Hello, My Name is Bill, and I’ll be Your Server Today….
EmailA quick addendum to yesterday’s POST about computer servers and power consumption….
9ball and Robert, I got a kick out of your comments–and Chuck and Andy, thanks for some good thoughts as well. I should say that Koomey’s paper on electric use had the sound of a very technical engineering study, done mostly because large companies are worried about their costs. They’re footing that $2.7 billion electric bill–and presumably passing it on to the rest of us.
It was a study that also seemed to go out of its way not to make value judgements about its findings. (The full paper is HERE.) AMD and the EPA were quick to applaud it–they’re looking, for different reasons, to sell the world on new, energy-efficient servers. Robert Mitchell’s blog at Computerworld is titled "Servers are the new SUVs."
One extra nugget Koomey’s group found: most of the growth in Internet traffic in recent years is from small servers–the smaller web sites people are hosting on their own. One more sign of how the web is democratic with a small "d."
Space Station Flies Over Eastern U.S. at Night 
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I also have to agree with Matt Baker’s worthwhile comment made today but posted to yesterday’s blog entry: the transition to solid-state computer memory for servers, desktop and notebook computers, and other devices relying on computers will save energy by retiring the inefficient electromechanical hard drives we now rely on. In fact, I recently read that Samasung has developed a 32-GIGAbyte memory chip to be sold to notebook computer manufacturers to replace the hard drive.
Posted by: charles_stout@hotmail.com | February 16, 2007, 1:52 pm 1:52 pm
Technology is advancing nicely. We’re able to store more and more data in less and less space. I’d imagine that in a few more years, we’ll be able to store everything nowhere.
:-)
Posted by: Andy | February 17, 2007, 9:29 am 9:29 am