Hacking the Power Grid

Here is one to keep any data center manager up at night. Speaking at a security conference, CIA analyst Tom Donahue gave information about attacks (regions outside the U.S.) where criminals hacked into systems and cut power to several cities. All attacks were intrusions via the Internet, and the goal was extortion.

On Thursday The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved approved new standards to protect the nation's bulk power systems against cyber attacks. The eight new standards are:

• Critical Cyber Asset Identification
• Security Management Controls
• Personnel and Training
• Electronic Security Perimeters
• Physical Security of Critical Cyber Assets
• Systems Security Management
• Incident Reporting and Response Planning
  
• Recovery Plans for Critical Cyber Assets

In November 2007 President Bush asked congress to move $152 million into cybersecurity programs for 2008. Given what the CIA has known (presumably for some time), it's no surprise that investigation, new technologies and protection methods are crucial.

The PC World article quotes a conference attendee as saying that this "came as news" to many professionals in attendance. I'm no security expert, but come on.... this is nothing new. The U.S. has had any number of reports on potential infrastructure attacks and we have been pouring money into cybersecurity for many years -- the Clinton administration announced a $1.46 Billion initiative for cybersecurity in 1999, there was project Eligible Reciver in 1997, and countless others since then. Just last September there was a demonstration at the Idaho National Laboratory of the effects of a software vulnerability attack on infrastructure systems.

The power grid hacking is still pretty scary to think about though....and good reason for all of these alternative power sources to gain popularity.

Check out the PC World article here

Data Center Tours

As I have mentioned before, it is always fun to see tours/videos of other data centers. TechTarget's IT Knowledge Exchange has a collection of DC tours here

I like the Huawei Network Operations Center!!!

Google Visit

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to Peter and Noah from Google for stopping by our Linux User Group last night. We had an awesome turn-out -- go figure, mention Google and free pizza!

They mentioned that the next 3 Google data centers will be located in...... just kidding - they did an excellent job of not disclosing anything they shouldn't. They did describe the systems administrator job and the tools they use to support the hardware techs that are deploying and fixing the thousands of servers in the data center. They confirmed that Google is indeed a seriously cool place to work and that most all of the software used is home-grown.

Google is getting serious about hiring for the Council Bluffs data center and I think a lot of applications will be filled out from the group attending last night.

Uptime Institute - Data Center Greeness

As soon as I finish posting about the Emerson white paper and how there is so much press on the topic, the very next thing I read is about a new paper from the Uptime Charrette titled Four Metrics Define Data Center Greenness

It looks to be very good (as most all of their content is), but I'll have to find another time to dig into it.

Check it out here

Emerson Network Power - Energy Logic

Emerson published a press release regarding their Energy Logic road map - a new approach to data center energy optimization. Energy Logic centers on the "cascade effect" (throughout data center infrastructure) and is based on Emerson's research and modeling.


A lot has been written lately about energy savings, and the whole green movement, but this approach helps to quantify energy savings and sheds light on potential ROI.

“When we released our report earlier this year, we stressed that energy reductions could be achieved with the proper planning and implementation of efficient technologies that exist today,” said Andrew Fanara of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We encourage companies like Emerson Network Power to share any and all expertise that helps the data center community reduce their energy usage.”

Their white paper titled Energy Logic: Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption by Creating Savings that Cascade Across Systems divulges the Energy Logic approach. Among the sea of energy efficiency / green literature, news and white papers, this one has some meat to it. It covers:

• Energy Consumption (where it goes)
• The approach - including the cascading/sequential approach of how certain best practices have the greatest impact
• Some nice tables and diagrams of Energy Logic applied (I'm a visual person) :)
• The ten Energy Logic Actions (more pretty graphs and pictures)
• Assumptions and timing benefits

Overall this is a very good white paper and one I'll keep in my reference pile

The white paper can be viewed here

US Signal Elk Grove Village Data Center

US Signal, a Midwest bandwidth provider, with a large DWDM backbone, announced the addition of a new data center in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. They have an impressive DWDM network in the Midwest (hey-what about Iowa!?). US Signal has been busy in the Chicago burbs lately, to complement their downtown loop.

I embeded the map below just to show how close it is to the new Microsoft Northlake data center. :) Check out the press release here



View Larger Map

Internap Acquisition Rumor

Back in the dot-com bubble I used to track stock message boards pretty religiously. It was entertaining at times, a little bit informative and it was fun to watch some people write under multiple handles. I had the pleasure for working for a company with a very eccentric CEO who loved to post on the message boards for our stock -- so much so he made posters out of a particular conversation with a share holder.

I've setup this post like that for a reason -- I read the message board for Internap tonight and found a discussion on Internap being acquired by AT&T. Just thought I would post a link to it and let you take it for what it is worth. There have been so many acquisitions in past years that it is hard to keep track of who owns who any more.

Anyway.... here you go

Computing in the Cloud

I ran across a blog post from Chris Tengi that reviewed a workshop titled "Computing in the Cloud", presented at Princeton. The post covers cloud computing and the historical computing models that brought us to it.

The review itself is interesting, but a particular blurb made about 'data' ownership made me automatically relate to what I've preached about the reason corporations build data centers near their headquarters.

