The asymptotic race to the Power Utilization Efficiency (PUE) of 1.0

I think Mike Manos of DRT put it best – it is like an arms race to see who can achieve the lowest PUE. PUE is a metric used to evaluate today’s datacenter’s power efficiency by measuring a facilities total power consumption (X) and dividing it by the electricity of the “IT Load” (Y) or all the computing equipment. Some datacenters look at the power utilities meter for X and then either aggregate all UPS measurements (since they normally are not “networked”) or all the cabinet/rack PDU’s (both very manual processes). For you electrical engineers, this does not take into consideration any step downs from transmission rates or the multiple conversions to get to 240/120 inside the cab (nor the loss associated with server power supplies, etc).

The metric is typically expressed as some number that exists between 1.0 (theoretical nadir) and, the highest I’ve seen to date, 3.5. The EPA did a study and found, out of sample size of 100 datacenters, that the national annualized avg was 2.4 (I think this is very, very low) – this means for every Watt going to a server, 1.4 Watts is consumed by the facility (e.g., cooling, lights, monitoring, security, etc – anything not inside a computer rack). This metric is a far cry from the “Tier” system (Uptime recently bought by Group 451) as it starts to really hone in on what is important – isolating the “useful work” being done inside an “information plant” and trying to minimize all else…but it still has a way to go.

As evidenced today, we see people tossing PUE numbers around as if they are facts and not approximations (any PUE metric is a point in time – PUE is affected by too many things to remain fixed today). And the current thinking (folks like to look smart and toss around PUE as an indication of how much they know) is the lower the PUE, the better my datacenter…while true that a low PUE is a good thing (for above plus harmony with the environment and simply being more efficient), we are reaching a point where you can not go lower…unless you are generating power on site (co-gen) and then giving power back to grid (think hybrid cars), you will always have SOME power outside of your CPU/Mem/Storage that is required. Thus, what is that magic PUE nadir? 1.05? 1.1? 1.2?

This begins to sound a lot like the opposite race to achieve more and more reliability – 99.9% up; 99.99% up; 99.999% up; 99.9999% up – what we found was that somewhere around 4 or 5 nines was sufficient for our uptime as Murhpy proves to us, things will go wrong in this universe of entropy.

So while it is laudable to continually push the lower limits of PUE, we must not get caught up in it as the end all be all metric (for it is not) – it is a great evolution from Tiered systems (which you still see as part of RFPs today btw), but it still hasn’t been fully standardized upon for us to make apples to apples comparisons (one PUE is not like the other – all depends on assumptions at time of measurement). So as Mike Manos states, the datacenters’ “arms race” is to push us to “mutually assured efficiencies” which is far better for us all than the military version…:-)

Global Warming – Codenamed: population control

Link to WSJ Article on US House Climate Bill

Although I’ve not blogged much on my views on climate change, suffice it to say that I find the entire climate change movement yet another incarnation of a “religion”. For many of the fundamental suppositions, such as our affect on the planet, play into a larger cosmic tapestry that we just don’t know much about.

For example, the last few years have been some of the coldest on record – why no fan fare in media? Well, instead of acknowledging the obvious, another theory is put forth to rationalize Global Warming. This one is related to Sun Spot activity, or the lack thereof recently, and that its oscillations directly impact our little rock’s temperatures (see: Link to Philly Inquirer )

What amazes me is the hubris of those that definitively tells us that in this little adventure we call life that they know the answers – how many times must we be proven wrong before the old adage “to assume makes an ass out of “u” and “me”.

Now, to be clear, I am a HUGE proponent of alternative energy sources, sustainability, and ensuring our species survival thru proper interactions with our surroundings (instead of destroying them) – what I am not a fan of is using another “fear tactic” to enslave our population since the root of many of these ideas is just that…to tell people how to live…that is the ultimate paradox: we are given the gift of individuality and free will, yet all too often use that gift to constrain those around us.

Cyber-Warfare: Coming to a theatre near you…

Link to NYTimes Article: US vs Russia on Cyberrules

It is a theme that has existed since the dawn of man – conflict. Conflict amongst competing men, cities, states, nations and, of course, religions. Where that conflict is waged is a matter of any eras battlefield(s) and the perceived competitive advantages those battlefield(s) have to either side. In the case of cyberspace (thank you William Gibson), the lines are heretofore non-existent and that is about to change.

