I started reading this post from CNET Asia expecting to learn something. What I learned is how hard it is for a reporter to get the facts right in context to explain anything meaningful.

I am sure any of you reading this will get confused. But, is good for a few laughs.

The war in the clouds : How massive data centers will change the war venue
Jun 2, 2010 15:10
I have been writing this article since March 17, found it in my "not published" tray, so I decided to finish it today, There are data centers and there are DATA CENTERS. What is a data center? Data center infrastructure layers are power, cooling, telecoms, data rooms and network operations center. In May 2008, Jeff Dean spoke at the Google I/O conference highlighting some information on the inner workings of their data center and ambitious plans. With already 36 data centers around the world in 2008 and over 200,000 servers, that is a lot.

OK. Here is one that got me chuckling.

Current hardware

Servers are commodity-class x86 PCs running customized versions of Linux. The goal is to purchase CPU generations that offer the best performance per dollar, not absolute performance.^[8] Estimates of the power required for over 450,000 servers range upward of 20 megawatts

44 Watts per Server with a PUE of 1.0.

He thinks the Apple Maiden Data Center is operating.

Apple has been building a MDC (massive data center) in Maiden North Carolina, and is said to have gone into operation already

And, the funniest one yet. is he thinks Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs would discuss data centers.

It is said that Eric Schmidt stole all the secrets from Apple during his days as a board member of Apple, but knowing Steve Jobs, I have a feeling Steve would have picked Eric's brains on how to construct, run and use a data center as well. I find it unlikely that Apple would launch such an aggressive investment (yes, Apple's data center is the biggest and most expensive in the corporate world) into a data center if it did not have confidence on construction, operation, usage, returns and investment.

I hope the data center execs get a laugh of this one.