In less than fifteen years’ time, the Internet has gone from being a commercial novelty, limited in use to the military and university system, to an integral part of global commerce and daily life for roughly a billion people. Extending its reach to the next billion will require enhancement and expansion of the backbone of the Internet. A key player in those efforts is Microsoft, particularly in the areas of software and data center design.
While far from being a green company (but working at it every day), Microsoft’s innovations in energy efficiency and the C-Blox container data center allow for greater flexibility in the choice of power source. For example, in Boulder, Colorado, the addition of C-Blox container data center design to supplement the processing power of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth hub increased energy efficiency by a factor of 100. Consequently, Microsoft was able to specify the use of 100% wind power not just within the C-Blox container data center but throughout the first floor of the facility.
The flexibility born of innovations such as the C-Blox container data center produces new opportunities for enhancement and expansion of the backbone of the Internet into areas ordinarily deemed impractical because of local weather conditions or other climatic concerns.
From the perspective of computing equipment, the ideal temperature inside a data center should be approximately 60° F at all times. Depending on the location of the facility, this temperature constraint can necessitate extensive air conditioning equipment. With innovations such as the C-Blox container data center, achieving such a constraint becomes more practical. However, what really needs to happen is to enhance and expand the backbone of the Internet into areas of the world previously out of reach of more than basic Internet service.
That’s where the possibilities of acclimatization to hot desert environments by innovative sightings based on the C-Blox container data center design become so intriguing. While Microsoft keeps the details of its data center siting process classified as a trade secret, there can be no denying that enhancement and expansion of the backbone of the Internet must encompass as much of the globe as possible, including deserts. With conventional designs, planting data centers in the desert would be out of the question but the C-Blox container data center design, in combination with such things as emissive paint, changes the rules.
How does this question bear on the fight against global warming?
Well, shutting down the Internet to save power simply is not an option. We need it. So, we must run it with fewer and fewer emissions. If we can master the trick of data center acclimatization to hot desert environments, we’ll have access to as many as 300 sunny days per year during which data centers can run on solar power. That is very significant and can be a win-win for environmentalist techies like this author.
Sustainable Justice For All!
Corbett Kroehler
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