After years of secrecy (maybe because they thought no one was interested), Google held its "Data Center Efficiency Summit" yesterday, where the company showed off one of its DCs and custom web servers -- all in a bid to evangelize for energy efficiency. The green angle means that everything has been planned for optimum power use, from the 1AAA shipping containers (sporting over a thousand servers each) that make up the core of its operations, to the servers themselves -- each containing its own 12-volt UPS. This design is said to boast a staggering 99.9 percent energy efficiency, as opposed to a standard centralized UPS setup which at best would only score 95 percent. According to CNET, these are efficiency levels that the EPA doesn't envision as practical until at least 2011. But that ain't all -- hit that read link for the whole sordid affair, but not before you check out the video of a server itself after the break.

Sure, it's all well and cute to think of "cloud computing" as being a magical data-fairy, but storing and processing all your fancy new CalDAV-enabled Google Calendar entries and MobileMe emails costs money, kid -- and that means it's hard for researchers to accurately simulate and build cloud research projects, since they don't have the resources to build large enough data centers. HP, Intel, and Yahoo are teaming up to alleviate that problem, though -- the three behemoths are going to build six cloud-computer research data centers around the world, stocked with anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 nodes each, with the goal of bringing them online later this year for pre-selected researchers to work on scaling, security, management, and new applications for the cloud. Three of the data centers will be hosted at HP, Intel, and Yahoo, and the other three will be at the University of Illinois, the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore, and the Steinbuch Centre for Computing in Germany.

Here's a novel idea: rather than stressing over the choice between solar or hydroelectric power sources to keep that green data center running, just build the thing near a community pool. Apparently that's exactly what's happening in Uitikon, Switzerland, as an IBM-built center erected for GIB-Services AG is using its excess heat to warm a local swimming pool. Put simply, the warmth emitted by the computers will be piped through a heat exchanger to boost the temperature of water used in the neighboring pool, and while the town had to cover some of the equipment costs to make it come together, it'll reap the oh-so-steamy benefits for free.

[Via FashionFunky, thanks Yash]

Details are still murky at this point, but it seems a company dubbed IDS is getting set to change the way we look at traditional data centers. The San Francisco-based startup is reportedly about to build 22 new centers, but rather than looking for unused closets and underground caverns to store hardware, it's planning to erect said data centers on decommissioned cargo ships. The plan doesn't really sound all that far-fetched -- after all, it can use sea water for cooling, there's loads of on board fuel for power generation during disasters and they can be easily used in coastal cities where free land is an issue. Purportedly, IDS will be transitioning out of secrecy in the near future, so we should be hearing a lot more on how it plans to progress real soon.

[Via DailyTech]

No doubt there's a few outfits at CeBIT doing little aside from blowing hot air, but a number of firms are seeking to extract all the warm oxygen it can from critical data centers. Oxygen-deprivation systems have seen a lot of interest in Germany, as both Wagner Alarm and Security Systems GmbH's OxyReduct and N2telligence GmbH's not-yet-named system remove a vast majority of the surrounding oxygen from rooms full of servers in an effort to greatly reduce the risk of overheating and fire. Although each company's approach had its own special twist, reducing the oxygen level within notoriously toasty data centers is certainly something enterprises and even medium-sized businesses will take note of, as just about everyone and their great-grandparents are now terrified of components spontaneously combusting. Unfortunately, neither outfit was willing to disclose general pricing information, as they seem to work on a per-job basis based on the area that needs do-oxygenated, but if you're studio apartment looks anything like this, you should definitely look into a consumer edition if it ends up on the market.

We've seen concept phones galore over the years, but a recent prototype spotted at the If Design Awards at this year's CeBIT convention piqued our interest a bit more than usual. Purportedly envisioned by Teague, the sure-to-be-renamed "Data Center Communications Vision of the Future Server" for HP looks to be a Pocket PC / rugged handheld hybrid with a slideout QWERTY keyboard, oversized touchscreen display, and quite a chunky motif. Of course, we doubt this will turn out to be your average PDA / phone, as it reportedly boasts "integrated hardware / software mobile technology to allow IT personnel to monitor data center equipment, diagnose and track problems, and perform system services" as well. Essentially, this presumably beastly device is intended to interface with HP servers and data centers rather than catering to the typical style-conscious consumer, as it even touts RFID / Bluetooth connectivity options to assist administrators in resolving outstanding issues sans wires. As with most products still stuck in the Photoshop stage, there's no word on whether this thing will actually hit the market, nor if it'll show up primarily through enterprise channels if it makes it that far, but it looks like the diagnostic handheld market is just starting to get interesting nonetheless.

We're typically not of the ilk to bust out a post on a Sun datacenter solution or yet another clustered supercomputer, but technically Sun's Project Blackbox is portable -- if you consider a shipping container portable. We wouldn't believe it if it were anyone else, but the gimmick here is Project Blackbox is a shock mounted transportable datacenter capable of accommodating up to 250 Sun Fire T1000s or x64 servers, with up to 7 terabytes of memory and as many as 1.5 petabytes of disk or 2 petabytes of tape storage -- just supply water and power, and the thing will run on its own. (Whether or not you actually plug it into your network is another matter entirely.) Their big sales pitch here is that the cash-flush "Web 2.0" company which wants to go green probably needs a simple way of shipping around or deploying an entirely pre-constructed IT infrastructure; see, apparently Project Blackbox is recyclable and is designed to run independently on wind or even Martian solar power (we kid you not, pictures after the break), though our favorite deployment scenario is definitely the datacenter in the parking garage. We never thought getting your megacorp's server farm jacked by a valet was going to redefine corporate data security, but hey, this industry changes daily, and when you're Sun and your competition's ten thousand gutted Linux desktops at a fraction of the price, the publicity stunts you've got to pull start taking bizarre new shapes. That said, we're planning on deploying at least one or two to the next Jobsnote so the F5-trigger happy in the house don't spoil all the fun.

[Thanks, Reese]