Home » Bloggers Park » Computer » Inside a Microsoft data center

ComputerInternetTechnology Junction

Inside a Microsoft data center

google

November 4, 2009

1 View 0

SaveSavedRemoved 0

CNET’s Ina Fried recently visited the newly opened Microsoft data center in Chicago. The facility is designed to hold up to 56 containers, each filled with 1,800 to 2,500 servers.

In this CNET News video, Ina talks to Daniel Costello and Christian Belady from Global Foundation Services about how the design of the data center saves costs and materials; it’s noted that the container-based system is about 50% more energy efficient than a traditional data center. Another advantage to this design is that it allows them to deploy very quickly. Ina remarks that what is notable is what you don’t see when you walk around the data center — that is, big bundles of cable, as many fans and air conditioners, etc.

 

 

Microsoft recently opened its Chicago Data Center. In its first phase, the ground floor of the facility is designed to hold up to 56 containers, each filled with anywhere from 1,800 to 2,500 servers.

Although the containers are heavy (and even heavier when packed with servers), air skates allow them to be moved in place with just four workers. Eight hours later, the servers are up and running.

The second floor of the Chicago Data Center is home to a more traditional server room consisting of racks of servers with cool air coming up from a raised floor.

Building the data center required 2,400 tons of copper, 3,400 tons of steel, 26,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 190 miles of conduit.

Keeping everything cool is made possible with 7.5 miles of chilled water piping.

Although the data center is massive, it is managed with a staff of 30 to 45, including custodial and security workers. Building the facility, however, generated roughly 3,000 construction-related jobs, with the peak workforce reaching around 1,100 workers.

Even with all its power saving techniques, the first phase of the data center can scale to 30 megawatts of critical power.

Containers will eventually house two-thirds of the servers in the data center, with the more traditional server rooms upstairs accounting for the remainder.

Over time, Microsoft expects to invest $500 million in the Chicago facility, just one of several existing or planned data centers.

Microsoft isn’t saying just which services are being run out of Chicago, though the Bing posters that covered the second floor server rooms suggest one possible workload.

Microsoft and others in the industry place a huge premium on where they put their data centers, picking spots close to cheap abundant power, water, and other key ingredients. About 70 percent of a facility’s economics are determined before you break ground, Microsoft executives said.

“The hum, the background beat that you feel, it’s really the heartbeat of the Internet,” said Kevin Timmons, general manager of data center operations for Microsoft.

An exterior view of the Chicago Data Center. Because Microsoft isn’t looking to attract attention, there’s no identification outside. Even on the inside it’s hard to tell whose facility it is, unless you look closely at a couple art pieces that note they are from Microsoft’s art collection.