San Antonio Business Journal reports on Microsoft's latest data center opening.
Microsoft Corp. fired up its data "nerve center" in Westover Hills on Monday.
"With what's going on in the economy, it's great to be able to make a half a billion investment in San Antonio," said Debra Chrapaty, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Global Foundation Services. "I hope you all out there are Live users. None of that Google stuff – not in San Antonio."
The 470,000 square foot building alone costs $550 million, Chrapty said. In addition, Microsoft will spend hundreds of millions of dollars on computer servers, network equipment and more to run the "brain" behind serving up data online, she said.
A few hundred people gathered under a tent outside Microsoft's new data center at 5150 Rogers Road to celebrate its opening. Earlier in the morning, Microsoft gave a select group of government, state and city leaders a tour of the highly secure facility. They were the only ones allowed inside.
Ironically, I actually went to San Antonio this weekend and was able to visit my cousin, Derek Howorth in San Antonio who is a big Texas Longhorn sports fan, and was an all-american swimmer for Texas. Chatting he asked how much water does the Microsoft San Antonio Data Center use, I guessed a couple of 100,000 gallons a day which is close to actual of 267,000 gallons (267,000 x 30 days = 8,000,000).
The San Antonio data center is the second build to suit Microsoft building and the most technologically advanced, Chrapty said. Its also Microsoft's "greenest" project to date, she said. It will use more than eight million gallons of recycled water per month for its data center cooling needs. It is also planning on putting solar panels on its roof to harness the sun’s energy, Chrapty said.
It was a smart move made for Microsoft to use recycled water now that they are letting everyone know their water use.
I met a bunch of Derek's swimmer friends going to Rice vs. Texas football game. And being a football game we drank beers before the game for about 4 hours, went to game, left before the half then went to the alumni tent and drank more beers. Derek's fiends apologized for the random walk as their super organized tail gate party organizer was out of town with his girl friend, Kristy Coventry on a promotional tour for the London 2012 Olympics.
Hanging around all these swimmers, and talking about some ideas for a blog on swimming my cousin could run, got me thinking.
All great swimmers know their personal best times, and when they broke them throughout their career. They know the personal best times of their competitors as well.
Wouldn't it be great if the Data Center team knew the energy efficiency metrics for their data center? And, each individual had numbers they felt they owned, and are competing against their peers. This is how competitive swimming works. I've heard the Microsoft guys base bonuses on energy efficiency improvements.
Know of anyone else?