Green (low carbon) Data Center Blog

Obama endorses TSA Pat-downs as necessary

Reading about the current TSA pat-down/screening issues reminds me of IT users frustration with corporate IT.  When executives tell the users that the new IT procedures are essential to protect the corporate data do the users roll-over and say OK. 

President Obama says the TSA Pat-Downs are frustrating, but necessary. 

LISBON, Portugal — President Barack Obama on Saturday acknowledged some travelers' "frustrations" with having to go through full-body pat-downs and scans at airports, but he said the enhanced security measures are necessary to keep America safe.

In response to a question at a press conference in Lisbon, where he was attending a NATO summit , the president said that the Transportation Security Administration has been "under enormous pressure" to find better ways to screen for explosives and other dangerous items ever since the attempted 2009 Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner over Detroit. In that case, a passenger with links to an al-Qaida extremist group tried to set off plastic explosives concealed in his underwear.

Seth Godin makes an interesting point on a different way to look at the TSA situation.

Groping for a marketing solution: TSA and security theater

There's plenty of controversy about the new full body scanners that the TSA is installing at airports, and plenty more about the way some TSA agents arehandling those that choose to opt out.

The heart of the matter comes from the fact that the TSA often doesn't understand that it is in show business, not security business. A rational look at the threats facing travelers would indicate that intense scrutiny of a four ounce jar of mouthwash or aggressive frisking of a child is a misplaced use of resources. If the goal is to find dangerous items in cargo or track down Stinger missiles, this isn't going to help.

Instead, the mission appears to be twofold:

1. Reassure the public that the government is really trying and

2. Keep random bad actors off guard by frequently raising the bar on getting caught

One of the key successes to Steve Jobs and Apple is they put on a great show.  Watching the TSA show is painful, and it will probably get worse as Obama endorses the pat-down procedure as necessary and the TSA will keep on raising the bar.

Will the following video be the future TSA procedures?

Oops, Blasted tower falls the wrong way in Ohio

Luckily no one was hurt in this video.

Note: during a demolition project do not stand under power lines.

Transactions/Watt go to zero, Paypal is latest victim of outage

Thinking about green in the data center can have people focusing on the their PUE and energy efficiency of their servers, but few are implementing transactions per watt dashboards.  It is rare to find someone who discusses data centers and the energy efficiency of their transactions.  The MPG of their data center.

Paypal CTO discusses their Oct 29 outage.

At around 08:07 am PT today, a network hardware failure in one of our data centers resulted in a service interruption for all PayPal users worldwide. Everyone in our organization was immediately engaged to identify the issue and get PayPal back up and running. We were not able to switch over to our back up systems as quickly as planned. We partially restored service by approximately 8:45 am PT and the issue was fully resolved by 9:24 am PT. A second service interruption started at around 11:30 am PT and was partially resolved at 11:55am with full recovery at 12:21pm.

When I read this description in reminds me of the Star Trek scene where Sulu can’t the Enterprise into Warp.

Hikaru Sulu: The fleet has cleared spacedock, Captain. All ships ready for warp.
Christopher Pike: Set a course for Vulcan.
Hikaru Sulu: Aye-Aye, Captain. Course laid in.
Christopher Pike: Maximum warp. Punch it.
Hikaru Sulu: [One by one, the rest of the star fleet jumps into warp drive, leaving the Enterprise behind. Sulu frowns at the console, puzzled]
Christopher Pike: Lieutenant, where is Helmsman McKenna?
Hikaru Sulu: He has lungworms, sir. He couldn't report to his post. I'm Hikaru Sulu.
Christopher Pike: And you are a pilot, right?
Hikaru Sulu: Very much so, sir.
Hikaru Sulu: [he trails off, hitting buttons]
Hikaru Sulu: Uh, I'm not sure what's wrong here.
Christopher Pike: Is the parking brake on?
Hikaru Sulu: Uh, no. I'll figure it out. I'm just...
Spock: Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?
Hikaru Sulu: [Embarrassed. Without looking at anyone, he punches in the correct sequence] Ready for warp, sir.
Christopher Pike: Let's punch it.

From 8:07a to 8:45a there was no Warp drive for Paypal.  Dozens of people looking at displays.  Why are transactions not completing?  We have power.  Services are live.  Is the parking break on?

StorefrontBacktalk provides more details.

Two major technology glitches in a row knocked PayPal offline on Friday (Oct. 29), preventing the alternative payment giant from processing any E-tailer transactions for 80 minutes. First a network hardware failure shut down all PayPal payments. Then the backup plan failed when a handoff to a secondary datacenter didn’t go smoothly.

StorefrontBacktalk provides a timeline of outage, switch to backup data center, switch back to primary, repeat outage issue, then back up.  Then provides these words.

