March 9, 2010

Data Centers Flocking to Oregon

I've previously blogged about Facebook's new data center in Oregon and the subsequent backlash from Greenpeace about Facebook's decision to purchase electricity from a utility that largely relies on coal for its electricity generation. This morning, the esteemed Wall Street Journal ran a front page story on Facebook's data center, and a few interesting facts can be gleaned from the story.

Facebook is apparently not alone in selecting Oregon for data center operations. The social media networking giant joins Microsoft, Intuit, and Yahoo data centers in Quinn, a data center operated by Ask.com in Moses Lake, an Amazon.com data center in Boardman, and a Google data center in The Dalles. Apparently the combination of a cool and dry climate, critical to maximizing ambient air cooling technologies, is drawing more and more data centers to the state.

Interestingly, it's not the climate that draws these companies. Oregon is also apparently doling out some pretty sweet incentives for the companies to locate there. Facebook, for example (which only paid $3 million for the 124 acres of land), has an agreement with the state to be charged property tax on the unimproved value of the land for the next 15 years, about $25,000 a year. The data center is expected to cost around $175 million, so paying tax on only the unimproved value of the land will save millions. In fact, the WSJ points out that Facebook will save over $3 million a year in property taxes, or $45 million over the life of the tax abatement. That's a pretty awesome deal for Facebook.

What's curious about this article is what is not mentioned. The article hints that Oregon has "abundant supplies of hydropower" but doesn't mention the controversy surrounding the utility companies operating there or their higher-than-average reliance on coal rather than hydroenergy. There's no mention at all about Greenpeace's boycott. Finally, while the article mentions the job creation in glowing terms, certainly no one would argue that a data center (which by its nature is typically staffed by a skeleton crew of human beings) is ever going to replace the hundreds of thousands jobs lost in the logging and sawmill industries.

I'm pleased that Green IT made it to the front page of a major business daily. The more people become aware of the issues and challenges facing Green IT, the more likely it is that good law and policy can result. The WSJ does no one any favors, however, by sugarcoating the truth, misleading the facts, or by simply ignoring certain basic facts.

Posted by tlau at 10:15 AM | Add Comment

March 7, 2010

Monday News Roundup

Monday News Roundup, March 8 2010

• Organizers and researchers of the Sixth Data Centers Europe 2010 conference announce that APC by Schneider Electric will be demonstrating how to provide energy while addressing energy efficiency legislation.


• Altruent Systems, a systems integration company headquartered in Raleigh, N.C., that specializes in the consulting, design and installation of mission-critical infrastructure, announces that it has completed a new energy efficient data center for Sanford-based The Pantry Inc.


• Voonami Inc. unveils a computing facility claimed to be the greenest in Utah, using an evaporative cooler to trim energy costs by up to 80 percent compared to a typical data center.


• Voonami also announces its Virtual Desktop Service on the UTOPIA network, offering customers the green benefits of cloud computing on their desktop.


• Inphi Corporation, a high-speed analog semiconductor company, announces that its Isolation Memory Buffer component has been chosen by Embedded Computing Design magazine at its Editor's Choice award recipient in its Deep Green category for enabling high performance computing systems to operate at higher speeds with greater power efficiency.


• CoSentry completes installation of a high-efficiency, inherently redundant UPS, part of Eaton's Green Solution, at a Sioux Falls data center.


• Equinix Inc. announces that its SV2 International Business Exchange data center has earned LEED certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.


• VYCON, a designer and manufacturer of environmentally friendly, high-speed energy storage flywheel systems, announces its participation in AFCOM's Data Center World conference in Tennessee.


• Affiliated Computer Services Inc. unveils a state-of-the-art flagship data center in London that could serve as an industry model by simultaneously cutting carbon emissions and reducing energy costs.

Posted by tlau at 3:56 AM | Add Comment

What if They're Wrong?

While traveling through Asia this week, I noticed an interesting TV commercial in my hotel room by NEC. The commercial features a boardroom scene with the CEO-type fretting about high IT energy costs, and one of his employees suggesting a movement to NEC energy efficient servers to save money. It's the first Green IT TV ad I've seen, and I suspect it's only the beginning as Green IT continues to grow and expand.

