Top 5 Data Center Stories, Week of August 18th

goog-atlanta-treatment

A look at the infrastructure supporting the water and cooling systems in a Google data center near Atlanta, which includes facilities to clean and purify "grey water" for use in its cooling towers. (Image: Google)

For your weekend reading, here’s a recap of five noteworthy stories that appeared on Data Center Knowledge this past week. Enjoy!

Data Center Water Use Moves to the Forefront - The largest data center operators have made significant strides in slashing their water use, and the industry has developed metrics and best practices to encourage broader participation in the effort. The focus on data center water usage made headlines last week when Facebook released its initial data on water usage effectiveness (WUE) at its data center in Prineville, Oregon.

Dimon: JPMorgan Spends $500 Million per Data Center - JPMorgan Chase spends $500 million to build a data center, according to CEO Jamie Dimon. That figure places the firm’s facilities among the most expensive in the industry, on a par with investments by Google and Microsoft in their largest data centers.

Estimate: Facebook Running 180,000 Servers - Like most large data center operators, Facebook doesn’t disclose how many servers it has running in its data centers. But James Hamilton has used the company’s recent disclosures about its energy usage to do some interesting math to try and put together an estimate, which he has shared on his Perspectives blog.

AOL Brings Micro Data Center Indoors, Adds Wheels - AOL has introduced an indoor version of its Micro Data Center, complete with casters that allow the rack-size unit to be rolled to its destination. The design is an adaptation of AOL’s original Micro-DC, announced last month, which allows the company to house servers in enclosures located outdoors.

Apple Expansion Boosts Prineville Data Center Ecosystem - It’s been a big week for Prineville. With both Apple and Facebook filing expansion plans this week, the town of about 10,000 people in central Oregon is showing signs of progress in a bid to become a data center destination.