LiveSide - News blog : Data Center

Two More Mega Data Centers Online In July

Sunshine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:11:17 GMT

In order to fulfill the ever growing demand of data centers (Online Live and Cloud services), Microsoft is opening two more mega data centers this July.

The first one to open (July 1st) is located in Dublin (Ireland) and is the first mega data center Microsoft has built outside of the US. Currently this building covers 303,000 square feet, with 5.4 mega watts of critical power. This will be expanded in the future. Furthermore this building is very energy efficient as it uses outside air to cool the facilities and servers!

The second one is the Chicago Data Center, which will open on July 20th. This facility will be one of the largest data centers in the world measuring no less than 700,000 square feet (approximately 16 football fields)! What else is special about this one? It is the first one to utilize containers as a primary server packaging unit (each container houses 1,800 to 2,500 servers)!

More information can be found in the GFS Team blog post here.

Global Foundation Services Container Data Center animation

Kip Kniskern — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 23:40:00 GMT

Just found a mention of this video on an Paul Hand’s msdn blog, a nice video animation about Microsoft’s plans with container data centers.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Fun to watch, although I don’t think there have been any plans announced to build a container data center at 3rd and Atlantic (might have to check out that lot tomorrow ;) )

Thinking Outside The Box, In The Box! Microsoft Begins Container Testing At Chicago Data Center

Sunshine — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:29:56 GMT

Microsoft’s first Data Center that makes use of shipping containers as a primary server-packaging unit, has moved into the testing phase. The facility in Chicago is the first purpose-built Data Center to accommodate containers on such a large scale. When completed the Chicago Data Center will be one of the largest in the world with it’s capacity to house hundreds of thousands of servers, each shipping container holds approx. 2,500 servers!

The Chicago Facility is much more energy efficient and environmentally friendly than Data Centers were before. All because the use of those 40ft containers! And energy efficiency isn’t the only benefit, more about that in Mike Manos’ point of view on the Chicago Data Center. Mike Manos is the general manager of data center services for Global Foundation Services/Microsoft.

“..in my mind, containers are driving huge cost and efficiency (read also as cost benefits in addition to “green” benefits) gains for the business. This is an extremely important point, as Microsoft expands its data center infrastructure, it is supremely important that we follow an established smart growth methodology for our facilities that is designed to prevent overbuilding—and thus avoid associated costs to the environment and to our shareholders. We are a business after all. We must do all of this while also meeting the rapidly growing demand for Microsoft’s Online and Live services.”

“Containers, and this new approach is definitely a change in how facilities have traditionally been developed, and as a result many people in our industry are intimidated by it. But they shouldn’t be. Data center’s have not changed in fundamental design for decades. Sometimes change is good. The exposure to any new idea is always met with resistance, but with a little education things change over time.”

With that in mind Microsoft also announces they will hold their second Microsoft Data Center Experience (MDX) event in Chicago in Spring/summer 2009. The first one held in San Antonio was an opportunity for a couple hundred Microsoft enterprise customers to take a tour at the facilities and ask questions. That event was very successful and provided incredible feedback, so they decided to do one for the very first container data center too! More info on that on your Microsoft account management team or your local Microsoft sales office next Spring.

The newest Microsoft Data Center in West Des Moines, Iowa, will also be using this container technology.

West Des Moines, Iowa is “Where the Internet Lives”; site for newest Microsoft data center

Kip Kniskern — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:27:00 GMT

Microsoft and the state of Iowa have announced the location of the newest Microsoft data center, in West Des Moines, Iowa. Located “southwest of the intersection of Booneville Road and South 88^th Street (also known as Xavier Place)” (see map), the data center will be focused on online services:

The data center, described as the place “where the internet lives,” is expected to house large-scale, worldwide Web services for Microsoft's online services business. With the growth of audio and video applications, social Web sites, mobile devices and other Internet demands, data centers are becoming increasingly important as companies strive to increase online computing support centers to provide users with enhanced Web services.

(click on the image to go to Live Search Maps – the marked area is an approximation of the 42 acre size of the property)

While Microsoft couldn’t quite knock Iowan Shawn Johnson off the front page of the Des Moines Register, it’s still big news. The Register reported:

The "next generation" data center will employ 50-75 workers who will earn about $70,000 annually, said Michael Manos, Microsoft¹s general manager of data center services. The project will be located on 42 acres southwest of the Booneville Road at the intersection of Xavier Road.

…(Iowa Governor Chet) Culver called it the most "modern facility in the world" with its focus on energy efficiency.

We’re checking now on whether or not that means the new data center will use Microsoft’s container system.

(Update:) We now have this confirmed that the Iowa facility will use container technology.