I would Guess Apple Continues Discussing the Green Data Center Topic - 394 articles

I’ve been blogging on Green Data Centers since 2007 and a new milestone is seeing my old employer Apple embrace the Green Data Center as strategic.  

Checking Google News searching for “apple data center” there are 394 articles.

 

Mac Rumors

 

A Rare Look Inside an Apple Data Center

TIME-by Harry McCracken-Apr 21, 2014
Yet more proof that Apple is not quite as secretive as it once was, when it thinks openness is in its own interest: The company showed off one of ...
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Explore in depth (394 more articles)

The news that hit today is Apple mocks Samsung to copy and help the earth too.

samsung apple green ad

Oh my, Apple strikes back in its ever so entertaining feud with Samsung… This time the occasion is Earth Day. Yes, really.

On April 22, ecologists celebrate Earth Day, a worldwide event dedicated to drawing attention to the problems of our environment. Earth Day also happens to be the perfect opportunity for Apple to take a swipe at Samsung and  show its commitment to all things green.

Apple placed full-page ads in two highly circulated British newspapers, The Guardian andMetro, whose headline reads “There are some ideas we want every company to copy,” a clear hint at archrival Samsung. “There’s one area where we actually encourage others to imitate us,” reads the copy of the app, to really drive the point home.

apple green ad samsung 2

Full page ad. Click to enlarge. Via David McClelland on Twitter

Google only needs 0.21 GigaWatts to Power "Back to the Future" 1 GigaWatts of Wind Power

Google added another 407 MW of renewable Wind Energy.  That’s a lot.  Google now has 1 GigaWatt of Wind Power.

This is our seventh and largest renewable energy commitment to date, bringing the total amount of renewable energy we’ve contracted for to over one gigawatt (1,000 megawatts).

I wonder if Google will be able to make the next addition 210 MW to achieve the 1.21 gigawatts for “Back to the Future"

Apple Environmental Video "Better" - "We have a long way to go"

Apple put an environmental video up with a good line - “We have a long way to go."

Better

301 views 2 hours ago
At Apple, we strive to reduce our impact on climate change, find ways to use greener materials and conserve resources for future generations. This video was shot on location at Apple Facilities. Now more than ever, we will work to leave the world better than we found it.

https://www.apple.com/environment/ 

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Data Centers are part of the video.

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Here is the video you can watch.

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Steven Levy tells the Apple Green Data Center Story

Green Data Centers are accepted in the data center industry, and the three who have the mindshare are Apple, Google, and Facebook.  Steven Levy has told the Google story many times, and Facebook.  With this lengthy post Steven tells the Apple Green Data Center story.

Apple Tries to Clean Up Its Carbon-Spewing Ways With New Data Centers

Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president for environmental initiatives, gives a tour at the company's solar field in Yerington, NV. Photo: David Calvert/WIRED

Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president for environmental initiatives, gives a tour at the company’s solar field in Yerington, NV. Photo: David Calvert/WIRED

On a stunning cloudless day in the Nevada desert, Lisa Jackson stands with her back to an array of advanced solar cells, peering across a low chain link fence at NV Energy’s Fort Churchill Power Generating plant just a few hundred yards away. The 1960s vintage facility has two giant boilers rising from the scrub brush, belching steam and god knows what else. It couldn’t be more different than the futuristic tract where Jackson is standing, with its gleaming rows of curved mirrors and palm-size silicon wafers silently drawing energy from the blinding sun. It’s like a contrast between a phone booth and an iPhone.

The post is long and the most interesting part is at the end.

Since this wasn’t my first data center, I was able to contrast Apple’s with the competition’s. In many ways, a data center is just a data center, a bunch of computers you only get to see if you endure multiple retina scans to open up the doors. Yet there are subtle hints that this is an Apple facility, even if Jony Ive didn’t draw up the plans. The outside of the administration building has some sweet design elements, like decorative strips of terra cotta paneling in three shades of red, giving it a feeling of a desert lodge. The halls are festooned with huge, neatly hung photographs of tiny details iPhones and other Apple devices. Even the computer rooms seem to have an Apple vibe—they’re not so industrial. The doors to the hot aisle have frosted glass, like lavatory doors at a hip restaurant. The air-cooled facility is relatively quiet; unlike some other data centers, no earplugs required. You get the feeling you could probably eat off the server floor.

The Flaw of Perfect Executives Who Make No Mistakes, Mistakes are not Tolerated at this Company

Rarely will you find Executives Talking about the Mistakes they have made.  Ed Catmull has a talk at Stanford where he talks about mistakes made.

So many executives take the strategy of I am at the top and will show you what perfection looks like.  We should all strive to be perfect like I am.

In a fear-based, failure -averse culture , people will consciously or unconsciously avoid risk. They will seek instead to repeat something safe that’s been good enough in the past. Their work will be derivative, not innovative. But if you can foster a positive understanding of failure, the opposite will happen. How, then, do you make failure into something people can face without fear? Part of the answer is simple: If we as leaders can talk about our mistakes and our part in them, then we make it safe for others. You don’t run from it or pretend it doesn’t exist. That is why I make a point of being open about our meltdowns inside Pixar, because I believe they teach us something important: Being open about problems is the first step toward learning from them . My goal is not to drive fear out completely, because fear is inevitable in high-stakes situations. What I want to do is loosen its grip on us. While we don’t want too many failures, we must think of the cost of failure as an investment in the future.

Catmull, Ed; Wallace, Amy (2014-04-08). Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration (Kindle Locations 1750-1758). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

This sets up a culture where mistakes are not tolerated.  No one is perfect.  We all make mistakes.  So what do you do?  You learn to hide your mistakes and/or make sure others get the blame for mistakes.

When you push for something innovative you are constantly making mistakes.