Comments on: The Varian Interview http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/02/the-varian-interview/ Exploring How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything Sun, 28 Aug 2011 14:21:24 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Leveraging scarcity in the age of abundance http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/02/the-varian-interview/comment-page-1/#comment-119982 Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Leveraging scarcity in the age of abundance Thu, 08 May 2008 16:57:12 +0000 http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/02/the-varian-interview/#comment-119982 [...] of content can create a scarcity of time. Hal Varian referenced a similar theme (as I discussed in this post) in regards to how people should think about starting a career, and the thinking can be easily [...]

]]> By: Naumi Haque http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/02/the-varian-interview/comment-page-1/#comment-101102 Naumi Haque Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:20:09 +0000 http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/02/the-varian-interview/#comment-101102 Great jam-packed interview - each answer could be a book in itself, but I'm going to focus on his response to the first question, which takes me back to my days in green IT research: <em>"Google’s data centers use a lot of energy — if we can figure out how to economize on that energy use, we can save a significant amount of money."</em> Google spends more on powering their data centers than the Wall Street Journal does on paper. In fact, most data centers a fraction the size of one of Google's run into power capacity problems, mostly due to powering and cooling 30kW server racks (think rows upon rows of refrigerator-sized boxes, each crammed full of 300 100-Watt lightbulbs, running 24x7). This is why strategic location of data centers is important - i.e. they have to be close to power generation plants, and cool, low-humidity climates to take advantage of abundant cooling using outdoor air. This is probably the topic of a seperate post on it's own, but a lot of people don't realize that one of Google's biggest assets is their server farm, which combined creates the biggest (and probably most efficient) computer in the world. Great jam-packed interview – each answer could be a book in itself, but I’m going to focus on his response to the first question, which takes me back to my days in green IT research:

“Google’s data centers use a lot of energy — if we can figure out how to economize on that energy use, we can save a significant amount of money.”

Google spends more on powering their data centers than the Wall Street Journal does on paper. In fact, most data centers a fraction the size of one of Google’s run into power capacity problems, mostly due to powering and cooling 30kW server racks (think rows upon rows of refrigerator-sized boxes, each crammed full of 300 100-Watt lightbulbs, running 24×7). This is why strategic location of data centers is important – i.e. they have to be close to power generation plants, and cool, low-humidity climates to take advantage of abundant cooling using outdoor air.

This is probably the topic of a seperate post on it’s own, but a lot of people don’t realize that one of Google’s biggest assets is their server farm, which combined creates the biggest (and probably most efficient) computer in the world.

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