Microsoft 'mega data centers' to support Azure, Bing
Microsoft on Wednesday launched a new data center in Dublin, describing it as the largest it has built outside the U.S.
The site is what Microsoft calls a "mega data center", a class the company has constructed previously only in the U.S. The company plans to open another mega data center in Chicago on July 20, it said in a blog post Monday.
Microsoft's Dublin data center
(Credit: Microsoft)Both new sites are intended to support Microsoft's online services, including its Azure hosted services and the recently introduced Bing search engine.
The Dublin facility covers 303,000 square feet, Arne Josefsberg, general manager of infrastructure services at Microsoft's Global Foundation Services, wrote in the blog post. It can provide 5.4 megawatts of power now, expandable to a total of 22.2 megawatts, he added.
Josefsberg said the building was constructed to take advantage of Ireland's cool climate.
"The facility makes extensive use of outside air economization to cool the facility year-round, resulting in greater power efficiency with a resultant reduction in carbon footprint," he wrote.
The Chicago facility covers more than 700,000 square feet, with 30 megawatts of power initially available, expandable up to 60 megawatts, Josefsberg said. Two-thirds of the facility is intended to house containerized servers -- shipping containers full of servers that can be cooled more efficiently than a conventional building.
The units can be made operational within hours, allowing quick expansion of capacity, and their server density can be more than 10 times that of a traditional data center, Josefsberg said.
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's chief software architect, said recently that the growth of online services would lead to more data centers being built outside the U.S., citing the need for data centers "everywhere on Earth."
Matthew Broersma of ZDNet UK reported from London.
You mean it CONSUMES 5.4 megawatts of power, right? You make it sound like a power generation facility.
This, can however, be expanded to 22.2 MW.
Ah, I just thought of an analogy now. A motherboard installed with 2GB of RAM can provide 2GB. If you have only a few applications open, you consume say 500MB. But 2GB is the max.
And this memory would be expandable to 4GB.
The article also does not indicate where it's going to draw power from. It could be anything: nuclear power plant, biogas, etc...
Power capacity covers the backup infrastucture too.... Meaning they need to have enough generators on standby to keep this thing alive in case of a power failure. Walk out back of your typical data center and you'll find an impressive grid of huge diesel generators, and sometimes concrete slabs already poured and ready to drop another one on when they expand. This also means having fuel contracts in place to power these generators if there is there is an extended outage. It's not proud, it's prepared.
- by Mr. Dee July 2, 2009 9:21 AM PDT
- Surprised one is not being built in Alaska and Canada. Aren't those cold regions year round?
- Reply to this comment
-
-
- by 42istheanswer July 2, 2009 10:27 AM PDT
- They're just moving closer to their globalist masters.
-
-
- by viper396 July 2, 2009 10:28 AM PDT
- Yes, they are cold regions but they lack either the infrastructure, accessibility, or commercial incentives to build there. Alaska isn't exactly the ideal spot for year round travel accesibility.
-
-
- by wolivere July 2, 2009 1:17 PM PDT
- Well lets see Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada. geographical center of North America, major rail and traffic hub. Larger city 700k +
-
-
(12 Comments)Great network Infrastructure, but biggest Bonus. GOBS, and GOBS of cheap renewable power.
But can we also say Calgary? Lots of Economic incentive there, low tax's big city modern, gobs of connections home of one the Largest ISP's in Canada.
So.. hmm yes why not build more Mega Data Centers in either?