Anticipation Builds for ARM-Powered Servers

Yesterday, the popular tech blog GigaOM posted a story about Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM Holdings. ARM is known for its low-powered processors that have cornered the market on smartphones, tablets, and many other devices.

Lately, Drew has become quite popular with the announcement that ARM is bringing their chips to the server market. In an arena that has been dominated by behemoths, Intel and AMD, it might surprise some to even think of an ARM processor in a server. But it is no surprise to technology experts working in web hosting, especially in data centers.

Power costs money. Energy consumption is an environmental and financial expense that many data centers are trying to significantly cut. As Drew explained,

“While the x86 world focused on pure megahertz, we have focused on the megahertz per milliwatt”

ARM-powered servers will introduce boxes that are powerful enough to still perform well on the Web, while also reducing energy consumption and, as a result, cost. Drew says the ARM advancement into the server realm will not happen overnight. They will begin testing next year and expect to produce market-ready low-power server chips within the next three to five years.

Source: GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2010/07/29/arm-server-foray/
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Wind Powered Data Center

A Texas-based company called Baryonyx will soon create a wind-powered data center. They were awarded three energy leases for a total of 46,000 acres. It seems many companies are more willing to consider renewable energy sources and green technology as it becomes more practical and affordable. Those who have struggled to convince them of that should rejoice at this news.

Although Baryonyx will primarily rely on wind energy, they also intend to use hydrogen fuel cells and solar power whenever wind energy is low or unavailable. The data center will be 28,000 square feet and will be powered by 100 wind turbines, which will generate 3.3 megawats of power to power their servers. Part of their lease money will go to help support Texas schools, an added bonus for Texas residents.

“With these leases, we’re turning green power into green cash for the state’s Permanent School Fund,” said Jerry Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office. “It’s not just sustainable energy to power our businesses, it’s sustainable funding for public education.”

Baryonyx’ management team features energy industry veterans, most of whom hail from the UK.

Source: Data Center Knowledge
Photo: Flickr

U.S. DOE offers energy saving program for data centers

The United States Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now initiative is offering a program to businesses to help them reduce data center energy consumption and save money. The program carries the standard government-issued unnecessarily long name: National Data Center Energy Efficiency Information Program, and offers fact sheets and presentations on their website, outlining their plans.

According to the website, the number of data centers continues to grow, and servers are becoming higher powered and more energy intensive. The DOE plans to invest in research and development into best practices for data center energy efficiency and provide guidance to businesses. They see the move as beneficial to both parties, since the businesses will reduce energy spending and the DOE will benefit from a reduction in load on the electric grid.

The website also includes data assessment summaries for some organizations that have already been evaluated, including Verizon and Lucasfilm. Through their research, they estimated that Verizon, a wireless service giant, could save $181,500 and 1,540,700 kWh of energy. Lucasfilm, the company behind the Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies and merchandise, could save $343,000 and 3,109,200 kWh. The information sheets include detailed information about the data centers, including server layout and cooling.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy
Photo: Flickr