As we can see from the upcoming negotiations and pending treaties (China trying to put spyware – literally – on all PCs that enter China for example…to block pornography of course), nations are now publicly talking about the 21st centuries major battlefield – cyberspace.

Our military’s already engaged in leveraging their own version of the WWW, but necessity dictates that they also use the public WWW – this is where we shall begin to see far more emphasis on destabilization tactics and then resulting rules of conduct (Die Hard’s: Yard Sale).

Fabulous primer on NYTimes

Link to NYTimes – Datacenters

A great article breaking down the industry and its players – such a small universe of individuals driving the rise of the information plants. The information age is already democratizing the world and the infrastructure demands will simply grow in direct correlation to humanities expansion – just like our demands for power/energy. (a nexus soon to be realized)

PaaS’ new VAR channel…

As Ray Kurzweil prognosticated in his book, The Age of the Spiritual Machine, ideas will become a currency in a hyper connected world. It is with that in mind that the list of PaaS providers will be concatenating over time and developer engines will become the new VAR to PaaS providers.

For example, look at this company: http://www.wolfram.com/products/gridmathematica/ – see how they are quite neutral to whose computing cycles they leverage and can ostensibly switch “platforms” (aka, Clouds) in and out as needed (or required)…however, their value proposition is to enable their clients to focus on the business need versus commodity hardware mgmt (a totally sunk/lost cost these days).

This is the new paradigm going forward…

Chicago Climate Exchange

In forming up the alignment opportunities with Tim and team and DCP, a colleague pointed me towards the following: http://www.chicagoclimateexchange.com/content.jsf?id=821

Interesting organization and marketplace that certainly has promise, but the transparency needs to leverage all the tools available – blogs, YouTube, twitter, etc. – for the idea is great, the output needs to be seen in real time by the world to gain traction…or else, cynics like me are going to question the corruptibility of this exchange.

CIO’s Unite…take control of your infrastructure

Many CIO’s are indeed on the cusp of reorganization – where once facilities were a “part” of another organization, increasing demands upon datacenter assets give rise to corporate organizational structure folding “real estate” underneath the CIO. Then, true IT resource planning can take place across organization and centralized management of energy consumption can take place.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/02/it_power_stations/

although I blogged on this earlier, the piece lends itself to a panel I am speaking on this thurs at Sun Microsystems: http://www.hitecglobal.org/ – hope to see you there

Vendors for the “Infotricity” marketplace

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/02/it_power_stations/

The information age is truly getting its legs underneath itself and establishing a new marketplace for vendors to vie over – hence, Oracle buying Sun (I think IBM buys Juniper soon), Cisco/IBM/HP all lining up to provide to the new utility marketplace, and other non-traditional companies that will try to gain entrance to this sector the same way vendors lined up to service the emerging telecom sector or electrical sector – in short, the information age’s inevitable evolution into a utility is upon us and shaping its own marketplace to support itself…

QIK – interesting live streaming…

Just playing around with the tool – has some interesting applications, clearly, but will it stand the test of “crossing the chasm” fast enough – try it out: www.qik.com

IPv6 and the ultimate switch over…

Yes folks – it is time to refresh that IPv4 we’ve all been using, but don’t worry, it will just work…:-)

http://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/
http://gigaom.com/?s=IPv6&x=0&y=0

Although there is yet to be as loud a conversation about IPv6 as say Cloud computing today, the implications for the Cloud are quite profound…like, if you are not IPv6 enabled, the cloud will cease to work…got your attention now?

Basically, this is the new version of the Internet Protocol – just like upgrading Windows or Mac (or anything these days as software is the key), the internet’s software needs an upgrade. This, clearly, is not trivial and is something folks should be casually aware of, where as network providers, cloud providers, dedicated server providers should all be seeking help to get ready for the move. In short, the address space used to identify yourself on IPv4 will run out in next 18mos – this is not a predication, it is fact. Now, most of the population will not notice as browsers and routers will be upgraded seemlessly (sorta), it is just the network (global internet) that will need the upgrade – so be watchful and ready for IPv6 is upon us.