Like American Eagle, PayPal had a fallback plan. But it didn’t work the way it was supposed to. And though it had a technical plan (that didn’t work) for dealing with the outage, like Wal-Mart, PayPal didn’t have any plan at all for quickly notifying the people most affected (Wal-Mart’s store personnel, PayPal’s biggest E-Commerce partners).

The lesson about failed backup plans just keeps getting bigger. Yes, improbable failures can happen. When they do, failover plans can fail. And when that happens, you need a plan already in place to warn those affected in real time.

I predict over the next 5 years we will see an outage at scale that will cripple a company permanently.  We saw this last year with T-Mobile Sidekick outage, and imagine it on a bigger scale.

T-Mobile Sidekick Data Outage Turns Into Epic Customer Data Fail

By Laura Northrup on October 11, 2009 4:00 PM

This time last week, we thought of the T-Mobile Sidekick data outage as a mere inconvenient outage, but a temporary one. We grossly misunderstimated how badly T-Mobile and Danger/Microsoft could screw things up.

It turns out that their promise that service would be restored "soon" actually meant "never."

Want to avoid the risk.  Invest in better people and processes.  Technology is what you use, not the answer to the problem.

The Green Data Center Battle, setting the standards

Many think the green data center topic is not important and have moved on to other issues, but consider this article from the Harvard Business Review.

Winning in the Green Frenzy

by Gregory Unruh and Richard Ettenson

Don’t let your competitors control what “sustainable” means in your industry.

Right now somebody, somewhere, is defining what sustainability means for your industry, business, and products. Almost everywhere you look—textiles, communications, agriculture, autos, high tech—green competition is shifting from a race to launch ecofriendly products to a battle over what constitutes a green product in the first place. The definition can vary from one industry, business, or product class to the next. But whatever your business, if you’re not engaged in the debate and in shaping the rules, you risk being assessed against sustainability standards you can’t meet. Worse, you may be left behind by a shrewd competitor that has strategically positioned itself as a certified paragon of the new green ideal.

HBR points to the coffee industry as an example of the battle.

Producing sustainability standards is a multiplayer melee we call the green frenzy, because it is like a feeding frenzy in the wild—a tooth-and-claw competition among a growing pack of stakeholders including environmental activists, think tanks, bloggers, industry associations, consultants, and your rivals, all clamoring to establish and impose their own green standards.

In the coffee industry, for example, more than a dozen standards currently compete, affecting everything from pesticide use to workers’ housing to bird friendliness. (Just one of these, the Rainforest Alliance sustainable agriculture certification for coffee production, has some 100 criteria.) Each of the various standards has a constituency working to define the benchmarks for “sustainable coffee.” Some are backed by nonprofits such as the Audubon Society and TransFair, others by companies such as Starbucks and Nestlé.

Imagine Greenpeace being one of the most vocal groups on what green data center standards should be.

James Cameron and Eric Schmidt discuss technology and the environment, “We’re the Comet”

Google’s Eric Schmidt moderated a two hour conversation with James Cameron

James Cameron on “Avatar 2″ and the Impending Environmental Crisis

On stage at a private event in Silicon Valley last night, legendary director James Cameron and Google CEO Eric Schmidt held a fascinating two hour conversation that touched on everything from the technology needs of the upcoming Avatar 2 film to the perils that face the environment if action isn’t taken.

Green was a dominant part of the conversation.

The vast majority of the conversation turned toward ecological issues when Eric Schmidt described Avatar as a narrative about the world’s ecology. “Why do you care so much about it?” Schmidt asked Cameron. “What is your responsibility and why are you using your significant perch?”

“Any movie can be a teaching moment, but it has to be wrapped in powerful entertainment,” Cameron stated in response. He says part of the reason Avatar succeeded was that it spoke to the human psyche and heart. Specifically, it spoke to something he believes we all know: that we’re becoming disconnected from nature and that we are on a precipice.

“If we don’t take control over our stewardship of our planet,” Cameron began, “the planet we bequeath to our children and our grandchildren will be in significant danger.”

The next part of the conversation focused around the statistics supporting Cameron and Schmidt’s positions on the environment. They said that 70% of species will be extinct by the end of this century if we do nothing to stop the rise of world temperatures. Both men pointed out that while an average temperature rise of a few degrees would be devastating, the temperature rise would be three times as great at the arctic and antarctic poles.

We’ll see how green the data center environment is for Avatar 2.

One closing quote stuck with the author.

While they covered a lot of ground (more than I can reasonably type up), there was one quote that really summed up Cameron and Schmidt’s thoughts on our treatment of the environment. It was in reference to the comet that killed the dinosaurs.

“We’re the comet this time,” Cameron said.

Data Center Poll asks who is right Greenpeace or Facebook?

