Data Centers have security measures that make them look like prisons. Speaking of prisons here is a presentation that has some ideas.
Tip #4 is Modular.
#1 and #2 are good as well.
Washington Aluminum Plant celebrates 60 years in Wenatchee
The growth of data centers in the Northwest takes advantage of low cost power that the Aluminum industry used. Seattletimes publishes an AP article that discusses the 60 years of one Alcoa plant.
Today, just two plants remain - but one of them celebrates its 60th anniversary Saturday with an open house and an idle plant in Montana is considering a restart thanks in part to abundant power supplies.
It is interesting to know that at one time 40 percent of the USA's aluminum came from 10 plants in the NW.
The Pacific Northwest aluminum industry supplied roughly 40 percent of the nation's aluminum in its heyday in the 1980s, with 10 plants producing the pliable, lightweight metal for everything from war planes to soda cans.
140 MW is available to restart one plant.
In Columbia Falls, Mont., an idle plant is considering a restart, according to the Bonneville Power Administration, the Portland, Ore.-based federal agency that manages much of the Northwest power grid.
Columbia Falls Aluminum, located near the Hungry Horse Dam in northwest Montana, laid off nearly 90 workers when it closed at the end of October 2009.
BPA has told the company it can provide 140 average megawatts of power each year, spokesman Michael Hansen said, which is roughly enough power for two pot lines to operate.
Here is the website for the 60 year old plant in Wenatchee.
Construction of Alcoa Wenatchee Works began in May, 1951. The smelting plant, where alumina, or aluminum ore, is reduced to metal, was constructed as a direct result of a request from the Office of Defense Mobilization to increase the domestic production of aluminum in a defense oriented economy.
Alcoa Wenatchee Works opened in 1952. The Wenatchee Works was the first smelter to be built In the Pacific Northwest in the post World War 2 period and the first plant of this type built with private capital in the area since before the war.
Wenatchee Works is located eleven miles south of the city of Wenatchee, Chelan County, Washington, and one and one half miles above Rock Island Dam, the first dam built on the Columbia River. The entire site covers more than 2,700 acres, excluding some 1,700 acres of orchard land donated to Washington State University In 1972. The plant itself covers 100 acres adjacent to the Columbia River.
Here is the dam that the power comes from.
Understanding Data Center Types - Cloud, Hosted, Colocation, Wholesale, Owned
I was having a conversation with a client and it occured that most company executives probably don't understand the different data center types that exist. It seemed worthwhile to describe the different data center types that exist and how executives should understand the differences. They hear terms like cloud, hosted, colo, and wholesale all the time, but what does this mean?
Besides doing a few searches, I reached out to Jones Lang Lasalle's Michael Siteman to see what he had on data center types. It was quite thorough. I needed something simpler. Something a non-data center executive could understand in one ppt slide.
I am sure this seems obvious to most of you, but trying to get this into one slide was a good exercise.
Here is my current thinking a slide.
The text is here.
•Cloud (VM) – bring your code and data - OS, Server, Network, Storage available for lease; on-site operations and IT services all done by cloud provider
•Hosted (Servers) – Physical servers are unit of delivery within IT environment design – HW for lease
–Similar to an internal IT service group for small scale
–Cloud Hybrids are more common
•Colocation (Racks) – bring your IT equipment, pick your ISP, provide power, space, facility operations
–Lease space and power capacity – for example 10 racks @ 10KW/rack
•Wholesale (MW of capacity) – you rent space, power, cooling and an open floor plan; you decide the layout of your space – power, cooling, network
–Need facility operations as well as IT Operations for your space
–Lease 10,000 sq ft @ 1MW
•Owned DC (everything) – you have everything under your control
–Big things gained vs. the previous steps you pick the site, you pick the design best meets your business needs, and the whole facility is yours
–Problem: if you haven’t built a lot of DC, then you will make mistakes
–2MW plus, the big big guys Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft are building 10 – 30MW
I think this works pretty well. Technical enough with details like power consumption, yet high level to convey the differences.
The Real Data Center, lessons from The Real CSI, How reliable is the science behind forensics
PBS Frontline has a video on The Real CSI.
Watch The Real CSI on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.
Watching this video brings into questions of science behind fingerprints, blood tests and bite marks.
The one method that has trumped a bunch of these techniques is DNA testing.
It is interesting talking to the people who have lots of data center experience, and in some ways it feels like these are the people who haved figured out the science of data centers, and what really works.
in the same way that fingerprints and blood testing are popular and accepted by the mass public, it doesn't necessary mean there is science behind the techniques.
Are you practicing data center science or using the common accepted methods? There is a difference.
Shared Office Space suppliers - Loosecubes and Liquidspace #workconf
Many of you travel and meet at the local Starbucks, but when you go to a city and need to spend days working and meeting the hotel and starbucks just doesn't work for many scenarios.
You have probably heard of AirBnB where you can rent a room.
The same idea can be applied to office space that can be rented. Two options that I learned about at GigaOm Net:Work are Loosecubes and Liquidspace.
As you look at your data center projects and need an office in a city, these are two options.
It looks like Loosecubes has a bigger market (below are 4 of 10 properties) than Liquidspace (1).
There may be other options, but these are a good place to start thinking about renting a short term office space as you travel around in the US for data center projects.
LiquidSpaces Nearby Seattle, WA, USA
View Calendar
