TexasVines Posted November 20, 2008 Share Posted November 20, 2008 1. Is business still growing strong...I see a lot of reports that excess server farm space has finally been used up and new ones are being built....do you see this as true2. is the "green" aspects of server farms something you see many if not all companies looking for hosting, data storage, and back up are asking about3. are most companies willing to have their server farm, data storage/backup one days travel away or do many prefer it closer4. are the new servers and server sharing software making a dent in energy consumption or is energy consumption still one of the largest if not the largest factor in operating a server farm/data centerthanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 1. The business seems to be in a shaking-out mode. Customers are demanding more for their money. It's no longer enough to just have a box connected to a fat pipe. They want physical security, on and off-site backup, generators, and more things that are not cheap to provide. More and more of the marginal providers seem to be going out of business. If you're getting into the business, you'd better have a lot of money up front for the physical plant.2. I don't think the people who rent space in your farm care that much about green, but as a business owner you're going to want to be green all the way. A few watts of power and cooling saved here and there can add up quick for you.3. Most companies don't care that much about the physical location of their servers other than diversity requirements. Of all the people I know with servers, none of them have their servers within 1,000 miles of where their place of business is. That's what they're paying you for -- to be the remote hands. HAIF's server is in Pittsburgh. A guy I know in Chicago has his primary servers in Dallas and London and backup servers in Seattle and Taiwan.4. Dunno. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasVines Posted November 24, 2008 Author Share Posted November 24, 2008 thanks for the reply from what I see there are about 4 levels of security different farms offer depending on what the clients want...I read the green aspect is becoming bigger because of A. cost and B. clients especially large ones can advertise they are hosted "green" and also because the main cost I read is still the total energy use....one way that I see that is popular is to sell a "share" to each client and then they take those green tax credits for themselves to lower their taxes and to brag about I had read for many companies they wanted their data/hosting about 1 days travel away, but I don't think all are concerned with that....if I had 40-50 million I would already be "breaking ground" but alas I don't......not really fishing for investors here on HAIF, but if you are out there I have a concept and a location that offers high sun, high wind, and some other "things" that could aid in "green" it also offers various underutilized buildings of several types and existing backbone just trying to see if the business is still in a growth phase.....from what I read even if slowing on growth there will be a move out of major downtown buildings and into areas where "green" can be implemented because of cost breaks and more so tax breaks and the "image" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 FWIW, HAIF is carbon neutral. And the server, itself, is made from parts recycled from other servers, so I guess in some respect it's green (but the real reason is because I couldn't afford an out-of-the box server). The hosting company (http://www.pair.com) purchases carbon credits on behalf of its clients so both we and it can brag about being eco-friendly. The two big reasons I chose Pair are geography and connectivity. It's in an area (Pittsburgh) that doesn't get hurricanes or earthquakes. Tornadoes are very rare. Blizzards are also uncommon. It's near a river that's heavily flood controlled by dozens of dams, so that's the only risk. The local power grid is robust as is the on-site power generation and backup. It's close enough to downtown so that if something awful happened the National Guard would be there trying to normalize things. Pennsylvania and North Jersey are probably the places I feel most comfortable having a primary server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasVines Posted November 25, 2008 Author Share Posted November 25, 2008 not trying to knock you for your decision or call YOU out for it, but I view carbon neutral as "nothing" it is paying someone for doing something that the person that cared should have done.....like owning a large energy inefficient house with way more space than you need and putting your 3 PC screens up and your big screen and then buying carbon credits before you jump on a private jet to go "talk about the environment"the location I have in mind could probably function off grid if set up properly with battery backup.....so it is not a "carbon offset scheme" it is a real to life green center with features (solar and others) to offset usage especially "on peek" usage and with the battery array to store what would be off peek generation (primarily wind) and possible some other off peek storage schemes.....hosting/data centers are very well geared for these types of things if in the proper location....I think I have a location.....with available excess buildings to boot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TJones Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 not trying to knock you for your decision or call YOU out for it, but I view carbon neutral as "nothing" it is paying someone for doing something that the person that cared should have done.....like owning a large energy inefficient house with way more space than you need and putting your 3 PC screens up and your big screen and then buying carbon credits before you jump on a private jet to go "talk about the environment"1.) Ed ain't rakin' it in with this website, and B.)TV, you know full well that if Ed didn't have this website up, that you would have absolutely no social life at all. So, I believe you should be kissing his hairy "carbon neutral" beanbag for the opportunity to use his forum. I'm just sayin'.My question is, instead of paying money for carbon usage, couldn't a large company own a tree farm or a grass farm as a way to offset carbon usage by owning companies that create oxygen ? I see the Gore reference TV, and yes, he is a hypocrite. Poor Gore has to pay for that jet somehow, because he was a little shortsighted when he sold all his oil stockpiles after he spirited them away from the Navy and into his own company. So, now he writes books and tells fairy tales to make ends meet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 not trying to knock you for your decision or call YOU out for it, but I view carbon neutral as "nothing" it is paying someone for doing something that the person that cared should have done.....like owning a large energy inefficient house with way more space than you need and putting your 3 PC screens up and your big screen and then buying carbon credits before you jump on a private jet to go "talk about the environment"That's why I don't promote it. When it started I changed the HAIF banner to something with a carbon atom for a week or so, but I don't really consider it a selling feature of HAIF. I don't think people are going to visit this web site because it's carbon neutral.the location I have in mind could probably function off grid if set up properly with battery backup.....so it is not a "carbon offset scheme" it is a real to life green center with features (solar and others) to offset usage especially "on peek" usage and with the battery array to store what would be off peek generation (primarily wind) and possible some other off peek storage schemes.....hosting/data centers are very well geared for these types of things if in the proper location....I think I have a location.....with available excess buildings to bootMost large data centers do this anyway simply because energy is cheaper to buy and store at night than during peak hours. It's also the reason that aluminum factories run overnight.I'm not an expert on this, but it's my understanding that solar is not efficient enough yet to be used for anything but trickle-charging your battery backup system, especially considering the density of the typical server farm. But if green is important to you, baby steps are better than no steps at all.My question is, instead of paying money for carbon usage, couldn't a large company own a tree farm or a grass farm as a way to offset carbon usage by owning companies that create oxygen ?There are programs that will do this for you. You calculate how much carbon your company produces in a year and then you write a fat check to another company that trucks in high school volunteers to plant saplings on your behalf. As a business owner, you could just do it yourself, but you'd need the land and trees and trucks and stuff. I believe in many cases the companies that plant for you do it on public land that has been recently logged or is otherwise in need of reforestation.The company that does it for HAIF is called Renewable Choice Energy: http://www.renewablechoice.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N Judah Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Choosy firms choose hydropower for their data centers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
editor Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 Choosy firms choose hydropower for their data centers.I've heard that, too. Google seems to be the leader in this kind of location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxmulder Posted November 27, 2008 Share Posted November 27, 2008 I've heard that, too. Google seems to be the leader in this kind of location.A little off topic but i heard what a burger is moving from corpus christi to San Antonio to avoid "hurricanes" and such. Just Wow... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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