GreenPeace targets Cloud Data Centers environmental impact and use of coal power

March 30, 2010 Dave Ohara

I blogged back in July 2009 asking what would be Greenpeace's target for environmental impact of data centers, speculating Apple, Google, Microsoft as a possible target. Well Greenpeace uses the Apple brand recognition and the iPad announcement to create awareness.

The announcement of Apple’s iPad has been much
anticipated by a world with an ever-increasing appetite for
mobile computing devices as a way to connect, interact,
learn and work. As rumours circulated – first about its
existence and then about its capabilities - the iPad
received more media attention than any other gadget in
recent memory. Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs
finally showcased his company’s latest creation before a
rapt audience in San Francisco. From their smart phones
and netbooks, the crowd feverishly blogged and tweeted
real time updates out to a curious world.

Whether you actually want an iPad or not, there is no
doubt that it is a harbinger of things to come. The iPad
relies upon cloud-based computing to stream video,
download music and books, and fetch email. Already,
millions access the ‘cloud’ to make use of online social
networks, watch streaming video, check email and create
documents, and store thousands of digital photos online
on popular web-hosted sites like Flickr and Picasa.

The term cloud, or cloud computing, used as a metaphor
for the internet, is based on an infrastructure and business
model whereby - rather than being stored on your own
device - data, entertainment, news and other products
and services are delivered to your device, in real time,
from the internet. The creation of the cloud has been a
boon both to the companies hosting it and to consumers
who now need nothing but a personal computer and
internet access to fulfill most of their computing needs.

Greenpeace has been making noise about Facebook's data center, and now has started the public awareness in this pdf.

I know of some companies that have a sigh of relief they are not on the Greenpeace list.

Some of you have noticed I made a change last week to the blog title and now have Green (low carbon) data center.

Green is such an overloaded term it made sense to clarify a focus on discussing low carbon as a goal of a green data center. Note the following in the Greenpeace pdf.

More cloud-computing companies are pursuing design and siting
strategies that can reduce the energy consumption of their data
centres, primarily as a cost containment measure. For most
companies, the environmental benefits of green data design are
generally of secondary concern.

Facebook’s decision to build its own highly-efficient data centre in
Oregon that will be substantially powered by coal-fired electricity clearly
underscores the relative priority for many cloud companies. Increasing
Key trends that will impact the environmental footprint of the cloud
the energy efficiency of its servers and reducing the energy footprint
of the infrastructure of data centres are clearly to be commended, but
efficiency by itself is not green if you are simply working to maximise
output from the cheapest and dirtiest energy source available. The US
EPA will soon be expanding its EnergyStar rating system to apply to
data centres, but similarly does not factor in the fuel source being used
to power the data centre in its rating criteria. Unfortunately, as our
collective demand for computing resources increases, even the most
efficiently built data centres with the highest utilisation rates serve only
to mitigate, rather than eliminate, harmful emissions.

Some people thought the hype about Facebook's coal power was a fad. No it is a trend and the start of evaluating the carbon impact of data centers.

Here is a sampling of other media coverage.

Coal Fuels Much Of Internet "Cloud", Says Greenpeace

New York Times - Peter Henderson - ‎5 hours ago‎

By REUTERS SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The 'cloud' of data which is becoming the heart of the Internet is creating an all too real cloud of pollution as ...

Greenpeace issues warning about data centre power

BBC News - ‎7 hours ago‎

Greenpeace is calling on technology giants like Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook to power their data centres with renewable energy sources. ...

Data clouds called out for dirty energy

Marketplace (blog) - ‎5 hours ago‎

Environmental activities are concerned about server farms' use of dirty energy to keep sites like Google and Facebook running. ...

Greenpeace: Cloud Contributes to Climate Change

Data Center Knowledge - Rich Miller - ‎5 hours ago‎

The environmental group Greenpeace says data center builders must become part of the solution to the climate change challenge, rather than part of the ...

Cloud computing 'fuels climate change'

PCR-online.biz - Nicky Trup - ‎8 hours ago‎

The growth of cloud computing could cause a huge increase in greenhouse gas emissions, Greenpeace has warned. ...

2020: Cloud Computing GHG Emissions To Triple

Basil & Spice - ‎9 hours ago‎

San Francisco, United States — As IT industry analysts label 2010 the “Year of the Cloud”, a new report by Greenpeace shows how the launch of quintessential ...

Greenpeace criticises coal-fuelled internet cloud

TechRadar UK - Adam Hartley - ‎10 hours ago‎

Eco-campaigners at Greenpeace have criticised the idea of an internet 'cloud' - with data centres built by the likes of Facebook, Apple, ...

