Will China Cloud Companies coming to the USA be a Greenpeace target?

Who Greenpeace will target its environmental campaign at is an unknown.  I guessed at first it would be Dell.  Then with Facebook's move to use coal power in Oregon it became a target.  Facebook, Apple, and Google have all figured out how to escape being the primary target of Greenpeace.

If I were to guess who is Greenpeace's next target I would say Amazon, but with the moves of China Cloud companies into the USA I could be wrong again and Tencent, Alibaba, Huawei could be targets.  Datacenterknowledge posted on Huawei's latest announcement to expand.

“Chinese IT giant Huawei announced plans to invest $1 billion to grow its cloud services business, according to reports.

It is one of several major Chinese technology companies to announce a big investment program to expand cloud services. Tencent said in February it would spend $1.57 billion to grow its cloud business, and Alibaba announced a $1 billion cloud investment in July.”

AWS most noticeably Tech company missing from White House Climate Change Pledge

Katie Fehrenbacher posted on the new companies who have committed to the White House Climate Change Pledge.

“This summer the first thirteen companies including Apple AAPL 0.62% , Google GOOG 0.59% , Walmart WMT -0.07% and Coca-Cola KO -0.07% committed to President Obama’s climate change program.

On Monday, the White House announced that another 68 companies have taken the pledge, called the ‘American Business Act on Climate,’ bringing the total corporate participants to 81. Big tech companies, global retailers, clean energy firms, food makers, agriculture conglomerates, and a couple of utilities have all signed on.”

Looking at the list of tech companies the most notable absent is Amazon Web Services.  You can look at the list here.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/10/19/fact-sheet-white-house-announces-commitments-american-business-act

Think Greenpeace is polishing its environmental attack methods to go after Amazon while the rest of the Cloud Companies watch.

Wonder how long AWS can hold out.

Why Data Center Events don't work the way they used to

Long time ago data center events were where the industry people got together.  The size of data centers were below 10MW.  Now data centers can be 50MW and some companies are adding 100s of MW per year in data center capacity.  The cloud has obsoleted IT closets and small business servers.  While putting pressure on the mid market and even enterprises. 

What happened to all the growth and interest in data centers?  It has consolidated.  Google and Amazon in 10 years have gone from occupying small colo spaces to be one of the biggest data center operators.  Add some of the other Cloud and Web companies and they dominate the growth.  Financials and Telcos used to drive the data center innovation and around their HQs.  Now the data center footprints can be found in Oregon, Iowa, Oklahoma, North Carolina. 

Long ago (8 years ago) when I started blogging on green data centers hardly any one discussed renewable energy.  Now Apple, Google, and Facebook have made sustainability part of the data center message.

Given this consolidation and shift has the data center event gone through as big a shift?  Many events have attempted to adjust their presentations.  But, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft don't go to data center conferences to discover new things.  If they do go, they are usually presenting or found it convenient to attend.

AWS in China, location Ningxia West Cloud Valley

WSJ had a post on the security threats of data center infrastructure.  In this post there is mention of a US cloud company in a Western China data center.

“Vincent Hu of Zhongwei, China, is overseeing the construction of a large data center for a leading U.S. cloud-computing company. ”

— http://www.wsj.com/articles/cyber-risk-isnt-always-in-the-computer-1443125108

Some friends were speculating who was the us cloud-computing company.  Found this post and it documents AWS.

“Start of the Ningxia West Cloud Valley to Develop a “New Silk Road” for the Cloud Computing Industry

Commencement of the Construction of the West Cloud Valley Project in the Ningxia Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park

On April 28, 2014, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the city of Zhongwei in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Ningxia Zhongwei Municipal Government, Amazon AWS, and the Ningxia West Cloud Valley Technology Co., Ltd. witnessed together the grand opening ceremony of the first project in the West Cloud Valley Project in the Ningxia Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park and the Signing Ceremony of the Framework Agreement on the Cooperation between Amazon AWS and the West Cloud Valley. The West Cloud Valley will start to construct the data center and relevant facilities serving Amazon AWS under the cooperation framework.
...
“Amazon AWS is very happy to participate in the construction of a dynamic Chinese cloud computing ecological system, and to closely cooperate with partners including the Ningxia Government and the West Cloud Valley to build a world class data center, provide highly extendable, efficient and low-cost cloud infrastructure and help promote the development and prosperity of Chinese enterprises and economy,” said Mr. Rong Yongkang, AWS Global Vice President and AWS China Executive Director, “We will invest in Ningxia to build a localized team and help more Chinese clients achieve innovative development and by using AWS cloud computing service get rid of undifferentiated IT management work.””

Uptime Institute vs. 7x24 Exchange, which one is best for you?

Years ago myself and many of my friends would get together at Uptime Institute's Symposium. Now I get together with those same friends and many others at 7x24 Exchange instead of Uptime Symposium.  Over years and years of going to data center conferences I figured out what was best for me, but couldn't explain why. I'll go through some perspectives that you may agree or disagree with to help you choose what is best for you.

First, the title of the organizations. Uptime Institute. 7x24 Exchange. Uptime and 7x24 are different words to communicate availability. The difference is in the words Institute vs. Exchange.

 Institute: an educational institution and especially one devoted to technical fields

Exchange: an occurrence in which people give things of similar value to each other : the act of giving or taking one thing in return for another thing

Uptime Institute is like an education data center authority. 7x24 Exchange is a place where people can receive and give information. Institute is where you are being lectured to. Exchange is where you interact with the attendees and discuss ideas. At the Institute the staff are like professors busy presenting and attending meetings. At the Exchange the staff are socializing, discussing ideas and collecting feedback.

If you go back to the start of the two organizations you can get a better idea of how they were set up. This document created by 7x24 Exchange in memorial of Ken Brill's contribution describes the history.

“Kenneth Brill co-founded the Uninterruptible Uptime Users Group (UUUG), now known as 7x24 Exchange International along with Dennis Cronin, the late Alan Freedeman, Frank Gialanella, Paul Fox, Jon Jackson and Howie Levison in 1989. Mr. Brill also founded both Upsite Technologies and the Uptime Institute, a leading authority dedicated to improving data center performance and efficiency through research, collaboration, innovation and education.”

Ken Brill set up Uptime Institute as his company to be the authority in data center information (Uptime Institute) while another users group which became the 7x24 Exchange.

Uptime Institute Symposium says it is

The foremost conference for data center leaders and professionals presented by the Global Data Center Authority.

7x24 Exchange says

7x24 Exchange International, founded in 1989, is the leading knowledge exchange for those who design, build, operate and maintain mission-critical enterprise information infrastructures and the primary resource for valuable information within the mission critical industry. 7x24 Exchange's goal is to improve end-to-end reliability by promoting dialogue among these groups through conferences, membership, and the 7x24 Magazine.

Where are you?  Are you looking for the Institute that lays claim to be the Global Data Center Authority? Or are you looking for where you can exchange information with your peers.

Over the past 10 years the data center innovation is coming from companies like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and others who are building Cloud Infrastructures.  Do these companies present at 7x24 Exchange or Uptime Institute Symposium?

Myself I prefer 7x24 Exchange, and I speak my opinion which the 7x24 staff is supportive of.  Speaking up and writing about conferences is probably what got me blacklisted from attending Uptime Symposium.  http://www.greenm3.com/gdcblog/2014/5/16/uptime-symposiums-cancellation-of-my-expo-pass-confuses-when.html