Facebook finally opens Lulea Data Center, 18 months after announce

One of the conversations I have had with data center friends is when will Facebook bring its Lulea data center online.  The project was publicly announced in Oct 2011.

There was Swedish papers covering the commissioning process in May 2013.  

Uhh, 18 months after project announce Servers are deployed.  Building in Sweden was not as easy as it looks.  Facebook has built 2 data centers in Prineville and Forest City.

Facebook posts on Lulea coming on line.

Luleå goes live

by Luleå Data Center (Notes) on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 6:14am

On the edge of the Arctic Circle, where the River Lule meets the Gulf of Bothnia, lies a very important building. Facebook's newest data center - in Luleå, Sweden - is now handling live traffic from around the world.

One of the speaking points is the green data center aspect.

As our systems come online for the first time, we are proud to say that this is likely to be one of the most efficient and sustainable data centers in the world. All the equipment inside is powered by locally generated hydro-electric energy. Not only is it 100% renewable, but the supply is also so reliable that we have been able to reduce the number of backup generators required at the site by more than 70 percent. In addition to harnessing the power of water, we are using the chilly Nordic air to cool the thousands of servers that store your photos, videos, comments, and Likes. Any excess heat that is produced is used to keep our office warm.

Business Model of Waze, sell for big bags of Google cash

Next week is GigaOm Structure.  I have gone from attending as a blogger, to working freelance as a GigaOm Pro Analyst, to speaking at the conference.  This next one I am moderating a panel discussion on a Private Cloud with Revlon and NetApp.

HOW INFRASTRUCTURE CAN TRANSFORM BUSINESS SUCCESS

 

In this session we focus in on how the right IT infrastructure can create significant competitive advantage. Understanding that IT’s job is to make systems work for people rather than people work for systems, Revlon sought to align IT to the business with the successful implementation of a private cloud. Its resulting infrastructure turned 3.6 PB of data into a business driver and runs more than 500 applications in a virtualized environment. Its initiative has demonstrated clear ROI.

Moderated by:Dave Ohara - Founder, GreenM3 and Analyst, GigaOM Research
Speakers:David Giambruno - SVP and CIO, Revlon

 

Cynthia Stoddard - SVP and CIO, NetApp 

You could look at what I did as like coming up through the mail room, but another way is I was spending time in various roles to get a better understanding.  The folks at GigaOm eventually figured out how much I knew and started using my skills more.  One of the latest insights on GigaOm was when I was talking to one of my old bosses at Microsoft Frank Artale.  Frank is a partner at the VC firm Ignition Ventures.  Besides working for Frank on Windows 2000 he is also on Lake Sammamish and he likes to cook.  Next time I see Frank we need to talk about his kitchen vs. my woodstone oven.  But more relevant is the last time I saw Frank at GigaOm Structure Data he mentioned how many VCs are at the show.  I paid more attention and have gone through the attendee list and 2nd after the the technology companies (which have the highest attendee) is the VC community.  There are more VC than press.  There are more VC than infrastructure or cloud people.  And when I started hanging out with a few folks their most often side conversation was with another VC.

GigaOm's Om Malik posts on the Waze business model of selling to Google for $1 bil and cuts to the point of the challenge for Waze's business model.

Actually, selling to Google (or anyone else) was actually the only outcome for this company — even though it had tens of millions of people using the software in dozens of countries worldwide, it would have been pretty hard for them to turn social commuting into a real business. Google, on the other hand, can simply layer this on its maps and try and use the data to drive more real world transactions.

As I pointed out in a post about the new Google Maps, Google will ultimately create more natural advertising formats for maps-driven interfaces and Waze helps them towards that objective. That said, it is a great exhale for Waze’s investors, who were facing the prospect of building a real business — a much harder proposition than most in Silicon Valley understand or are willing to admit.

I've had chances to chat more with Om and shared cab rides in NYC.  Om knows lots of stuff including how the VC community works and how to look at start ups.  The #1 issue for selling a company is whether the VCs who supplied the money approve of the sale.  If they don't, you can't sell.