The iPad, internet, and climate change links in the spotlight

Greenpeace USA - ‎13 hours ago‎

International — On the eve of the launch of the iPad, our latest report warns that the growth of internet computing could come with a huge jump in ...

$145 Mil Microsoft’s data center support costs for Yahoo deal

July 31, 2009 Dave Ohara

Seattletimes blogger Brier Dudley has a post on a slip at Microsoft disclosing the Yahoo deal.

Brier Dudley's Blog

Brier Dudley offers a critical look at technology and business issues affecting the Northwest.

Blog Home | E-mail Brier| 206.515.5687 | Subscribe | Twitter feed | Microsoft Pri0 blog

July 30, 2009 at 10:03 AM

Comments (4) E-mail article Print view Share

Microsoft slip? Return on Yahoo deal, costs revealed in confidential slide

Posted by Brier Dudley

A particularly interesting slide was released at Microsoft's analyst meeting. It included "context" about the Yahoo deal and was marked "not for disclosure."

In other words, the slide had the secret internal analysis of what the Yahoo deal means to Microsoft, including details that weren't revealed in yesterday's announcement or today's presentation to analysts.

It was included in the slide deck briefly available for download from Microsoft's investor site but wasn't shown during Steve Ballmer's speech.

Among the details:

"Net: We will lose money the first two years ($300m total) then start making a decent return ($400m steady state)."

Microsoft also expects total transition costs of the deal to be $600 million to $700 million ("up to $200m could hit us in 2010"), according to the slide.

For the data center audience if you zoom in on this slide you can see how much the data center costs are to support the Yahoo search deal. The third line is the GFS COGS/Support of $145m.

oops!

What is GFS?

Global Foundation Services (GFS) is the engine that powers Microsoft’s Software Plus Services strategy. We focus on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide.

The GFS leadership team is committed to delivering the strategy and the foundational platform for the company’s Software Plus Services infrastructure worldwide that supports our Online and Live services such as MSN and Windows Live, communications and collaboration services, and over 200 additional enterprise services and Web portals. Helping to mindfully shape the next era of computing, the senior leaders in GFS hold over 80 US technology patents and have a combined total over 130 years of industry experience in building and managing infrastructure technology networks, security, product development, and global operations. Their backgrounds include expertise in industrial, electrical and mechanical engineering, power and cooling architecture and design, research and development, and business operations and administration.

Microsoft, Yahoo Close to Search Deal

July 28, 2009 Dave Ohara

WSJ reports that Microsoft and Yahoo are close to sealing a a search partnership to compete against Google.

Microsoft, Yahoo Near Search Deal

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO and NICK WINGFIELD

Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are moving toward sealing a search partnership, say people familiar with the matter -- a deal that ends a protracted dance and unites the pair against Google Inc.

Microsoft, which had made a failed $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo, appears to have finally won a piece of what it wanted from the Internet player -- the volumes of search queries that run through Yahoo's engine.

In exchange, Yahoo is getting an opportunity to expand its own position in the market by remaining a force in search-advertising sales.

The agreement, which could be reached as soon as Wednesday but could be delayed, involves Yahoo agreeing to use Microsoft's Bing search engine on its own sites, these people say.

In a shift from earlier discussions, Yahoo would handle selling the text ads that appear next to the search results for its sites and some Microsoft sites, say these people.

The financial arrangement and terms under consideration couldn't be learned.

I wonder if the Yahoo folks who joined Microsoft’s data center group were used to help instill confidence at Yahoo in Microsoft’s data center infrastructure.

Yahoo Announces NY Green Data Center & Drops Carbon Credit Strategy, Why?

July 1, 2009 Dave Ohara

Yahoo made their site selection in Buffalo NY, beating out Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 2:39pm EDT

NY beats Ohio, Pa., Ill. for Yahoo! data center site

The Business Review (Albany) - by James Fink For The Business Review

Months of aggressive pitching and a coordinated economic development approach laid the groundwork for computer industry giant Yahoo! Inc. to decide to build a northeast data center in the the Buffalo area.

Yahoo!, Tuesday morning, confirmed it will be building the 190,000-square-foot center at the Lockport Industrial Park. The data center could employ, initially, 125 people. Yahoo! has pegged a 30-acre site in the park for the complex.

Yahoo!’s decision is considered a major victory, especially against a backdrop of a weakened economy where unemployment has increased in the past year in Erie County to 8.1 percent from 5.5 percent, and in Niagara County to 9.3 percent from 6.6 percent.

“This is a big win for the community,” said Tom Kucharski, Buffalo Niagara Enterprise president and chief executive officer. “We won the day.”

Yahoo! was being courted by several states including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois for the center. All offered a handsome array of incentives.

“When a high tech company like Yahoo! picks a community like Western New York, it’s like a lighthouse,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, New York’s senior senator, who played a key role in Lockport landing the data center.