DataCenterKnowledge has a poll that's been up for 3 days asking who's right? Greenpeace or Facebook.  When I took the poll, it was about 60% Facebook, 20% Greenpeace, 20% neither.

Today.

Who’s Right? Greenpeace or Facebook?

September 17th, 2010 : Rich Miller

Greenpeace has been blasting Facebook over the fact that the company’s new Oregon data center will receive its power from a local utility that gets the majority of its power from coal. As Greenpeace steps up its campaign with letters and videos targeting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, we thought we’d get your opinion. Who’s right in this dispute? Take our poll.

Who's right? Facebook or Greenpeace?

Facebook: Improved energy efficiency is the best way to reduce the carbon impact of data centers. 19.33%

Greenpeace: As major power users, data centers must shift to non-coal energy. 69.89%

Neither: Site selection is complicated. Can't we all get along? 10.79%

Comments (0) Return To Poll Share This

I went to the Facebook 100% renewable that Greenpeace has up. No mention. So, the 290,000 members didn't get a chance to fill out the poll in favor of Greenpeace.

Huh, 70% vs. 20% think Greenpeace is right.  Who would have thought these results from a technical data center crowd.

If you go out to the mass public, what would be numbers be?  The folks at Greenpeace must be feeling good.

Their Facebook: Unfriend Coal is up to 150, 751 views.

Greenpeace turns on the Heat on Facebook's choice for coal power

I've been blogging about the Greenpeace PR campaign to get Facebook to be 100% renewable power since Feb 22, 2010.

Maybe Facebook should have bought a Bloom Box to diffuse Greenpeace’s campaign against a coal powered data center

Thanks to Matt Stansberry’s reporting on SearchDataCenter, attention was drawn to Facebook’s Prineville Data Center being coal powered.

Tiered energy rates bring higher prices for new customers
By 2012, BPA will charge tiered rates for power. Customers that signed 20-year contracts in 2008 will pay tier-one (i.e., inexpensive) pricing for their current electricity demand. These customers use most of the power produced by the dams.

And, have written numerous follow on posts watching the membership #'s rise.

Apple was a Greenpeace target and I am sure they were evaluating Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and many others with their energy consuming data centers.

Greenpeace was waiting for the right data center operator to go after, and their poster child is Facebook.

Note: the Associated Press (AP) coverage of the Greenpeace announcement means there are hundreds more media outlets reporting on this Greenpeace story.

We'll see what Facebook's next move and how many more people sign up for the Greenpeace Facebook pages for 100% renewable power.

There are a bunch of people sighing in relief they are not a Greenpeace target.  But beware, as Greenpeace targets another data center operator.  Is Twitter next going to Salt Lake City?

Here is the current media coverage.

Greenpeace wants Facebook center off coal fuel

The Associated Press - Arthur Max - ‎5 hours ago‎

AMSTERDAM — Greenpeace said about 500000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest online social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a ...

'Friendly' push for Facebook to dump coal

Reuters Blogs (blog) - ‎6 hours ago‎

With half a million signatures backing it up, Greenpeace fired off a letter to Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg today calling for the world's largest social ...

Greenpeace's tenacious Facebook attack shines light on need for 'green cloud ...

ZDNet (blog) - Heather Clancy - ‎7 hours ago‎

Environmental activist organization Greenpeace just won't get off Facebook's case for planning to invest ...

Facebook faces campaign to switch to renewable energy

The Guardian - ‎9 hours ago‎

Social networking website Facebook is coming under unprecedented pressure from its users to switch to renewable energy. In one of the web's fastest-growing ...

Greenpeace campaign gets 500000 Facebook users to urge social networking site ...

The Canadian Press - ‎11 hours ago‎

AMSTERDAM — Greenpeace says about 500000 Facebook users have urged the world's largest social network to abandon plans to buy electricity from a coal-based ...

Daily Dose - Quitting smoking in LA, Facebook v Greenpeace and Fashion's Night Out

89.3 KPCC (blog) - Alex Cohen - ‎2 hours ago‎

September 1, 2010 -- Believe it or not, I used to be a smoker. At one point, I smoked nearly a pack a day. Luckily, back in the mid-90s I fell in love with ...

Greenpeace, Facebook & the Media Megaphone

Data Center Knowledge - Rich Miller - ‎5 hours ago‎

None of the major facts have changed in the ongoing controversy in which Greenpeace International has objected to Facebook's energy sourcing for its new ...

Facebook Defends 'Green' Data Centre

eWEEK Europe UK - Peter Judge - ‎10 hours ago‎

Facebook has defended the efficiency of a data centre which is the focus of a protest mounted by Greenpeace, pointing out that it uses modern cooling ...

