I Found the Cloud - It's Over Here

I don't usually like to go on rants - but I watched a video tonight from a local news station that simply pushed me over the edge as far as what the general public thinks this magical, mystery "cloud" thing is. I know I am a techie, and live and breathe this stuff, but come on......


KXAS reports on an AT&T data center that is referred to as this newfangled thing people call "the cloud". You get on those "computer screen thingy's" and what you see on your screen 'somehow' comes from this "cloud".

Further observations:

Title of the article: "Take a peek inside the AT&T data center that's home to a big chunk of the web".

Whoa.... slow down there.... what's this 'web' thing, I thought it was about a cloud? How much exactly is a 'big chunk'?

"It's the electronic brain behind things like....."

I thought Google was our third brain? So it must be like the Wizard, behind the curtain.

"without it millions of businesses would grind to a halt. Millions of customers would be cut-off from services they can't live without"

... as they show nothing but 3 different ways to check your Facebook page.

"We wanted to show you the James Bond style door we passed through - no chance."

A prox-card to get in a cage? Man, here I've always wanted to be like James Bond and I HAVE been every day at work. I even have biometrics that I have to pass through!

From the article: ".... so secret, we can't even tell you where it is. We can say it is somewhere in North Texas"

Ok -- it's just a guess, but.... 900 Venture Dr., in Allen, Texas. Using the information from the video -- 8 generators and 5 chillers I go to this cloud thing and a map web site and type in "AT&T texas". I come upon a site in Allen Texas, turn on the satellite view and get this:


View Larger Map

8 generators, 5 chillers.



Enjoy

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Skanska Data Center Construction Simulation

I ran across the video below recently -- I enjoy a 3D walk-through that show the various aspects of a conceptual data center. I'll have to admit though that I had not heard of (or maybe just forgot) Skanska. They are a large, global company, with a Mission Critical practice for data center construction and similar projects.

After a quick search, I do somewhat recall their name from the story last December where eBay awarded EDI with a contract, but Skanska was noted as putting forth a design called eHive that Dean Nelson described as “a very compelling ultra dense product.”

Here is the YouTube video of their data center construction simulation: