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The Power-Saving Secrets of Google Servers
Google senior vice president of network operations Urs Holzle made some public comments Thursday at the company's European HQ in Dublin, in which he discussed Google's decision to build its own servers and use a custom OS for its massive data centers. Not surprisingly, power and cooling loom large in Google's decisions:
Energy efficiency is a subject Holzle speaks passionately about. About half of the energy that goes into a data center gets lost due to technology inefficiencies that are often easy to fix, he said. ... Rather than waste the electricity and incur the additional costs for cooling, Google has power supplies specially made that are 90% efficient. "It's not hard to do. That's why to me it's personally offensive" that standard power supplies aren't as efficient, Holzle said.As Google rolls out new products and services every other day, will it begin selling its server power supplies as well, so other providers who are wrestling with similar problems can achieve similar benefits? They can list them on Google Base and have shoppers use Google Checkout to buy them, right? Don't hold your breath, as this is a major competitive advantage. Read more.
June 30, 2006
Internap to Expand in Boston, New York
Network services provider Internap (IIP) announced today that it will expand its Boston and New York data center facilities to accommodate growing customer demand in those markets. Completion of both build-outs is expected before the end of the year.
"These strategic investments help strengthen Internap's core IP portfolio and allow us to effectively optimize our existing real estate without incurring the level of substantial capital expenditures required for traditional greenfield builds," said James P. DeBlasio, chief executive officer of Internap. "The proposed plans let us quickly turn up additional space to meet the growing demands of our customers in Boston and New York, while offering them a cost-effective and high quality solution for data center services."
DeBlasio said the growing migration to blade servers, which increases computing power density, was also a driver in Internap's need to expand in key markets.
Posted by Rich Miller 
June 30, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 29, 2006
365 Main Expands Into Phoenix, Northern Virginia
365 Main has acquired data centers in Phoenix and northern Virginia as it continues to expand, citing strong customer demand for top-quality mission-critical facilities. The Phoenix property is a fully operational 315,000 square feet center in the Price Road tech corridor in Chandler, which the company purchased last December. The northern Virginia data center is a 145,000 square foot site on Lafayette Center Drive in Chantilly, which is expected to open for business in September.
365 Main said its choice of expansion cities was guided by customer demand and affordable power. "The demand we're seeing is consistently coming from the enterprise sector," said VP of marketing Miles Kelly, who said many of 365 Main's customers at its San Francisco facility are interested in expansion space in one of the two new markets. "Phoenix has become well-recognized as a prime disaster recovery market, so our pipeline is pretty fresh," he said.
365 Main, which also had a grand opening for its new Los Angeles data center yesterday, focused on "power-sensitive" geographic markets. Customers will pay about 4 cents a kilowatt for power at the new sites in Northern Virginia (Dominion Power) and Phoenix (Salt River Project). That's a third of the rates at the company's San Francisco and Los Angeles centers, said company president Chris Dolan.
"Power is the first thing everyone asks about now,” said Dolan. “It’s a major concern, so we developed a billing model that only charges customers for exactly what they use. Most companies charge a flat rate per month in a ‘use it or lose it’ structure, which usually means that the customer loses. But that’s not the way we like to do business, so we came up with a different model that is more fair to the customer."
Posted by Rich Miller June 29, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
Lowe's Chooses San Antonio for Data Center
Lowe's has chosen San Antonio as the site of a $126 million data center, contingent upon the approval of an incentive package by the City Council, according to the San Antonio Express-News. Lowe plans to build in the Westover Hills, where Microsoft is also said to be looking at sites for a 470,000-square-foot data center that would employ about 100 people. The newspaper says Paypal may also be scouting potential data center sites in San Antonio.
The Lowe's center would employ just 25 workers, but use substantial power that would funnel revenue to the city through its utility, CPS Energy. Lowe's is seeking a 10-year tax abatement on the data center. The project will go before the City Council on Thursday.
Posted by Rich Miller June 29, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
Varied Responses to the Power Crunch
How do you handle the growing power loads and "hot spots" in your data center? Obtain more power? Consolidate equipment? Rework your raised-floor area? Enterprises are all over the map in their responses to rising costs and power consumption, according to a recent survey of 1,200 IT organizations by chip maker AMD.
"While 44 percent were able to supply more power to the data center, 27 percent chose to consolidate servers," the report notes, "25 percent reorganized their servers into hot-aisle/cool-aisle configurations, and 23 percent increased the size of their data centers."
InfoWorld's David Margulius adds his analysis: "What the study doesn't say is that despite the push for lower-power CPUs and more efficient configurations (blades and SANs and such), the biggest impact of rising energy costs is that it accelerates the virtualization tsunami. And the most meaningful impact of this acceleration may be more manageability and flexibility."
Posted by Rich Miller June 29, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 27, 2006
BitTorrent Beefs Up Network Capabilities
BitTorrent Inc. has signed an agreement with Global Netoptex Inc. (GNi) to provide IP transit for streaming videos at one gigabit per second, the companies said today. BitTorrent, the world's leading peer-assisted file distribution platform, is hosted at the 365 Main data center in San Francisco, where GNi also has operations.
By using transit agreements with Tier One providers, GNi provides BitTorrent with a single connection that peers with six networks to ensure consistent access to the fastest connections between two locations. GNi also acts as a network operations center (NOC) at the 365 Main Mission Critical Data Center in San Francisco providing 24/7 onsite technical support.