Greenpeace Asks Facebook To 'Unfriend' Coal

eWEEK Europe UK - Peter Judge - ‎14 hours ago‎

Greenpeace has intensified its campaign against Facebook's use of coal-fired electricity, with a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, and a Facebook group that now ...

Greenpeace tells Facebook to stop using coal

PCR-online.biz - Nicky Trup - ‎16 hours ago‎

The executive director of Greenpeace has called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to phase out the use of coal-fired ...

Next On Greenpeace's Enemies List: Facebook

CrunchGear (blog) - Nicholas Deleon - ‎16 hours ago‎

Greenpeace, the organization with noble goals but a prickly way of going about things, has asked Facebook to stop ...

Executive Director of Greenpeace to CEO of Facebook: Unfriend Coal!

Greenpeace International (blog) - Jodie Van Horn - ‎17 hours ago‎

We've been talking a lot about Facebook lately. We were alarmed in January by the company's ann

Google Video Parody of “Don’t Be Evil” - Humor

Gizmodo posts on a Taiwanese video spoof on Google’s latest news coverage and “don’t be evil”.  With an extra bit of the irony being hosted on YouTube.

Taiwanese News Animates "Google Goes Evil"

This post was previously published in Gizmodo, which is why it has been taken out of the front page.

From the talented minds who created animated videos for the iPhone 4, Tiger Woods andHP sexual harassment scandals comes...Evil Google! Seriously, these minute-long Taiwanese videos are the highlight of my job.

Here is the video.

Greenpeace says Bill Gates Climate Leadership is not transferred to Microsoft, says Google is the Leader

Greenpeace is an organization which wants to drive changes.  In this blog post they start out pointing out Bill Gates Climate position.

Does Microsoft Do as Bill Gates Says on Climate?

Blogpost by Jodie - June 2, 2010 at 10:00 PMAdd comment

In January, Bill Gates published an argument about solving climate change titled “Why We Need Innovation, Not Just Insulation”. As you may have guessed, Gates’ point is that energy efficiency alone will not achieve us the emissions cuts scientists say are necessary to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. Innovation, Gates says, is key to getting the bulk of emissions - those from transportation and electricity generation - down to zero.

The points out the inconsistency of how Microsoft performs as a company.  Bill is still Chairman of the Board.

Given the scope of the problem, combating climate change is going to require all of the above -- innovation, private and government sector investment, and regulation. Perhaps a more important question, then, given Gates' power and influence as the founder and current Board Chair of Microsoft, is whether he can influence the company to offer the innovative solutions needed to fight the climate crisis.

Is Gates putting his money where his mouth is?

We recently evaluated Microsoft on its climate leadership efforts and discovered that, even in the realm of innovation, Gates’ company has a way to go if it intends to meaningfully address climate change with technology. In fact, Microsoft receives only 31 points out of 100 on the latest version of the Cool IT Leaderboard.

Then they hit a pain point.

Thus far, Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer, has failed to articulate the urgent need for government policy to drive a clean energy transformation. By comparison, Microsoft’s competitor, Google, is the top scoring Leaderboard company on advocacy for the clear position taken by its CEO, Eric Schmidt, in support of political action to drive transformative investment in clean energy technologies.

And close by stating a paradox.

If innovation and government encouragement are what IT pioneer, Gates, says will get us to zero emissions, shouldn’t an IT behemoth like Microsoft be demonstrating stronger leadership to get us there?

Watch out for the author Jodie if that is really their name.  This is the same author who scared the Uptime Symposium audience.

Greenpeace strikes fear in Uptime Symposium, continues No Coal Data Center efforts

I was talking to a friend who was at Uptime Symposium and he asked if  I heard that Greenpeace was there and Greenpeace asked Mike Manos a question in his CO2Kpresentation.  The fear in the crowd reached levels not typical as they knew they knew Greenpeace has target data centers as the IT polluters like the way Greenpeace has targeted Facebook, and no one knew Greenpeace was attending.  No sane data center event is going to promote that Greenpeace will be there.  See below for Greenpeace's latest move versus Dell.

He commented that the Greenpeace question to Mike was a softball question.  I told him of course, Mike is out there discussing issues Greenpeace supports.  They are not going to attack Mike.

Another friend send me a link to the Greenpeace blog post based on Uptime attendance.

Shameless Data Center Marketing Video, I bet you haven't seen this in server aisles

The following video is on YouTube, can't figure out who would produce this video.  I guess it was OK to let the actors in the white space given they were portraying Adam and Eve, so they had no secrets as you know the story and you could tell if they were walking out with anything as they had no clothes.

 

Which brings up an interesting point that a lot of what users read and watch is driven by data center marketing and sales, including the analyst community who market their data center research -  Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and Uptime Institute.

Who was the target customer for this video?  I can't figure it out.

Here is a shot of some of the server hardware.