Google updates data center locations info with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan

Google has updated its data center locations with its newest construction in Asia Pacific.

The Taiwan site is the only that looks big enough for the thermal storage units given it is 5-6 times bigger than Hong Kong and Singapore.

Hello Taiwan!

In September 2011, we announced that we had acquired 15 hectares of land in Changhua County, Taiwan, with plans to build a data center. We’re now busy building, and we plan to start limited testing and bringing the facility online by the second half of 2013.

Building this data center in Taiwan is an exciting step for us. More new Internet users are coming online everyday here in Asia than anywhere else in the world. They are looking for information and entertainment, new business opportunities and better ways to connect with friends and family near and far. We’re building this data center to make sure that our users in Taiwan and across Asia can do just that, with the fastest and most reliable access possible to all of Google’s services.

Here is more information about the other sites.

Hong Kong

Located in the Tseung Kwan O Industrial Estate in Kowloon, this facility will sit on partially reclaimed land and will be one of the most efficient data centers in Asia (in stiff competition with our upcoming facilities in Singapore and Taiwan).

Read more about our Hong Kong data center

Singapore

Our first data center in Southeast Asia, this facility will be one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia - an exciting design challenge given Singapore’s year-round heat and humidity, located just 137 kilometers north of the equator.

Read more about our Singapore data center

Changhua County, Taiwan

Located about three hours down the coast from Taipei, in the shadow of some of the 100 meter wind turbines that dot the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, this facility will be our first to save energy through a nighttime cooling and thermal energy storage system.

Read more about our Taiwan data center

IBM and Tulip Telecom launch Largest India Green Data Center in 5MW increments up to 100MW

IBM and Tulip Telecom have worked together to launch the first of 20 modular data center pods in a 100MW four tower building configuration. When you look at this building, it is actually 4 separate buildings connected with an atrium.  One of the top questions that most of you will ask is what kind of power reliability can you get in India for 100MW load.  Speaking to Mike Hogan, Global offering Executive IBM Site and Facilities Services, he shared that the site has two power feeds to the site, and 4 separate network taps, making the site an ideal opportunity for a data center.

The building above has a green hue to it, and it has green features.

The new highly efficient data center is designed to international green building standards and engineered with power, chillers, cooling, rack layout and uninterrupted power supply systems.

The expected PUE performance is about 1.6 -1.7.  A lower PUE is challenging in the conditions in Bangalore, and given it is a hosting facility the equipment is not totally controlled by Tulip and IBM.  There is cold aisle containment, raised inlet temperatures and raised chilled water temperatures as well.  Given the cost of electricity and infrastructure challenges electricity is a resource that is used wisely.  Note, this building is a true data center with the staff in the building there to support the IT operations.  Call center operations are not in this building as the space and power were so valuable.

The media has latched on to air side economizers, but when you think of how to build a building in 5% increments of capacity (twenty 5 MW PODs), it can be much more difficult to expand capacity with air handlers vs. chilled water pipes.  The rack density was designed to be in the 4 - 6 kW per rack density.  For higher densities, chilled water can be brought direct to rack.

IBM's top design challenge was how to get the highest density of capacity in the footprint of the building, be cost effective, green, and efficient.  The first of 20 PODs is ready for occupancy and the building is designed for continuous operation as additional diesel generators are installed, power and cooling infrastructure upgraded, and white space is finished.  Going tall is one case where containers where not a viable option for modularity.

Here is an IBM video with Tulip executives discussing  the data center.

The press release from IBM is here.

Tulip Telecom and IBM Build India’s Largest Data Center to Address Rapid Growth of Mobile Consumers in Emerging Markets

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Bangalore, India - 07 Feb 2012:

- 900,000 square foot facility uses advanced green design for maximum efficiency
- New IBM SmartCloud services allow Tulip to deliver Infrastructure, Storage and Platform-as-a-Service to customers 
- Modular Data Center design and high reliability supports up to 100 megawatts of power
- Virtual tour takes you inside state-of-the-art facility

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced it has worked with Tulip Telecom Ltd. to design and help build the largest data center facility in India to deliver new cloud and networking services.

Below is a video of Mike presenting on Green Data Center and the cloud.

Asia's Largest Data center is claimed by India, 40MW, 3rd largest in World, Green, Energy Efficient

Tulip Telecom India put this YouTube video up about its new data center.  According to IBM this data center was built in 9 months.

 Third Largest Data Center in World with 900,000Sft of Built-up Space
 Design confirming to Tier-3 specifications as per TIA-942 standards
 Utility power from 66 KV substation Feeding 40 MVA power with 100% Back up
 Carrier Neutral facility with multiple ISPs
 Contiguous Isolated Rack Space of 10,000 Sft per Module
 High Energy Efficiency -- PUE ~1.9
 80,000 Sft of Customer Office Space
 Man-out Building Automation System

There are 16 4MW generators.

I'll have more details next week.  Here is the IBM video.

IBM built Tulip Telecom the largest data center in India -- and third largest in the world-- providing a highly reliable and energy efficient data center. IBM's sophisticated engineering skills and capabilities built Tulip Telecom a cloud-ready data center -- that is one of the greenest and energy efficient data centers globally -- in less than nine months.

no cost notification on cell networks, missed calls as a messaging bus

I remember being in college where some people would call someone like their parents with a collect call.  "will you accept a collect call from Dave Ohara. My parents respond no." and, know I want them to call me.  No cost to me, and my parents foot the bill.  I never did this, but it is the idea behind India's use of missed calls on cell networks as a messaging bus.

GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher discusses the idea.

India’s “missed call” mobile ecosystem

By Katie Fehrenbacher Dec. 13, 2011, 6:00am PT 55 Comments

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Imagine you want to use your cell phone to, say, order take-out food or chat with a friend, but you don’t want to pay for making the call, or the text message. The answer to that ultra-low-cost question is India’s fascinating growth of the “missed call” ecosystem, where callers who aren’t willing to spend on, well, really anything, use the “ring once, hang up” to signal to commerce companies and friends alike on the receiving end that they want to communicate with them.

It’s essentially the poor man’s text message: a free way to nudge another person or company, but which comes in just one flavor. Indian cell phone subscribers, of which there are 900 million accounts, have a monthly average revenue per user of $3, which is rock bottom low for even a developing market.

How big is this?  In India missed calls could be used as a messaging bus from half the users.

While the missed call system is increasingly fodder for entrepreneurs, the phenomenon has been a slight problem for the cell phones companies in India, as the free service seems to make up a significant portion of cellular traffic. According to a study from the Learning Initiatives on Reforms for Network Economies (Lirne) a couple of years ago, over half of Indian cellular subscribers made missed calls to convey a message.

Katie follows up today with a post on the use of missed calls for controlling remote irrigation water pumps.

This week Pluggd.in, an Indian site focused on Indian entrepreneurs and startups, profiled a startup called RealTech Systems which has developed an irrigation control system for farmers that uses cell phone networks and missed calls. Essentially a farmer installs the company’s Real Mobile Starter Control product at an irrigation pump, and the device uses a SIM card and a missed call to turn the pump on and off remotely.

The problem, as Pluggd.in puts it, is that many farmers have to walk many miles to get to the pumps for their farms, but once they reach the pump sometimes the power to run the irrigation system isn’t available — unreliable power is one of the biggest infrastructure problems throughout much of India. The farmers can use the product to check to see if power in the area is turned on, and then run the irrigation accordingly — from miles away.

Syska opens Data Center office in Dubai to serve Middle East and Africa

Data Center Growth in emerging markets is hot, and one of the regions growing fast is the Middle East and Africa.  It can be difficult to understand those markets and I was quite excited to hear one of my data center friends has relocated to Dubai to be a local resource for the market.

Syska has made a press release announcing their office in Dubai with VP Greg Jasmin running the local office.  I met Greg years ago as he was one of my early followers on this blog.  We have had many great conversations about green data centers and how sustainable approaches can be applied, and I am sure we will have many more interesting conversations as he services one of the high growth data center markets.  Connecting with great people makes my day. :-)

Syska Hennessy Group Establishes an Office in Dubai

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Syska Hennessy Group, Inc. a leading global consulting, engineering and commissioning firm, is underscoring its commitment to clients in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region by opening a permanent office in Dubai’s Internet City, United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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Syska Hennessy Group's global presence is continuing to expand with the formation of Syska Hennessy Group MENA. The new entity is the result of a joint venture between SH Group, Inc., the parent company of Syska Hennessy Group and LZ Technologies Middle East FZ-LLC. The new company will be led by Greg Jasmin, a vice president of Syska Hennessy Group, and Bassem Hariri, of LZ Technologies Middle East FZ-LLC. Mr. Jasmin will serve as co-managing director of the firm's Dubai office, overseeing operations and assuming technical leadership of the enterprise, while Mr. Hariri, also co-managing director, will oversee client relations and business development.

Syska Hennessy Group has enjoyed long term success in the region with signature projects throughout Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. Jasmin commented, "Syska has been active in the Middle East for more than 30 years but we've never had a permanent presence. Now we both live and work here, elevating our commitment to this strategic region. Being in the region will certainly help Syska Hennessy broaden its array of platinum-level clients, as these clients seek out the experience and technical expertise that we bring from the U.S. to help solve the challenges these clients face in building exceptional buildings."