Part of the incentive package is 15 mW of low-cost hydropower.

The region crafted its own aggressive incentive package including the New York Power Authority offering 15 megawatts of low-cost hydropower that could save Yahoo! an estimated $100 million over a 15-year period. Empire State Development Corp. also offered job training grants and other incentives.

The executives and local officials are excited as they say the site will be built in ten months – Aug 2009 start, finish May 2010.

Construction on the data center will begin in August, said David Dibble, Yahoo! senior vice president. The center will be open by May.

News.com adds more.

Yahoo redesigns data center, ditches carbon offsets

by Tom Krazit

Yahoo thinks its plan for a new data center could eventually help the company achieve carbon-neutral status without having to resort to the purchase of carbon offsets.

Yahoo's David Dibble discusses the company's plans for a Buffalo-area data center with New York Senator Charles Schumer (right, red tie) and other state officials.

Yahoo designed its forthcoming data center to let outside air cool the servers at all times, borrowing the idea from the design of a chicken coop, according to Yahoo co-founder David Filo. The company joined New York officials such as Governor David Patterson and Senator Charles Schumer Tuesday to unveil plans for the data center, the design of which Yahoo is attempting to patent.

With One Yahoo data center in Eastern Washing with Hydro-electric and another in NY, Yahoo must see themselves as leaders in carbon neutral data center.

As part of the announcement of the new data center in Lockport, N.Y., just outside of Buffalo, Yahoo also revealed that it will no longer purchase carbon offsets as part of its energy strategy. Carbon offsets have been controversial in some quarters, but they allow companies to claim they are "carbon neutral," in that purchasing offsets diverts money to green projects.

The original Yahoo Blog gives more details about PUE and energy efficiency.

For data center geeks, we expect our Buffalo data center design will have an annualized average PUE (power usage effectiveness) of 1.1 or better. To achieve that, we’ve come up with a unique building design that we call the Yahoo! Computing Coop (because it looks like something chickens live in), which is angled to take advantage of Buffalo’s microclimate, using 100% outside air to cool the servers.

We’ve been pushing green data center standards since we started building our own data centers two years ago. For example, our facilities in Washington are powered by zero-carbon wind and hydroelectric sources, and we use free cooling for most of the year, dropping energy consumption by 40-50%. As we build more capacity to meet demand, we’ll continue to focus on innovations and inventions that improve energy efficiency. And we’ve been sharing best practices to encourage the entire industry to put smarter policies in play.

For years Yahoo has been promoting its carbon neutrality by buying carbon offsets, but now have shifted to carbon reduction vs offsets. Yahoo will be able to claim a big reduction in carbon when they shut down their existing data center capacity and shift it to NY. Keep this in mind when you think about your carbon strategy. The public is wising up to carbon offsets are not as good as carbon reduction.

Yahoo Joins PUE Disclosure with 1.21, but Under What Conditions?

June 25, 2009 Dave Ohara

Datacenterknowledge reports on Yahoo’s disclosure of its 1.21 PUE at O’Reilly’s Velocity 2009.

Yahoo Unstealths Its Data Center Efficiency
June 24th, 2009 : Rich Miller

The Yahoo data center in Quincy, Washington includes cooling-optimized "podules" with a PUE of 1.21 (Photo: Yahoo Inc.)

When it comes to data center efficiency, Yahoo has maintained a lower profile than rivals Google and Microsoft. But the Yahoo team is building a compelling data center story of its own, with innovations in cooling design and energy efficiency ratings approaching the best that Google has achieved.

Yahoo’s Adam Bechtel began telling the story yesterday at the O’Reilly Velocity 2009 conference in San Jose, Calif. Bechtel, the chief architect of Yahoo’s data center operations, shared details of a patented cold-aisle containment system that integrates an overhead cooling module, building the air conditioning units into the top of a “podule” of cabinets packed with servers.

That design has helped Yahoo lower its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) to 1.21, according to Bechtel, just a hair shy of the best numbers disclosed by Google and a slightly better than the lowest PUE reported by Microsoft. The PUE metric (PDF) compares a facility’s total power usage to the amount of power used by the IT equipment, revealing how much is lost in distribution and conversion.

What is missing is under what conditions was 1.21 determined.

What is needed is transparency for PUE claims. Wouldn’t it be great if you could connect to a web service at google, microsoft, and yahoo data centers to get their PUE at any time of the day with the current weather conditions? And, make a request for any other time for the PUE number?

Once we see a data center do this, I’ll believe the PUE claims would stand up to a compliance audit.

I am waiting for a claim of 1.10 PUE. Competition is good, and this all helps educate more people. But, we need more transparency on how PUE is calculated.