The big winners in this deal are investors that include Magma Ventures, Blue Run Ventures and Vertex Ventures, who were earliest backers of the company. Sources say they each made well north of $100 million from the deal. The surprise (and ironic) winner might be Microsoft, which is rumored to have invested in the company as a strategic investor.

News of Facebook's Raining inside its Data Center leaks 2 years after the event

When I was at the first Open Compute Summit I was sitting with a data center executive and when he heard about the air misters used in Facebook's 1st data center he said they were going to run into problems.  We don't hear about misters in Facebook's data center any more and news has leaked out what may have helped convince putting humidity into the data center has issues.

The Register broke the news in an interview with Facebook VP Jay Parikh.

Facebook's first data center ran into problems of a distinctly ironic nature when a literal cloud formed in the IT room and started to rain on servers.

Though Facebook has previously hinted at this via references to a "humidity event" within its first data center in Prineville, Oregon, the social network's infrastructure king Jay Parikh told The Reg on Thursday that, for a few minutes in Summer, 2011, Facebook's data center contained two clouds: one powered the social network, the other poured water on it.

"I got a call, 'Jay, there's a cloud in the data center'," Parikh says. "'What do you mean, outside?'. 'No, inside'."

There was panic.

"It was raining in the datacenter," he explains.

Facebook has made some changes to weatherproof components in the data center.

Some servers broke entirely because they had front-facing power supplies and these shorted out. For a few minutes, Parikh says, you could stand in Facebook's data center and hear the pop and fizzle of Facebook's ultra-lean servers obeying the ultra-uncompromising laws of physics.

Facebook learned from the mistakes, and now designs its servers with a seal around their power supply, or as Parikh calls it, "a rubber raincoat."

Following Eric Schmidt's fact check idea, shows Al Gore is either Blind or just trying to make his point

Al Gore spoke at the "How Green is Internet?" event at Google, and at the 1:10 mark he says that he doesn't see the word "climate" in the word cloud for the event.  Which then gets Al Gore launching into how important the climate is.

During Eric Schmidt's talk he starts out saying how great Google is because "anybody says something slightly off ... you check. What a way to live your life. ... someone says something, and you say oh that's kind of a surprise let me check and see if that is true."

Al Gore starts his talk looking for a way to say how people don't pay attention to climate.  Eric Schmidt starts his talk with the culture of questioning what others say.

Below is the word cloud that Al Gore refers to.  In alphabetic order right after change and before cost is the word "climate".  Climate is small, and Al Gore says it may be too small to see.  Al said he couldn't see it.  The list is alphabetical order, not random.

This illustrates a point that Eric Schmidt is to imagine what could happen with climate change if people had a culture to check the facts others say.

Some people are big Al Gore fans.  I think I am more of a fan of facts and data. :-)  I can see "climate" pretty clearly in the above graphic.  How many attendees or watchers of Al Gore's video would accept as a fact that "climate" was missing or too small to read.

Google gains access to Waze users, Waze gets access to Google's WW Infrastructure

It's official Google has acquired Waze.  I found this statement most interesting.

We’ll also work closely with the vibrant Waze community, who are the DNA of this app, to ensure they have what’s needed to grow and prosper.

In the old days you would say the top things people would go to the web was for weather.  I don't think Google has acquired a weather company.

I find myself accessing Waze way more than than looking at the weather.  I can look outside and see the weather and get a good idea what is going on within 10-20 miles.

I don't see the traffic issues until it hits me in the face.

The one thing that Google has over Facebook and others who were bidding for Waze is more servers WW than any other company.  The speed at which Waze can grow and expand and not worry about capacity, availability, and performance is beyond what they could have done on their own.  So even though the development does not move, you can expect Waze type of functionality to show up in Google Maps soon.

The Waze product development team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now. We’re excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google’s search capabilities.

And you know what this is a good use of Internet technology to allow users to better plan their driving.  Taking the shortest routes most likely saves significant fuel.  I think I see a future Google sponsored study of how Waze saves the millions of gallons of fuel a year. :-)