News Links: Nebraska, Kenya, Missouri and Metrics

Here's a look at some notable items we were reading on the news sites and blogs this weekend:

Second firm eyes Nebraska for Data Center - From Omaha.com: "A company is considering the Omaha metro area for a $200 million computer data center, the second large center currently looking to locate in Nebraska. The company, now identified only as "Project Photon," joins another firm that is weighing a Kearney location against one in Iowa for a $1 billion-plus data center. That project, called "Project Edge," prompted state legislators to quickly advance a couple of bills offering incentives to locate in the Cornhusker State."

Data Center Capital Usage Effectiveness (DCUE) - Winston Saunders from Intel proposes an approach to the "holy grail" metric of data center work efficiency, which he calls Data Center Capital Usage Effectiveness "The DCUE formula has the advantage of providing an easy entrée into the analysis of the work efficiency of the data center; it focuses on what many consider the big three: Infrastructure efficiency, IT equipment efficiency, and it quantifies how effectively the capital asset is being utilized."

HP, Clinton Foundation set up data centers in Kenya - CIO.com reports that Hewlett-Packard, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Kenya's Ministry of Public Health have completed the rollout of a series of data centers in Kenya to connect laboratories and health centers as well as to support disaster-recovery efforts. The partnership has set up five data centers that will have the computing and storage power to connect more than 1,500 health facilities and 20,000 health-care workers in Kenya.The centers will help digitize data in the district health information system, which facilitates evaluation of public health performance, including vaccination coverage and mortality rate prevention for children under 5.

Missouri Readies Data Center Tax Break - The Kansas City Star looks at proposed data center incentives: "Efforts by Forces in Missouri believe that a years-long effort to roll out a healthy set of tax goodies for data farms will build on the region’s existing advantages to make the state a cloud hub. A bill pending in Jefferson City would exempt data centers from machinery and utility taxes when they invest $37 million and generate at least 30 new jobs within three years."