Another spam email fraud

[Nick]

https://davidmytton.blog/how-much-energy...nters-use/

Which by the law of unexpected consequences sets out the global raw power cost of datacentres, server farms and cloud storage.

I've had the misfortune of spending weeks at a time in some of the largest single space data centres in the world, e.g. Equinix's NY4 in Secaucus NJ - a 340,000 square foot bunker, mostly open plan, and full of 10s of 1000s of servers and stupid amounts of networking and ancillary equipment. NY4's smaller cousin, NY5 is next door and is 'only' 275,000 sq ft. Getting in and out of these highly secure sites is also... interesting. Security is intense. As NY4 and NY5 are under the approaches to the runways of Newark  airport, they are literally like nuclear bunkers - they are built to withstand a loaded 747 crashing on the roof.

It's dark as there are almost no people so no need for light (lights turn on around you as you walk the isles and go off again as you pass). It's so noisy that you have to wear ear plugs AND ear defenders. The sound is literally deafening - there are large ultrasonic components due to the 100s of 1000s of high speed fans in all the servers. It's difficult to think in there. You have to shout to be heard. The building is 1,100 ft by 300 ft, mostly a massive single high-roofed, room. You walk an awful lot. At the end of a day in these places you are mentally and physically exhausted.

Most companies have their own cages so if you're building or maintaining a system you can be in there for many days. NY4 is an IBX - a business exchange, mostly for the financial services industry. Everyone who wants to be a player has to be in there as you get the lowest latency by being co-located with the data feed providers and your clients - 1,000s of companies in their own cages whilst overhead is the mass of fibre that interconnects them all. There's nowhere else on the planet quite like one of these super-sized data centres.

All this has to be cooled, almost doubling the power requirements - there are feeds from multiple utility providers for resilience plus banks of enormous diesel generators and UPSs that provide a minimum of 24 hours of uninterrupted power in case of a utility failure.

It's not surprising that they use a lot of power.

Recently, alternatives to active cooling (refrigeration) are being used. Locating DCs in northern climes or at altitude, especially where there's cheap hydroelectric power and lower mean air temperature allows free air cooling. In some cases, the sea or big lakes are used to absorb the heat.

The large data centre owners and users are fully aware of the power they consume and the heat they generate. Apart from the environmental impact, electricity is expensive, so they are aggressively trying to reduce their environmental footprint and costs.