[Info-vax] The Future of Server Hardware?

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

JF Mezei wrote 2012-10-01 01:33:
> On 12-09-30 17:25, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>
>> If Google chooses a particular computing architecture for their core
>> business, then they have undoubtedly reviewed their alternatives, and
>> have determined their business, technical and financial requirements.
>
> Their choice of architecture was made at a time well before they
> realised they would become a huge corporation serving the world's need
> for mapping, searches, storing libraries, museums, videos etc etc etc.
>
> The choice was made well before they ever thought their own data centres
> would be so big that they'd have to choose location based on available
> electrical power.

Right, first FB data outside US :

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/10/27/facebook-goes-global-with-data-center-in-sweden/

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/02/29/the-facebook-data-center-project-in-lulea/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2054168/Facebook-unveils-massive-data-center-Lulea-Sweden.html

Jan-Erik.



>
> Local utilities recently had to build a new power transmission line to
> feed Virginia's growing number of data centres.  Back in the mainframe
> days, utilities didn't  notice data centres expect for odd requirements
> to have feeds from 2 different substations for redundancy purposes.
>
> Google may be massively parallel, but that doesn't mean they couldn't do
> some consolidation to move multiple Linux instances into a single one
> running on larger class mainframe.
>
> Last summer, I bicycled to the james bay area of Québec. This is
> Québec's "oil" as it exports much power to the north east of USA.
>
> A few relevant pictures:
> http://www.vaxination.ca/temp/cov
>
> Also from Hydro Québec:
> http://www.hydroquebec.com/generation/centrale-hydroelectrique.html
>
> click on "La Grande" to get an image of the size of the watershed
> covered by the massive project. 11 power stations in total and hundreds
> of dams
>
>
> Why do I mention this ? Because this project is essentially the last
> large scale hydro electrical project in north america. What will be left
> are smaller scale projects, usually less than a gigawatt.
>
> So at one point, those large data centres will find it harder and harder
> to find places where power infrastructure can cater to their hungry needs.
>
>
>
>