead of what the analysts present. :-)


Here is the video if you want to watch 

AWS is not the cloud, it is the IT Superstore, selection, convenience, easy to buy and pricing transparency

Cloud is such an over used term it is hard for many to understand what exactly is the cloud.  Amazon Web Services is many times equated to the cloud.  But, that doesn't really help to explain what AWS is.

I was looking a presentation on amazon.com and here is a slide of Jeff Bezos's vision.

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When Amazon.com started it sold books.  Who in their right mind would build a business selling books?  What Jeff did build was a bigger selection at a better price point and more convenient than his competition.

What is AWS? a bigger selection of IT services at a better price point (consume as you use vs. a license) and convenient to add into Amazon's infrastructure.  With Amazon Prime, two day shipping is free.  With AWS you pay for shipping , the transportation of bits into and out of AWS.  

I think it is much easier to say AWS is the IT superstore.

AWS is building on amazon.com's business model.

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And amazon.com's passion to innovate the customer experience is what is being used in AWS.  How many IT vendors have a passion for customer service?

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Consider what AWS is thinking up to fulfill this vision.

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another Blog cloner of GreenM3, datacenterzone

I think a lot more people are reading my blog than I think.  Why?  Because I found another website that copies everything I post.  I found one 2-3 years ago.  And now here is another at  http://datacenterzone.com

Seeing good data center friends at 7×24 Exchange

Posted by  on May 30, 2013 in Data Center | 0 comments

I started my data center conference attendance 5 years ago with Uptime Symposium, then DatacenterDynamics.  Eventually going to Data Center World and Gartner data center conference.  I had heard about 7x24...

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Is it green to ship USA wood pellets to EU for carbon goals?

Posted by  on May 29, 2013 in Data Center | 0 comments

The WSJ reports on EU utility companies buying USA wood pellets for renewable energy. The push isn't in North Carolina but in Europe, where governments are trying to reduce fossil-fuel use and carbon-dioxide...

I'll go through the steps to send a cease and desist.  

The ironic part is this post will show up as a post on the cloning blog.