Cloud Formation

DATA MANAGEMENT:Microsoft has found a positive use for the Irish climate, which, it turns out, provides the perfect conditions for its new data centre, a cornerstone of the company's cloud services. 

IRISH WEATHER may be a source of many complaints but for Microsoft, the colder climate has proved an attraction.

Microsoft's newest mega data centre, located in Dublin, is using the Irish climate to make the facility the greenest data centre the company has built to date.

It uses ambient air drawn in from outside the building to help cool the facility all year round, cutting power costs and water usage and making the facility a greener operation.

Kevin Timmons, general manager of Microsoft's data-centre operations, says the climate provides perfect weather conditions.

The facility will mostly use "free air" cooling, allowing the data centre to maintain its operating environment without mechanical or refrigerated cooling systems for more than 95 per cent of the time.

Mechanical cooling usually accounts for about 38 per cent of the power consumption of traditional data centres.

It also means chilled water systems, also used in traditional data centres, will no longer be needed. Some 18 million litres of water are used each month in their cooling systems. It will eliminate the use of chemicals many data centres need to treat their cooling towers.

Its annual Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) - a standard industry measure for energy usage efficiency for data centres - will be an average of 1.25, compared to Microsoft's current global PUE average for data centres of 1.6. Ireland's temperature range of minus 5 degrees to 27 degrees will help cut costs for millions of customers as efficiencies are passed on.

The Dublin data centre, which was officially opened last week, was connected to the Internet on July 1st. Part of Microsoft's "Software plus Services" initiative, the data centre will help act as a key hub for delivering services to the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. It will support a range of Microsoft services, including its online, Live and cloud services - Bing, Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), Windows Live and cloud computing platform Windows Azure - and partner services will also be included in the mix.

The new facility forms part of Microsoft's global strategy for its data centres.

"The overall strategy is quite simple - build out data-centre infrastructure in a very thoughtful and deliberate way to meet the needs of our customers, both internal and external," said Timmons.

"We intended also to do it in a manner that is very cost effective, very friendly to the environment, using sustainable technologies, and to do so in places that make the most sense to us throughout the world."

Ireland was chosen for a number of reasons, including what Timmons refers to as the "incredible business climate that's well-known throughout the world", a good labour force and economically feasible power infrastructure.

Microsoft already has a significant heritage in Ireland, with 25 years invested in the country. "We've got quite a comprehensive selection strategy that takes in well over 30 factors to determine where we place these things, and Dublin came out on top," said Timmons.

Despite Ireland's reputation as a high-cost economy, Microsoft says it wasn't a deciding factor when deciding to locate the centre here.

"We're much more concerned around where our services reside for proximity to our customers. And for our ability to reliably and economically scale up services as our needs demand," said Timmons.

Yesterday's opening was the first phase in the data centre. It has more than 300,000sq ft of space, with 5.4 megawatts of critical power. A total of 22.2 megawatts of critical power will be available for future use.

The centre has been designed and built with a modular core, allowing it to configure the server areas to support traditional server racks, or the container format according to the demands of the different services.

The centre is Microsoft's first data centre to be built outside the US. It's also the first one that is owned, developed and operated by Microsoft in Europe.

"We've really taken the ownership, the development and operation of facilities to the next level. . . We can develop them [ the facilities] more economically than we think we can get them out there; we can turn them up at a rate that makes sense for our business," said Timmons.

It represents a $500 million investment by the tech giant in Ireland, a significant investment, particularly given the current economic difficulties.

Timmons says the firm was left with little choice but to expand. "It's determined by customer demand," he said.

The company's data centres are considered a cornerstone of the company's cloud services, with the current expansion viewed as an investment in the future of cloud computing.

Cloud computing and other similar services are growing areas, and in turn are fuelling demand for extra capacity in these data centres as companies turn to the cloud for a more cost-effective, efficient way of getting services.

"It's a demand driver for our data-centre expansion worldwide," said Timmins.

"I think if businesses don't get it now, they will get it very, very soon. I think the adoption is strong. Everybody is looking forward to the promise that cloud computing brings to their IT infrastructure."

That demand could be increased dramatically with the expansion of Microsoft's own cloud computing services. Its cloud operating system Azure is expected to be widely available later this year. Using the platform, customers will be able to create applications that can run inside its data centres, allowing customers to develop and host their services on Azure and pay for data-centre time instead of investing in hardware and software.

Cloud computing is generating some interest from firms across the global economy, offering businesses access to services without having to worry about availability of computing resources, bandwidth or scalability, for example.

Paul Rellis, managing director of Microsoft Ireland, said the cloud represents an opportunity for companies to cut costs and transform how information technology is run in organisations. It could even have an impact on economic recovery, he said. "People want money saved, they want an increase in productivity and help to grow their business," he said.

"We're starting to see the take-up improve."

Microsoft has already started to win over new clients, with companies such as Aer Lingus and Eirgrid using shared computing resources and services offered by Microsoft.

With sensitive, confidential data from businesses around the world likely to be stored in Microsoft's centres, security is an important consideration for all concerned.

According to Microsoft, extensive security and compliance processes within the organisation have been implemented, along with external standards certifications and independent auditors to check the security measures to ensure custiomers' data stays secure.

"Security is paramount in this. We're as paranoid about our own data security as we would be about our customers'," said Rellis.

"Privacy and security are two things that are very high up on our list. As business evolves to the cloud - and it is happening and it will be gathering momentum - we see that as something we have to continue supporting and make sure that its completely secure. We have the last technology deployed from our side to make sure that happens."

For this reason, Microsoft is also keeping the exact location of its new centre quiet.

"We're happy to say it's in Ireland and in Dublin, but we don't want to go further than that," said Rellis.