.Be hits 1 million registrations

After ending last year with 978,000 registrations, Belgium’s .be ccTLD has finally reached 1 million registrations. Despite a sluggish economy, .be has experienced solid growth. Earlier this week, we reported that every year for the last six years it has broken the previous growth record.

Jo Van Gorp, general manager of DNS BE, bragged:

The 1 millionth domain name is the result of the excellent reputation the .be domain has built up over the years, the enthusiasm and dedication of our employees providing DNS BE’s high-quality and innovative services, and our registrars’ strong campaigns.

Out of all the registrations, 70% have an established presence in Belgium. The country should be very proud of its accomplishments.

Source | DNS BE

Registration record for .be ccTLD broken for sixth year in a row

For the sixth year in a row, the Belgian .be domain has broken the registration record set the previous year. Last year, 232,746 .be names were registered– a 4.4% increase from 2008.

Given the huge popularity of ccTLDs lately, this news isn’t surprising at all. DNS BE, the operator of the extension, credits the growth with domain registrars. Jo Van Gorp, the agency’s general manager, said:

The Belgian population is perfectly aware of the value and the importance of a .be domain name; the record growth achieved in times of economic crisis is the best proof of it. We have not only all .be domain name holders to thank for their confidence in DNS BE, but also and in the first place, our network of over 450 registrars
It’s thanks to their efforts, day after day, that we’ve achieved these excellent results.

Interestingly, a large number of Belgians seem to be registering names for personal use. In 2008, 30% of names made up this demographic while in 2009, the number grew to 34%.

Google runs Belgian data center without chillers

Because of the intense heat generated by servers, most data centers use equipment called chillers to cool water before circulating it around the servers to reduce heat. These are expensive and use a great deal of energy, but the alternative is a bunch of overheated systems. In a new data center in Belgium, however, Google has found a way to operate without these bulky cooling units.

Instead, the Mountain View company uses fresh air from outside to cool servers. Belgium has a relatively mild climate, much cooler than the triple-digit heat of the Silicone Valley. Summer temperatures in Belgium rarely rise above 24° C (75° F), not as warm as the 27° C (80° F) heat found inside the facility.

When the weather gets extremely hot, there is nothing Google can do to cool the data center. So what does it do? Simply turn off the servers and move the computing load to another data center! Google has enough server infrastructure around the world that it can easily do this.

I think as energy costs continue to rise and data centers become more and more common, we will see more clever solutions like this pop up. Google found a great way not only to reduce costs, but also help the environment. There are some data centers that use natural air cooling most of the time but keep chillers on-site for summer use, but the Belgian server system is the first in the world to give up the coolers for good.

Source: Data Center Knowledge