Links - 08/09/2007

Technology companies tout greener credentials, but significant improvements are well off (Associated Press via Technology Review): This article is a layman's explanation about the energy consumption imposed by data centers, and the reasons behind that consumption. There are some interesting statistics here (most of which are recycled--pardon the pun), but the article is light on possible solutions. Remember, the entire purpose of SLAuto is to deliver the required service levels for your business using the most cost (and energy?) effective resources necessary to do so.

"Why is Amazon Web Services partnering with NaviSite?" (Isabel Wang): An overview of several interesting trends around utility computing in the managed hosting market. My comments:

1. NaviSite is providing an interesting service here, and one I think will need to evolve to an automation model eventually. Today it looks like your same old monitoring-only "management" environment, but with a few interesting hooks who knows.
2. I love the PlanetWide Media story only because it is one of the first example of "Web 2.0" infrastructure mashup that I've seen. Why not Web 3.0? Because I would bet right now that Planet Media is economically locked in to LayeredTech for the foreseeable future (i.e. the cost of moving their software would negate the benefit of moving it).
3. Hmmm. Perhaps the future goes so far as to divide mindshare into recombinable building blocks. (OK, sorry, the BS meter pegged on that one...)
4. Isabel wraps up with a comment about the long tail of computing itself, which I believe is the real next revolution in IT that will drive new businesses and perhaps even industries. I believe Nicholas Carr agrees, but we shall have to wait an see.

Green data center scuttlebutt from NGDC conference (Server Specs: SearchDataCenter.com): The interesting part of this video to me is the description of the GDC panel discussion as "sniping". I agree, and that's why I left early. Nothing interesting came out of the discussion other than the fact that each major vendor is still months or even years away from actually reducing the energy burden of the data center market (reinforcing the AP article above). I say watch for solutions that may be a little more short term.