It's all about location, but why does it matter where the data and software actually is? Possession of data implies control, and control implies power. Whomever owns the systems on which data resides has the ultimate control of how that data is retained and who has access.

Anyway....I wanted to post the quote, but also link to the blog post. I wish I could attend these workshops -- they sound very interesting.

INX to build $2.3 Million Data Center

INX, an infrastructure and professional services company, announced they have been selected to design and build a data center for a "major web-based company".

The press release reports that their client is moving their data center from a remote location, to a site closer to their headquarters. This kind of goes back to my tangent on disaster recover and site selection -- people want their infrastructure close to their primary offices; presumably so they can put their hands on it and see it in person.

INX is based in Houston, TX, but recently acquired Select, Inc., a similar company based in Canton, MA

Check out the press release here

Links Round-up

Well, it's been a busy week, so here are some miscellaneous things I feel are post-worthy:

• The floating data center container story is getting some pretty heavy traction. I guess it's just odd enough to make people take notice -- check it out (again) here at Network World and here at Storage. IT World.
• The Data Center container concept continues to get interesting....
  
• Network world has an article on how Microsoft is Going Green. The interesting part (to me) was this:

  "The company, which will say only that it has between 10 and 100 data centers, has used software to create a map of the world that aggregates 35 factors, such as power costs and climate, to determine the best places to build."

• Equinix stock was upgraded to 'outperform', based on industry demand and their sales pipeline.
• This was the last year for Bill Gates to keynote at CES. Here is the pretty funny video that they made for his last day at work -- and here is a full interview with him right after he finished the CES speech.
• If you haven't heard of the TV-B-Gone clickers, check out these CES pranks
• CNET has an interview with Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, a book I read this summer and really enjoyed.
• The appropriately titled "In Your Dreams" article at Geekologie, describes the Panasonic unveiling of their 150 inch plasma!!
  
• Finally -- I know it's not much, but there is a cool Weather Channel integration with Google Maps and Google Earth - check it out here
  

Intel -Transforming a Global Data Center Environment

Hats off to Intel! I am a big fan of lessons learned.....why not share the knowledge gained and let others benefit from it?!

Intel published a white paper titled Transforming a Global Data Center Environment and it is an excellent read. I of course could comment on placing three of their strategic data center hubs ALL on the west coast....but I won't. :)

It is interesting to read the story of their transformation, what it took to accomplish it and the data behind it. Well worth a read -- check it out here

Cabling Mess

I've seen some pretty bad cabling jobs before and many picture galleries.... but I think this one wins first place. :)

http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=234

Gram Tel Data Centers Acquired

Cincinnati Bell Inc. has paid $20 million for the privately-held assets of Gram Tel. Gramtel had been expanding its footprint of data centers throughout the Midwest and offers a variety of managed services additionally.

Check out the Houston Chronicle article here and the press release here

Floating Data Centers

I really don't know what to think about this whole container model data center thing. It is really intriguing and there have been some creative uses for them. After posting about nuclear-proof bunkers I now read, on the Silverback blog, that a company is planning to put data center containers on ships!

I'm much too confused to write the details here -- and you can check the story out for yourself. I just don't know if I can figure this one out. They list some of the reasons 'why' someone would want to use a container on the ship, but it simply doesn't counter the hundreds of reasons why you wouldn't want to.

The company is IDS (International Data Security), and Ken from the Silverback blog has a couple of posts on the company as well as a brochure for it. It sounds like it is pretty early stage development, yet they have pretty ambitious plans (22 ships in North America, 50 worldwide). No mention of whether it is a generic container or Sun BlackBox, Rackable IceCube, etc.

Check out the two posts here and here

Wikia Colo in an Iowa Bunker

In a January 7th press release, United States Secure Hosting Center (USSHC) is set to announce that Wikia has selected them for colo and DR services. Wikia is Jimmy Wales (of Wikipedia fame) latest venture - a new way of community search, that challenges the typical model (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft).

Wikia Search looks to give users an alternative to today's search engines by using individual feedback rather than secret algorithms. This approach is designed to lead to more effective results where the users determine how accurate a page or wiki is based on its relevancy. With the community providing the fine tuning of the searches, there will be fewer results with “parked pages” and ad content, and more relevant data.

Wikia is cited as selecting USSHC because their "level of service and security is as unprecedented as the disaster tolerance of their facility itself". USSHC is an underground bunker in Monticello, Iowa. Their facility is another U.S. Government project from the cold war that is 2N for power and 3N for cooling and fuel stores.

“We are very excited to host Wikia at our facility for their various projects,” stated Jerry Pasker, CEO of USSHC. “Our facility allows us to offer the best physical security available without breaking your budget. Companies that are looking for more than just commodity data center space expect a higher standard. We're able to offer that peace of mind through our attention to detail and dedication to having the best systems and practices in place.”

Maybe a 2008 project for me will be to research how many data centers would be able to survive a nuclear bomb. :) List any of the disasters in my site selection paper and these guys have you covered!

Congrats on landing Wikia as a customer!