It's a little jarring, therefore, to read the Chicago Tribune's write-up this weekend about GOP politicians hammering the science of global warming. There's always been the Beckian/Palin wing of the party that's denied global warming, but now, even mainstream politicians have jumped on the bandwagon. Mario Rubio (running for FL's Senate seat against moderate Charlie Crist), Tim Pawlenty (one of the earliest to openly hint he's running for President in 2012), even John McCain -- all have spoken in the past about the need to restrict carbon emissions, but are now openly questioning whether global warming exists or whether it's caused by humanity.

The trend is clear -- it's cool to bash the science of global warming. The East Anglia University "Climategate" scandal didn't help, and neither did the UN's IPCC panel's admission that not its science has been up to usual rigor. There's some polling to indicate that the public is now more confused than ever, and that the number of people who doubt the science of climate change is growing. There's a concerted effort to fight back on this campaign, being waged by scientists and observers who insist the science of climate change is solid, to government agencies such as the UK's Met Office, which this week released a scientific paper arguing that the link of rising temperatures to human activity is even stronger than before.

Throughout this storm, I'm reminded of a little analytical exercise I read somewhere once, called "What if they're wrong?" In this case, the first question is "what if the scientists are wrong, and climate change is not happening?" Cap and trade restrictions can be expensive and disruptive to national economies, for sure. On the other hand, an economy less reliant on foreign oil and more developed on renewable energy may not be a bad thing even if the scientists are wrong. The second question is, "what if the climate change deniers are wrong" and the planet is warming leading to catastrophic climate change? Hmmm... it doesn't take much imagination to quickly realize which scenario is worse. Let's hope some clarity and level-headedness returns to this debate soon.

Posted by tlau at 3:40 AM | Add Comment

March 3, 2010

Groups Move Towards Data Center Efficiency Rating Standardization

Up until now, it's been quite a challenge to determine the veracity of claims by various companies about how green their data centers are. The recent Facebook flap, for example, where Facebook claimed it was building the world's greenest data center only to be publicly boycotted by Greenpeace, is a good example. Part of the problem has been a lack of agreement on how to measure a data center's green credentials. In the physical space where data centers are located, the US Green Building Council's LEED standards have made a difference in pushing the industry towards more efficient buildings. In terms of the efficiency of the operations within that space, however, there isn't a clear standard in the industry. Without that standard, the industry is essentially left to its own marketing devices to make whatever claims it likes.

That may soon be changing. A coalition of groups is now closely examining the issue of how to measure green feature in data centers, with the goal of establishing a common rating system. The system will utilize PUE, or Power Usage Effectiveness, as the measure. PUE compares total data center power versus IT power used, and the groups, which include the Green Grid and the EPA, are establishing metrics on how those measurement are to be taken.

The EPA is also leading an effort to establish an "Energy Star" rating for data centers. This has been in the works for over a year now, and the EPA hopes to launch the program this spring. The rating system will be based on PUE, although PUE won't be the only metric in the score. Data centers will be able to conduct self-ratings to earn a score of 0-100, and companies earning above 75 can request an audit to earn the Energy Star rating. The Green Grid has a similar rating system for calculating PUE, but the systems are slightly different in that the EPA system measures energy used. The EPA system does not take into account free cooling or redundancy but the EPA believes its system is still very accurate.

These are all good moves. They won't avoid the Facebook-style controversy since PUE doesn't consider whether the energy used by data center comes from renewable sources, but the raw amount of energy used and how efficiently it is used is something that must be measured if data centers are going to be kept honest about their green credentials. The PUE rating by Green Grid and the Energy Star by EPA will go a long way towards establishing some truth and transparency in the claims we are seeing today.

Posted by tlau at 7:48 PM | Add Comment

March 1, 2010

Monday News Roundup

Monday News Roundup, March 1, 2010

• A myriad of federal and state tax credits are available for Green IT projects related to data centers, and they don't all have to be new constructions to qualify.


• The EPA is finalizing its Energy Star program for data centers, allowing rating of energy efficiency in data centers, that it plans to launch in June this year.


• Numara Software facilitates the adoption of Green IT by enabling projects to obtain a more precise view of their current energy use and reconfiguring and deploying detailed solutions such as automatic hibernation and wake-up to recapture up to 40% of IT energy spending.


• Concert Technologies releases a podcast discussing its Concert Close program to provide the IT industry's first methodology to reduce truck rolls and travel time to customers requiring nationwide and international technology IT infrastructure deployment, reducing fuel consumption and carbon emissions.


• Google has received permission to buy and sell electricity on wholesale energy markets, just like any other utility company.


• Atrato Inc announces that the U.S. Department of Energy has deployed sixteen Atrato Velocity1000 systems in its Golden Field Office to support implementation of its new virtualized data center, powered 100% by solar energy.


• Global computing and data center industry thought leaders and experts on enterprise computing's productivity, energy efficiency and eco-sustainability will be among featured speakers on topics relating to Green IT trends at the Uptime Institute's fifth annual Symposium this May in New York.


• Raritan announces that Gary Marks, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, has been a Channel Chief by Everything Channels' CRN for the second consecutive year for helping grow Raritan's new data center power management solutions.


• ServInt, a provider of managed web hosting for businesses worldwide, celebrated its 15th anniversary this month. The company employs multiple green methodologies to help customers operate with minimal environmental impact.


• amsung Electronics has begun mass producing the industry's first low-power four gigabit DDR devices, expected to bring significant power savings to data centers and server systems.


• Morphlabs Inc. announces it has received accreditation under the MSPAlliance's Vendor Accreditation Program. The MSPA member companies share common goals including achieving Green IT certifications.


• Wyse Technology announces the introduction of a $99 Zero Client to allow schools to optimize IT and financial resources while reducing carbon footprint.


• HP unveiled a host of new services aimed at helping small data-center operators boost performance and cut operating costs by becoming more energy efficient.


• Emerson's energy efficient Global Data Center in St. Louis has earned a LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council and a 2009 Beyond Green High Performance Building Award from the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council.

Posted by tlau at 6:00 AM | Add Comment

Senators Ponder Radically Altering Climate Bill

Over the weekend, while the Nobel prize-winning UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change appointed an independent committee to determine whether it needs to change its procedures to ensure scientific rigor and integrity, news broke that key Senators are considering a radically different approach to the climate bill stalled in the Senate. The biggest change in the bill is that the Senators are willing to abandon the controversial market-based cap-and-trade system (similar to the European Trading Scheme) that allows companies to buy and sell carbon allowances on an open market.

In its place, the Senators (Kerry from MA, Lieberman from CT, and Lindsey from SC) are proposing dividing the U.S. economy into three separate sectors: power, transportation, and industry. The power generation industry would face an overall cap on emissions that would tighten over time, while fuel would be subject to a carbon tax, and industrial facilities (like data centers) would be exempt from carbon emissions for a few years before limits are eventually phased in. Incentives for off-shore exploration and nuclear power generation remain.

The trio seem very optimistic that this bill may be able to garner 60 votes in the Senate. Kerry admits the environment is tough right now, but swears that everyone in the Senate understands the importance of moving the bill forward. The bill is sure to face tough scrutiny as it's unclear yet how carbon will be priced, as well as how Americans will respond to the higher gasoline contemplated by the proposed legislation. A cap-and-dividend system, which would tax oil refineries upstream and give the money back to taxpayers as a dividend, is also possible but most critics claim the idea is completely unworkable.

This is interesting news. In spite of the Senate being held up by the health care debate, environmental legislation is arguably more long-lasting and has more popular support, so it's encouraging to see these Senators continue to push the agenda even if it means radical new approaches. For data centers, the game continues to be one of wait-and-see, with carbon regulation still a few years away by anyone's estimation.

Posted by tlau at 5:55 AM | Add Comment

February 25, 2010

Will the Bloom Box Power Your Data Center in the Future?

When I was a kid, I enjoyed watching Marty McFly traverse time in his DeLorean, powered by a flux capacitor. The flux capacitor was a magical device, the size of a coffee can, that generated the huge amount of power necessary to travel through time. Later, as a fan of Captain Picard's exploits through the universe, I wished that our own space engineers would invent the warp drive, an engine capable of mixing antimatter and dilithium crystals to create a warp field around spacecraft allowing faster-than-light travel. While these breakthrough technologies remain the stuff of science fiction, a 60 Minutes segment last weekend on something called a "Bloom Box" triggered similar flights of fantasy across the blogosphere.

The Bloom Energy Server, as it's officially known, isn't actually a server at all. In press releases, the company's founder (a former NASA rocket scientist) is seen holding a black glossy box that looks like a couple of Mac Minis stacked on top of another. Installed, the fuel cell array resides in a giant outdoor metal box that looks like a power substation. And power is what this server does.

The server is actually a fuel cell array. Fuel cells have been around for over a century, but have never really caught on as a source of electricity because they've traditionally required high heat or high pressure to work, and past designs have relied on expensive precious metals to create the electricity. When automakers first started looking for alternatives to the internal combustion engine, some (Toyota) developed gasoline-battery hybrids, while others (BMW and Mercedes) pursued hydrogen fuel cell technology. The promise of being able to convert abundant hydrogen into electricity, with water the only byproduct, was alluring. The technological and cost hurdles of distributing and storing hydrogen, however, proved formidable. Other than Honda's FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle in limited production, most automakers have abandoned their fuel cell efforts. Some battery companies are considering fuel cells to power cell phones and laptops, but those efforts are seen as mainly experimental.

The Bloom Energy Server claims to have solved these technological problems in producing green energy. The device doesn't use any precious metals. Instead, it runs on wafers made from beach sand and coated with special inks to create the fuel cells. It still requires fuel, but can run on any number of fuels including regular gasoline, natural gas, or biogas. It has an efficiency factor in excess of 50%, far better than solar, and unlike solar, it can generate electricity on demand. On the negative side, the server is not carbon neutral unless it's fed with biogas.

So what's not to like? Skeptics abound, pointing out that the underlying technology is nothing new. Skeptics also point out that the cost remains high (nearly one million per box) and installation is limited to large companies like eBay and Google for now. Reliability may also be a problem, as temperature and dust seem to shorten the life of the arrays. The company claims it is working through these issues and that with mass manufacturing, it can reduce the size and cost of the array to produce a box that can power a typical home for $3000.

So will a Bloom Energy Server power your data center one day? The promise is certainly great. Imagine a data center totally off the grid, generating clean electricity at much lower cost than grid electricity, with a backyard fuel cell. I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that unlike the flux capacitor or warp drive, this thing is real and it's working now. That's reason enough to get really excited about it.

Posted by tlau at 12:19 PM | Add Comment

February 24, 2010

EPA Provides Timeline for Issuing Greenhouse Regs

The administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, has an unenviable job. She's under orders from the U.S. Supreme Court to treat carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act, but she's also facing tremendous political pressure to refrain from going too far in EPA regulation. That was evident yesterday when she testified on Capitol Hill in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, where Senator James Inhofe attacked her and the science of global warming repeatedly. Jackson replied by stating firmly that the science behind global warming is settled, and that human activity is responsible for the warming.

The hearing comes on the heels of a letter exchange between Jackson and several prominent Senators about the EPA's timeline for issuing regulations that would limit greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate, as you may recall, is considering legislation of its own but it's far from certain whether that legislation can pass. In a reply to the Senators dated two days ago, Jackson laid out the EPA's plans for greenhouse gas regulation if the Senate fails to act.

According to Jackson, there will be no new regulations for the remainder of 2010. Only major sources of pollution will be subject to any regulation before 2013, and smaller emitters won't be subject to regulation until 2016. The timeline appears deliberately cautious, and would preserve the status quo for the better part of a year to come.

This timeline gives the Senate plenty of time to act to pass its own legislation, but several Senators are threatening to move ahead with resolutions that would disapprove the EPA's endangerment finding, a finding that was necessary for the regulations to issue. If that happens, Jackson warned that several key agreements with automakers on limiting greenhouse gas emissions for the auto industry would fall apart.

For data center operators, then, the remainder of 2010 looks to be regulation-free when it comes to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In fact, unless the Senate moves to act before then, it appears that all but the very largest data centers will be free of carbon restrictions until 2016 at the earliest. It's a five year window that was relatively unexpected, but will nonetheless come as a relief for many.

Posted by tlau at 9:05 AM | Add Comment

February 22, 2010

Facebook Gets Slammed to the Greenpeace Wall

Yesterday morning I blogged about Facebook's announcement that it was opening its first wholly-owned data center in Oregon. Facebook claims that the data center will be one of the most energy efficient in the world and will be LEED-certified. Besides the rainwater irrigation and low flush toilets, the facility will boast an evaporative cooling system, airside economizer, and re-use of server heat. These technologies are possible in a cool and dry environment like Oregon's, which means that energy-hungry air chillers won't be necessary to cool the servers.

The announcement was rapidly followed by a public scolding by Greenpeace. The environmental organization's main criticism of Facebook is that the data center will run on electricity generated mainly by coal. PacifiCorp, the utility company serving the new data center, generates more than 83% of its electricity from nonrenewable sources, including coal. Greenpeace points out that Yahoo recently opened a green data center in Buffalo, NY, to capture the use of hydroelectric power, and wants to know why Facebook can't make the same commitment.

Greenpeace wants Facebook to commit to using only renewable energy in its data center, and has started -- what else -- a Facebook page to urge Facebook users to join in the call. The organization believes that user efforts forced Greenpeace to change privacy policies recently, and hopes for similar success here.

Facebook has responded strongly, pointing out that there is a big difference between efficiency (using as little electricity as possible) versus total energy draw, even if that energy is from renewable sources. Facebook also claims that it is impossible to tell utility companies what kind of electricity to feed to the data center (renewable or non-renewable) and that given Oregon's legal mandate for renewable energy, PacifiCorp will eventually become greener in the future anyway.

The episode has kicked off a storm on the blogosphere, with several columnists pointing out that there is a lot that data hungry companies like Facebook can do to force the issue of renewable energy. See here and here. At least one contributor at Grist feels that Facebook may be getting a raw PR deal here.

I think that last contributor may be on to something. There's no doubt Facebook kicked off this firestorm by making the green features of the new data center a central part of its PR and communication efforts. The company is undoubtedly proud of building its first wholly-owned data center and has taken what it thinks are great steps towards building a green data center. Facebook's PR department was caught sleeping at the switch by this one, as the lack of renewable energy should have been seen coming from a mile away. However, it's not fair to single out Facebook when other, much bigger users of data centers *cough* Google *ahem* don't even publish the locations or numbers of their non-efficient data centers. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of this mess will be a smarter and wiser Facebook that no longer discloses the location of future data centers. That would really be too bad.

Posted by tlau at 1:44 PM | Add Comment

Monday News Roundup

Monday News Roundup, Feb. 22, 2010

• Viridity Software and the Global Green Consulting Group announce a strategic partnership to leverage Viridity's software solution during customer engagements in order to provide them with a deeper understanding of their data center power demands.


• Ohio University's server virtualization initiative is projected to save the institution $21,000 over the next year, thanks to energy savings of more than 420,000 KwH.


• Federspiel Controls, Inc., announces the results of an ongoing energy-saving collaboration at the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB), a project that has reduced power costs at the FTB's data center by more than $30,000 per year.


• Staff&Line, announces its official U.S. launch, providing organizations in the U.S. with IT Service Management (ITSM) through its software-as-a-service solution, Easyvista.com.


• CyrusOne announces that Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), one of the world's leading oil exploration service companies, will occupy a 10,000 square foot data hall in CyrusOne's newest co-located green data center located in West Houston.


• Fujitsu's Primergy TX150 S7 mono socket server is the world's most energy efficient in its class, setting a new SPECpower ssj2008 world record and achieving Energy Star 1.0 family certification.


• Facebook has moved into its own dedicated data center in Oregon, offering Facebook a unique combination of suitable climate for environmental cooling and renewable power resources.


• The data center business in Asia is exploding, and not enough of them are paying attention to green IT initiatives, according to Frost & Sullivan.


• Numara Software shares new resources to help IT departments implement effective power management policies to drastically reduce energy consumption and costs.

Posted by tlau at 9:14 AM | Add Comment