Michiel van Blommestein's Blog – July 2010 Archive (23)

Finally: A Call Against the Green Tea

I was having this feeling for ages, but finally Doug Mohney (the main writer for Green Data Center News) has put a great analysis that words almost exactly how I feel.



Personally, I call this the problem of the 'Green Tea'. Because every vendor is trying to put 'green' in their PR efforts as much as possible, it is getting… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 30, 2010 at 23:01 — No Comments

The Design Fantastic

Data Center Knowledge is running an article on some of the most interesting data center designs in the world.



It is truly fascinating on the way engineers think up their building in a way that is both functional and esthetically pleasing. Well, in data centers, it is usually the 'functional' that is leading. But it is possible to get some art out there as well.



Some of these… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 29, 2010 at 20:39 — No Comments

Yet Another 'Pre-Fab' Data Center Model

When Mike Manos came up with the idea to containerise a Microsoft data center in Chicago, he was really on to something. More and more industry leaders come up with their own idea of dividing data centers into modules that are cheap to transport and install.



The latest vendor to bring us one is HP, which has christened it the Flexible Data Center. Each 'part' is… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 28, 2010 at 20:24 — No Comments

Where is the Most Expensive Place to Run a Data Center?

Today I got a mail from Techtarget containing an article on how a new law in California could make it extremely expensive to run a data center over there. Now, as the Dutch say: The soup usually is not eaten as hot as it is served, and it won't probably be as bad as some would led you to believe.



However, it did make me wonder: where would it be most expensive to run a data center right… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 27, 2010 at 21:40 — 2 Comments

Better be a Friend of BICSI

Most of you would be familiar with BICSI (Building Industry Consulting Service International), the international information technology systems association. Their involvement with the data center sphere goes back a good while, and their influence in especially the US is profound on a tech knowledge level.



This month, the group has announced two partnerships. A new 'friendship agreement' is… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 26, 2010 at 22:35 — No Comments

The Top Mistakes in Data Center Operations

Over at the Green Data Center Blog, Dave Ohara draws attention to a white paper by Lee Technologies that claims to point out the ten worst mistakes… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 23, 2010 at 23:23 — No Comments

Measuring Cooling, Step by Step

Short post today. Wesley Smith, Director of Operations for Tier IV facility FIBERWORLD, has written a short step-by-step guide on how to measure the effectiveness of your cooling. It is posted to Data Center Journal.



Frankly, it is kind of basic and most of it should be standard fare… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 22, 2010 at 22:56 — No Comments

Measuring Cooling Step by Step

Short post today. Wesley Smith, Director of Operations of Tier IV facility FIBERTOWN, has drawn up a little step-by-step list on determining how effective your cooling is. He did so for Data Center Journal.



Frankly, it is not very comprehensive while most of the points he mentions… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 22, 2010 at 22:52 — No Comments

A Small List of Fire Suppression Products

It is one of those systems that you hope you would never have any use for. And even if it shows its use, you curse the day that it was needed. I am, of course, writing about fire suppression systems.



If poorly chosen, the fire extinguisher can be more devastating than the fire itself. I mean, I would not like a sprinkler system hovering above my home pc, let alone that a manager would like one looming over his super critical servers.



Good thing there are lots of alternatives… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 21, 2010 at 23:04 — No Comments

Is the Crisis over for Data Centers? Survey Says...

...Not yet. That is basically what the annual Purchasing Survey Report conducted by TechTarget says. The survey is conducted last spring and has more than a thousand respondents, nearly all of them in the United States.



First the somewhat good news: even though a massive 20 percent of data center managers say they are facing budget cuts, that is down from 40 percent last year. 46 percent… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 20, 2010 at 23:19 — No Comments

OpenStack: The LAMP for the Cloud?

Today saw the official announcement of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform from Rackspace. It basically consists of two parts (for now that is): object storage and a compute pack.



