The Greening of Data Centres

Much is being written lately about the havoc that regular data centres play with the environment, using excessive amounts of electricity… and the growing pressures of the internet loads are only going to increase the carbon requrements of data centres.

It’s all well and good to feel green, and think green, unless it impacts your ability to twitter and google away your day.

Companies such as ISPs or online retailers that use the data centers could have the added benefit of being able to claim that their web services are powered by clean power, which is a small but growing interest for IT firms.

Plans are afoot to drastically reduce the dirtiness of data centres…

• Google’s going to go to the ocean for power and cooling.
• In the past 5 months, TELUS has announced 2 new data centre builds - one in Quebec and one in BC that take advantage of some serious GREEN planning.

Don’t feel alone in your efforts to make your company greener. Leaders in other markets—from companies like Boeing and Toyota to government agencies such as the State of California—are making serious investments in making their operations and products more energy efficient.

California utility PG&E said it has given Internet services company NetApp a $1.43 million rebate — the largest new construction incentive the utility has awarded — for its efforts at an engineering data center in Sunnyvale, Calif.

All steps in the right direction.

:-)

Wireless Services for the Young Generation - Amp'd Canada

Imagine: games, entertainment, videos, audios, and interactive applications. In the palm of your hand. Created especially for YOUR generation, with YOUR interests and what is current in mind. It’s a niche market, but sometimes it’s the niches that end up being the sweetest spots.

Amp’d Mobile launched last week.  It’s the first MVNO [Mobile Virtual Network Operator] that TELUS has escorted into the marketplace. Their schtick is all about handheld, wireless entertainment and content.  Custom content, for that matter, specific to the Good, Canadian Kids. They’ve let TELUS do the heavy EVDO network bits, so they can concentrate on getting the right content to the kids.

Chris Houston, Amp’d Canada’s president has some really good insights into the differences between Amp’d and TELUS’ Spark offerings. Amp’d has a much narrower, specific focus. Spark appeals to a much broader audience.  (I’m on the Spark side of the fence, and not just because I’m 35 30-ish. Well, ok, maybe that has something to do with it.

Their packages aren’t cheap, and the content isn’t free, but the quality and variety looks impressive.  Their target audience is between 19 and 30, with gobs of disposable income to splurge on digital joy.

I only feel the slightest bit aged….


Technorati Tags: TELUS, Amp’d Canada, EVDO, MVNO

The Crux of Net Neutrality...

In Canada, there is growing interest and concern in the different directions that carriers and content providers are exploring; relative to Net Neutrality.

There is a pro-net-neutrality site that is petitioning the Canadian Government to seriously consider the implications of allowing internet services to run unchecked by the carriers. They support a neutral network architecture, but interestingly enough, they support Quality of Service (QoS), and the measuring of bits and bites (getting what you pay for and paying for what you get), which is outstanding, they are simply against the ugly underbelly of QoS, which is prioritizing of traffic based on protocol, source and content.

That being said, it’s exactly that discriminatory part of QoS that the carriers have their eye on.  Being able to promote specific content, specific protocols and specific sources, and making that traffic easier to access than a competitor’s has an alluring appeal to some network providers.

I want to go where I want on the internet, and regardless of where I go: Amazon or Ebay or iTunes or Joes Underground Goth Recipes, I want to go there unfettered. I don’t want to know that if I’m an iTunes addict I’m going to get charged more than if I’m a Puretracks junkie, if i’m a Bell Canada Customer, or vice versa if I’m a TELUS customer. If the carriers suggest that downloading a certain amount of bits and bytes per month is going to cost $X, that’s fine, but don’t tell me that downloading from iTunes is going to cost more or less than downloading from Puretracks.

Net Neutrality in Canada

While net neutrality supports metered billing based on counting bits and bytes, it does not support metered billing based on the content type. E-Mail, Video, VoIP and gaming services alike MUST be billed in a consistent, equal and non-discriminatory way.

Technorati Tags: Net Neutrality, Bell Canada, TELUS, iTunes, neutrality.ca