October 18, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Living Moore's Law
October 19, 2010 at 6:19 am
Too bad they can't bottle all the excess heat and donate it to the poor in major northern cities.
Perhaps some of these large datacenters will consider locating in major urban centers in the future so that they could at least use the heat for urban "central heating".
Jamestown NY (and I believe a number of other cities around the world) already uses the left over steam from their power plant exactly for that purpose.
October 19, 2010 at 6:48 am
You could use the extra heat for fish farming or hothouses. Or alligator farms in Colorado... 😀
October 19, 2010 at 8:09 am
A 65 acre campus that generates hot air and sells other people's stuff. Hey, whatever floats your boat.
Anyway, yes, it is unfortunate that a big heat generation facility like eBay isn't located in a big city somewhere to put all that generated heat to good use. However, big cities have big business tax bites, big property tax bites and employees in cities usually get higher wages. Being out in the country eBay is doing the American dream in a cost effective way.
Where I work, we make servers go five to seven years, not just two. We can't afford to be on the cutting edge of technology, since the edge seems to leap forward at such a pace that county budgets could never keep up. We'll let eBay and their staff test out the cutting edge stuff and MAYBE in 2015 we'll be doing what eBay does now. 😉
October 19, 2010 at 8:17 am
I think a lot of cities in the NE do that. Syracuse University used to capture some steam from power generation to heat the buildings.
I'd think that a well designed data center ought to try to reuse that heat, maybe for some small scale power generation or heating the buildings
October 19, 2010 at 8:19 am
nelsonj-902869 (10/19/2010)
...Where I work, we make servers go five to seven years, not just two. We can't afford to be on the cutting edge of technology, since the edge seems to leap forward at such a pace that county budgets could never keep up. We'll let eBay and their staff test out the cutting edge stuff and MAYBE in 2015 we'll be doing what eBay does now. 😉
I heard from someone at Texaco a few years ago that they want all hardware AND software to last 10 years. So they are just getting off SQL 2000 completely now. I think that's a great philosophy. You could be adding in new software every few years, but make the old hardware and software last, or at re-purpose it if you really need to upgrade.
October 19, 2010 at 8:30 am
Perhaps they could consider using something like the "propane refrigerator" (http://www.warehouseappliance.com/HowLPfridgeWorks.html) concept to increase the efficiency of their AC units.
I'm not sure just how efficient they try to make these facilities and where the point of diminishing returns is reached.
As for making servers last 10 years, I think you can depreciate them over 5 years, and technology has made them obsolete at 3, so I don't see the value in keeping them that long. I think the cost in lost efficiency would make it not cost effective.
October 19, 2010 at 8:43 am
bwillsie-842793 (10/19/2010)
As for making servers last 10 years, I think you can depreciate them over 5 years, and technology has made them obsolete at 3, so I don't see the value in keeping them that long. I think the cost in lost efficiency would make it not cost effective.
It's called "making do with what you have." Working in local government where ALL funding is a by-product of a mishmash of local taxes, what you can do depends on the economy and citizens making timely "complete" payments of their assessed taxes. In today's muck of an economy some jurisdictions just don't have the capital for equipment replacements, so they have to extend the life of what they have for as long as they deem reasonable. Then of course, you have to hope that the powers that be haven't terminated the individual (because of no funding) that maintains the system or application. :w00t:
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