2007 Review

I was reading a Star-Telegram article tonight that came across in my Google Alerts. It was about the problems with population growing so fast that communities and states can't keep up. No surprise, after reading about all of the Texas data center deals in 2007, this article was about the population boom in Texas. Check it out here

For whatever reason, this article made me think of something else.....

A while back I gave a lunch-and-learn at my company on Google searches and related applications. I am a bit of a Google fanatic and really dive into most every product and service they offer. I thought of an idea for reviewing the data center industry (via a specific Google search) -- and after reading about the most popular stories of 2007 on Data Center Knowledge.

Since a lot of my white paper on Data Center Site Selection was at the state level as far as what states were good or bad for building, I thought I would do a Google search for how many times a states name came up in 2007 articles at Data Center Knowledge. As many would agree, Rich is the source for all Data Center related articles, news and information. I didn't do a comprehensive search, but here is what I found:

Google Search results count within datacenterknowledge 2007 archives:

Washington: 78
California: 53
Virginia: 55
New York: 51
North Carolina: 42
Texas: 41
New Jersey: 40
Oklahoma: 37
Iowa: 36
South Carolina: 26
Washington D.C.: 23
Boston: 23
Kansas: 16
Illinois: 16
Oregon: 15
Michigan: 11
Colorado: 11
Indiana: 10
Wisconsin: 10
Minnesota: 7
Arizona: 6

While I was at it, I decided to run some other terms through the same search:
Google: 119
Microsoft: 118
Yahoo: 34
Equinix: 64
Digital Realty Trust: 80
Savvis:70
Terremark: 35
Akamai: 54
Sun: 48
Virtualization: 547
Utility computing: 35
Green: 88

No, John doesn't need a hobby or more to do with his time....I just thought it might be interesting as a snapshot of 2007 stories.

2008 Predictions

As promised, here are my 2008 Predictions. I don't think my predictions from last year (fiber to the home) came true at all -- as I visit my in-laws who can't even get a cable-modem or DSL in their new neighborhood (yet).

Ok...here goes:

1. As I have eluded to in the past, I am a big fan of utility computing. It does receive a fair amount of hype, but I can see the true potential in it and why people will start to see the light in coming years. Events that 365 Main and Rackspace encountered in 2007 helped paint the picture for web sites that only had a single hosting presence to wake up and take a more serious look at utility computing. Amazon EC2, S3, 3Tera and Joyent are pretty cool and worth a look for most anyone. I think the tools to measure, monitor and deploy utility computing will definitely grow in the enterprise realm, now that the internet sites/companies have pioneered so much. The growth of utility computing and enterprise interest should also help along the WAN accelerations and optimization industries as well. BTW--there was an interesting response to Intel's question about what emerging trends are in compute models - check it out here.

2. 2008 will see the hype phrase "Software as a Service" finally fizzle. There's no rocket science here people - get over the warm-fuzzy terminology.

3. Green/New Energy sources will continue to be big news in 2008 (big stretch here, huh?). Only two things I'll offer here.... the first, is to take a look at the Kleiner Perkins (Venture Capital firm) list of greentech companies they are funding --- here. I listend to Tom Perkins on the Venture Voice podcast recently -- what an interesting and amazing person! The second item is wind; Kansas took recent headlines , but it will continue to grow as a new energy source in 2008. There was an interesting story in Sunday's Des Moines Register about the wind industry in Iowa....some interesting stats and stories to see how the industry is growing here.

4. With the data center industry booming, I think 2008 will see more data center related services come out. I.E.- this article

5. Companies to watch / will be acquired? Akamai (an established company, but they will be doing exciting things), Riverbed , Savvis , Platespin , 3tera , and Joyent

6. Political ads will continue to be skipped on my Tivo . Living in Iowa means the privilege of having the first caucus, but the trade is enduring 24x7 ads on TV from the candidates. Maybe after the caucuses are over the ads will take a break until next fall.

7. Death to the RIAA in 2008 -- Alleluia!!

8. Here is my shot in the dark prediction -- at least 1 large acquisition will take place in 2008 in the Colocation or CDN industry. There has been a lot of activity here and some quality players; I think the market has hit a spot that something big will happen next year.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Dear Lord, I've been asked to thank Thee for the Christmas turkey before us, a turkey which was no doubt a lively, intelligent bird, a social being capable of actual affection. Anyway, it's dead and we're gonna eat it.

-- Berke Breathed
(as seen in Forbes Magazine)

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and prosperous 2008!!

I will be attempting some technology and data center predicitions, just as soon as I am done reading what everyone else has predicted, so I can pick the good ones and make them my prediction as well. :)

Sun BlackBox in Australia

It seems like the Sun BlackBox has arrived in Australia.

Check out Tom Worthington's post/review of it here

Chicago Data Center Market

As a follow-up to a comment I made in my last post -- Chicago is a RED hot market for data centers. ZDNet has an article "Bragging Rights: Chicago as green data center powerhouse".

It mostly talks about the new Microsoft data center, but lists the reasons why they chose Chicago. It seems like the hot area has shifted -- it was Texas, is now Chicago, and who knows where is next! Hopefully Chicago will not become as over-crowded as Texas is now.