BitTorrent Inc. recently announced an agreement with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, which will use the the company's delivery system for the electronic sale of motion picture and television content in the United States. "With this announcement, Warner Bros. becomes the first major studio to provide legal video content via the BitTorrent publishing platform," the company said last month.
"BitTorrent is emerging as a key player for distribution of video content over the Internet and needs bandwidth providers that can keep pace with our growth," said Ashwin Navin, president and co-founder of BitTorrent. "GNi's reliability and flexibility were key factors in our decision to work with them, so we can focus on the best user experience for our service."
Posted by Rich Miller June 27, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
Reverse Stock Split for Internap
Network services provider Internap (IIP) says it will implement a 1-for-10 reverse split of its common stock for stockholders of record as of the close of business on July 10. Internap shares will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange on a split-adjusted basis on July 11. After trading for around 50 cents for much of last year, Internap shares have moved up to just over $1 a share in recent weeks.
The conversion price and number of shares that can be issued will be proportionately adjusted to reflect the split. Internap stockholders approved the reverse split via an amendment to the company's articles of incorporation during the annual stockholders meeting held on June 21.
Posted by Rich Miller June 27, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
Gigenet Preps New 17,000 SF Data Center
Gigenet, the parent body of web hosting brands ColoQuest, GigeServers and DDoSProtection.com, is nearing completion of a 17,000 square foot data center near Chicago. In addition to moving the bulk of its existing customer base to the new building, Gigenet also plans to relocate corporate operations.
"Our dedicated hosting and attack mitigation brands have experienced rapid growth for the past several years, and ultimately we have outgrown our old facilities," said Derek Raines, Gigenet Vice President. "This new facility will secure our ability to both expand and provide a high level of service to our growing client base."
Posted by Rich Miller June 27, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
More Expansion Ahead for ViaWest
Denver-based colo provider ViaWest is planning additional expansion beyond last week's acquisition of Fortix, which gave it entry into the Portland, Oregon market. ViaWest has secured $31 million in debt financing from a "leading New York financial institution," applying $13 million to the Fortix deal and debt retirement.
That leaves $18 million, which the company says is "earmarked for additional expansion and acquisition opportunities that strategically align with ViaWest’s business in its three existing geographic markets or helping the company expand into yet a fourth market." ViaWest has data centers in Denver and Salt Lake City in addition to its newly-acquired facility in Portland.
Posted by Rich Miller June 27, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 26, 2006
365 Main Launches San Francisco Exchange
365 Main Inc. has launched SFMIX, which the company says is the first Internet exchange point in downtown San Francisco. SFMIX will allow customers and network providers within 365 Main's data center to exchange traffic with one another. SFMIX is immediately available to customers, who will receive a Gigabit cross-connect to the peering fabric without monthly charge. The Gigabit Internet exchange also features direct fiber-optic connectivity to San Francisco’s Financial District and the media and technology corridor located south of Market Street.
365 Main worked closely with Packet Clearing House (PCH) on the construction of SFMIX. PCH, a non-profit institute researching Internet traffic exchanges and the optimization of routing Internet traffic, has also agreed to develop exchange points in other 365 Main facilities, such as 365 Main’s 135,000 sq. ft. El Segundo property in Los Angeles. The company's announcement said that "additional locations will be announced in coming months" - perhaps a hint that 365 Main is close to announcing additional data center acquisitions.
Posted by Rich Miller June 26, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
June 25, 2006
Sealand Data Haven Badly Damaged By Fire
SeaLand, the offshore digital data haven on a former World War II anti-aircraft military fortress in the North Sea, has been badly damaged by fire. The blaze started in a generator and caused significant damage (coverage here, here and here) and injuries to one employee. The colocation operation housed at Sealand was the focus of a cover story in Wired upon its launch in July 2000, but by 2003 former employees were reporting that HavenCo was in financial difficulty. Generator fires are always trouble, but obviously more problematic when your nearest fire engine is a tug boat.
Posted by Rich Miller June 25, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter
MORE STORIES FROM THIS MONTH:
- The Power-Saving Secrets of Google Servers
- Internap to Expand in Boston, New York
- 365 Main Expands Into Phoenix, Northern Virginia
- Lowe's Chooses San Antonio for Data Center
- Varied Responses to the Power Crunch
- BitTorrent Beefs Up Network Capabilities
- Reverse Stock Split for Internap
- Gigenet Preps New 17,000 SF Data Center
- More Expansion Ahead for ViaWest
- 365 Main Launches San Francisco Exchange
- Sealand Data Haven Badly Damaged By Fire
- Is the Dark Fiber GoogleNet All About IPv6?
- Memory A Factor in Data Center Power Challenge
- ViaWest Buys Fortix, Enters Northwest Market
- Dataside Announces Record Earnings
- VoIP Gaining 100K Accounts a Month From Telcos
- Michael Ovitz Buys Opsware on The Dips
- Latest Level 3 targets: AboveNet and XO?
- ColoSpace to open Sixth Data Center in Network
- Terremark 'Evaluating Alternatives' for Growth
- Internal Network Problems Slow Flickr
- HP Promises Savings with New Blade System
- Google Data Centers and the Internet Economy
- Akamai Service Targets Web 2.0 Bottlenecks