For now, all we get is early code of the compute pack. But just in terms of potential impact, OpenStack could actually be quite significant as it is aimed at a very broad industry base and it is completely open. So my question would be: could OpenStack be for the cloud… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 20, 2010 at 0:19 — No Comments

Finally: A Standard Way to Measure PUE

They waited for the hottest months of the season (that is, on the northern hemisphere), but a taskforce led by The Green Grid has finally laid out plans to come to a standard way to measure PUE. They have published their proposal in this white paper. As things stand, this is the proposal for stand alone data centers, not computer rooms… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 16, 2010 at 22:40 — No Comments

Colt's Modular Build

Ever since Microsoft popularised the concept, modular (or: containerised) data centers are very popular. While they might not be as efficient in the long run as a fully customised data center, the time saved makes it well worth it.



Beside Microsoft, more and more vendors are championing this design principle. IBM, HP and Google join the Redmond giant in embracing this idea, in which modules are just chucked inside an unused facility. They even claim nowadays that they can sport PUE's… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 15, 2010 at 22:30 — No Comments

THIS is What You Need to Earn an Energy Star

We have a winner. A month after the program came into effect, the first Energy Star has been granted to a facility. NetApp's RTP datacenter in North Carolina is the first that can slap the logo behind the reception desk.



This particular data center was opened a year ago, and is used by the storage vendor for R & D



The facility scored 99/100 points. Here are some of… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 14, 2010 at 22:00 — 1 Comment

Kyoto Wheeling, or no Dealing?

Quick post today. The Kyoto Wheel has been around since 2007, so it is fair to assess this technology in cooling data centers as a 'mature' concept. Those of you who are already using it know the answer already: Yes, amazingly this somewhat cumbersome brute is actually quite effective in using outside air to cool your data centers.



Techtarget have written a sort of review of the Kyoto Wheel,… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 13, 2010 at 21:24 — No Comments

An Interesting Dutch Cooling Concept

(Well, to be honest: Spain did play better. Ok, back to business now, as the World Cup is over and we will have to wait four years)





Sometimes, one can come across a cooling concept which on the one hand seems too simple to be true, while on the other hand it is so simple it borders to elegance.



DatacenterWorks is reporting on the deployment of a data center that is based on a Dutch principle called DataCenterKoeling (translated: data center cooling). Apparently, it is… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 12, 2010 at 22:40 — No Comments

Hah! I was Right!

Now, I was at the Imagine Cup that took place in Warsaw this week. I have to say I am knackered.



Earlier, I posted a blog that some of the idea (especially in the embedded sphere) sounded very familiar. I mean, energy management on the level of devices, remote power down etc. etc.



Well, that was just a hunch. Yesterday, I got to talk to one of the team members from the Romanian squad. They had a smart solution that maps all the devices within a home or small office, tracks… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 9, 2010 at 22:00 — No Comments

VDI is a Useless Toy

That is not my opinion. It is the opinion of these two gentleman: Don Jones and Greg Shields, of Concentrated Technology.



They argue, in four bulletpoints, that VDI does not offer any value for any business whatsoever. It is a gimmick: It is not cost effective,…
Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 9, 2010 at 2:06 — 1 Comment

What Data Centers mean for the World

Right now, I am attending the Imagine Cup competition in Warsaw. For those that don't know, the Imagine Cup is a Microsoft sponsored competition in which teams of students present software projects (based on Microsoft kits, of course) which aim for a better world. Specifically, they have to tackle one of the Millenium Goals of the United Nations. Today the six finalists from each categorie (I attended embedded and software design) got a… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 8, 2010 at 0:55 — No Comments

Something Wet Leaks from Google

(as you might notice: the further the Dutch football team gets in the World Cup, the shorter my posts. The next match for the Orange Army is on sunday, so no worries there) Do you remember when Google disclosed their server technolody to the world? They did so on 1 April 2009, making everyone think it was some kind of prank. That was also helped by the fact that the Google servers seemed... duct… Continue

Added by Michiel van Blommestein on July 7, 2010 at 0:09 — No Comments

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