Big Data, Small Footprint?

BIG DATA, SMALL FOOTPRINT? Companies that collect Big Data for marketing purposes rely on colossal data centers placed all around the globe. These centers run on massive amounts of power and electricity; so what are companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft doing to keep their data centers environmentally friendly? JUST HOW BIG IS BIG DATA? 35 ΖETTABYTES DATA GENERATED ANNUALLY BY 2020 1 1 TRILLION GB ΖETTABYΤΕ = 10,000,000,000 GB OF THE DATA IN THE WORLD TODAY WAS CREATED IN THE PAST TWO YEARS. SUPER-CHARGED COMPILING ALL THIS DATA REQUIRES MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY. CONSIDER: LARGE DATA CENTERS CAN USE AS MUCH ELECTRICITY AS SOME SMALL U.S. TOWNS. MANY DATA CENTERS HAVE THE POWER DENSITY OF NINE WALMART STORES PUT TOGETHER. ANY DATA CENTER THAT IS OLDER THAN SEVEN YEARS IS CONSIDERED OUT OF DATE. 17% OF TECHNOLOGY'S OVERALL CARBON FOOTPRINT IS DUE TO THESE MASSIVE DATA CENTERS. SOME OF THE LARGEST DATA CENTERS DIGITAL REALTY MICROSOFT CHICAGO 1.1 700,000 MILLION SQUARE FEET SQUARE FEET 53 Chicago 224,380 GENERATORS RUNNING SERVERS QUALITY TECHNOLOGY 990,000 80 Atlanta MEGAWATTS OF POWER MILLION SQUARE FEET CAPACITY. HOW BIG DATA CENTERS IMPACT THE ENVIRONMENT Using all of the energy and space that they do, it would be virtually impossible to run a data center that had little to no impact on the environment. But concerns are growing about just how much surrounding areas are affected by these massive structures. Land Cooling systems Energy use coverage On average, the world's data centers use 30 billion watts of electricity. Data centers are like massive Data centers are growing in servers and in size. computers stacked on top of and next to each other: They sit on, in some cases, hundreds of This is equal to the output of 30 nuclear power plants. They get unbelievably hot. acres of land. And because these servers are run on Most data centers are cooled with maximum capacity all day long, they waste 90% of the energy they take in. The liquid and solid waste these facilities produce makes up for a considerable percentage of local waste. energy using the burning of fossil fuels. WHAT ARE COMPANIES DOING? Though exactly how many data centers these technology giants run are unknown, the general locations for these centers can be estimated. With so many massive centers popping up around the globe, how do Google, Facebook and Microsoft keep them from heavily impacting the environment? Google facebook. HMicrosoft 13 5 GLOBAL DATA CENTER GLOBAL DATA CENTER GLOBAL DATA CENTER LOCATIONS LOCATIONS LOCATIONS FACEBOOK IS BUILDING NEW DATA CENTERS WITH THE CAPABILITY TO RUN ON WIND ENERGY ALONE. 34 MICROSOFT NOW RECYCLES 99 % OF GOOGLE'S DATA CENTERS NOW OPERATE OF WASTE PRODUCED ON RENEWABLE ENERGY. BY ITS EUROPEAN DATA CENTERS. OLD DATA CENTERS ALSO EFFICIENT AND NON-POLLUTING HAVE SHIFTED TO HYDROELECTRIC POWER. WATER COOLING SYSTEMS HAVE BEEN INSTALLED. BILLION NEW HARDWARE DESIGNS IS BEING PUT INTO ELIMINATE THE USE RENEWABLE ENERGY. OF UNNECESSARY METALS AND PLASTICS TO CUT DOWN ON SOLID WASTE. SOURCES http://www.forbes.com • http://www.marketingtechblog.com • http://storageservers.wordpress.com • http://www.nytimes.com • http://www.facilitiesnet.com • http://www.popsci.com • http://www.google.com • http://www.energymanagertoday.com • http://www.datacenterknowledge.com • http://www.globalfoundationservices.com bestcomputerscienceschools.net