One of my favorite bloggers (and only the inventor of the frigg'n web browser) Marc Andreesen has a post about a video on the secret history of the Silicon Valley. It is a long video, but well worth it.
It was a Google Tech Talk video from Steve Blank late last year. I'm currently consulting on a project for a war museum and so the content of this video, how the CIA/NSA and Fred Terman 'really' built the silicon valley, is really fascinating.
Link: Marc Andreesen's post
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Cisco CCDE
Just a quick post to say congrats to Michael Morris for passing the Cisco Certified Design Expert certification. I've often thought of going after this path of certifications -- starting with the CCDA. The tests look pretty hard, but I really like the design and architecture side of Cisco networks.
Link: Michael's blog
Link: Cisco news release on the CCDE
Link: Michael's blog
Link: Cisco news release on the CCDE
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
$1B Savings for Federal Data Centers by Going Green
Two new studies released today are getting some press. They cover how the U.S. Government could save $1B over five years, or $1.9B over 10 years in energy costs by applying the recommendations given in the reports. Many of the projections are based on the August report from the EPA outlining the energy-efficiency improvements possible for government and private sector data centers.
Tim Kauffman at the Federal Times
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee at Information Week magazine
"Deploying green technologies in data centers can help the government save nearly 9.6 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in five years at a cost savings of $959 million, according to the HP and Intel study."Check out articles on the studies here:
Tim Kauffman at the Federal Times
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee at Information Week magazine
Sunday, January 20, 2008
1-Gig Cable Modem
Perhaps my prediction for 2007 wasn't too far off -- at the SCTE's Emerging Technologies conference Cisco talked up a cable modem cable of delivering upstream throughput of 974,723,228 bits per second.
Check out the rest of the article here
But while the industry is using the DOCSIS 3.0 spec to target downloads of between 100 and 160 Mbps, Cisco envisions much higher speeds -- as much as 10 Gbps in the future, according to Bernstein -- using a passive optical network (or "PON") as the underlying transport mechanism.Can someone get this to my house some time this year!?!!!
Check out the rest of the article here
Saturday, January 19, 2008
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:
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
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:
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.
- 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
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
Friday, January 18, 2008
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!!!
I like the Huawei Network Operations Center!!!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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
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
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
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
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
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
Monday, January 14, 2008
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
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.
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
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
Friday, January 11, 2008
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
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
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
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
http://royal.pingdom.com/?p=234
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Gram Tel Data Centers Acquired
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
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
Sunday, January 06, 2008
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).
Congrats on landing Wikia as a customer!
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!
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
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.
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.
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