Data Factories
In promoting Earth Hour Google failed to look at itself in the mirror. Der Spiegel reports buildings loaded with computers are a big waste of energy. The search giant is mentioned for how electricity costs and access to cooling water have determined the location of one of its data centers:
It is no coincidence that search engine giant Google is building its newest computer center near the Dalles Dam, a huge hydroelectric power plant in Oregon. Buying electricity directly from the plant costs one-fifth as much as Google would be paying in California. Besides, the Columbia River supplies inexpensive water to operate the eight multistory cooling towers designed to handle the waste heat from tens of thousands of computers.
Users are accustomed to the results of their searches appearing on their computer screens almost magically. Calculations have now been performed to determine the share of power consumption that can be attributed to a single Google search. Depending on the initial data, one Google search consumes enough electricity to run an 11-watt, energy-saving lightbulb for 15 minutes to an hour.
Harper’s Magazine has more details on the Oregon development [via Hot Air].
What internet user doesn’t use Google all the time? Guess we shouldn’t even bother turning on those compact-fluorescent bulbs. Compute in the dark to save the world.
The article goes retro with IBM’s energy-saving idea:
Computer maker IBM, which once operated 160 computer centers worldwide, has been especially determined to centralize its operations. Today, IBM has only seven computer centers, and it hopes to develop a new industry based on growing energy-consciousness. The company has announced its “Big Green” initiative, in which it plans to devote $1 billion (€650 million) a year to the development of “green,” climate-protecting computer technology.
The IBM effort focuses on the mainframe computer. Intricate technology allows such computers to operate like an amalgamation of individual PCs and, as a result, they can replace hundreds of individual computers at a fraction of their combined operating cost. This is because the individual shadow machines are only allocated as much of the mainframe computer’s computing power as they actually need. The technology, known in the industry as “virtualization,” utilizes the hardware far more efficiently across the board. “We save up to 80 percent of the energy while providing the same computing power,” says IBM expert Thomas Tauer.
The company now dreams of a return of the mainframe computers with which it once dominated the computer world. Ironically, the victory march of the inexpensive PC had turned this species into a curiosity of the past. With the exception of major banks and insurance companies, hardly anyone seemed to need the bulky, expensive giants. But now the dinosaurs are back, and IBM reports growing demand.
A few decades ago green and mainframes referred to the monochrome screens users squinted at when writing COBOL code. Today, it’s about saving the world from Google’s search efficiency.
“Massive Computer Centers Worse than Air Traffic”
[picture via Burnt Pixel]
Though in Google’s defense, they have been at the forefront of pushing better DC power supply technology. In fact, they don’t have individual AC-DC power supplies for every computer in their data centers, and in fact have large DC power runs and one set of converters which is much more efficient from a conversion standpoint, and also a heat standpoint (requiring less air conditioning). They were pioneers in this concept for data centers.