While fumbling around the web this weekend, I came upon one of those sites that draws you in like a moth to a flame..
Microsoft Global Foundation Services is, in their own words – ‘the engine that powers Microsoft’s Software Plus Services strategy, hosting more than 200 of the company’s online services and web portals. We focus on smart growth, high efficiency, and delivering a trusted experience to customers and partners worldwide.’
Dileep Bhandarkar, Ph.D. is a guy who crops up a lot on the site, with some great articles on Data Center Efficiency. Perhaps the most interesting document that I found on there was the PDF format slide deck from the December 2010 Server Design Summit. In that keynote, Dileep presents a fascinating insight into Microsoft’s Cloud Services infrastructure, combined with some great figures on power consumption and costs.
For me the most interesting section in there is entitled ‘Why Power Is Important’, and Dileep goes into some detail there as to why you should make every watt of power perform for you. there’s a great table in there too outlining Server Performance vs Power – which is kind of the basis for our NightWatchman Server Edition solution. In a nutshell, the table illustrates that a sever running at just 10% utilization still consumes some 50% of peak power, which is why it’s so important to identify under achieving servers.
All in all it’s an interesting insight into Microsoft’s current and future strategy in global datacentres, and I think that there’s something there for anyone interested in datacentre efficiency and design. It certainly kept me busy for an hour or two!