Friday, February 19, 2010

Sustainability Specialist Thomas Loxley Rosenberg Guest Speaker 2-19-10

I made the following post at the CSix Cloud Computing Announcement Page. I'm copying here in case people don't see it there. Be sure to check out the Cloud SIG main website and Facebook page too.



Energy, Climate Change & Environmental Sustainability Specialist Thomas Loxley Rosenberg presented the following slides to the CSix Cloud Computing SIG during our regular Friday meeting 2-19-10.

Environmental Sustainability and Cloud Computing

Agenda
  • What is environmental sustainability?
  • The business case for environmental sustainability
  • Sustainability and IT
  • Sustainability and Cloud Computing


View and download presentation here.

The meeting notes taken by Taff contain some useful information discussed during the presentation.

Debra Evans comments on event
  • I met Thomas during a PinkSlipMixers.com event at B4Twelve Ultra Lounge in Palo Alto CA. I didn't see Google or Tesla Motors as promised, but I did meet someone interesting.
  • We did the typical networking routine of introducing ourselves and talk about what we did or are interested in.
  • I knew Thomas' area of expertise would be a good compliment to the Cloud Computing SIG
  • Luckily, Thomas agreed to give an exciting and informative talk on Environmental Sustainability and Cloud Computing
  • Even though Social Media and other Cloud based companies are considered green and environmentally friendly, that common wisdom isn't necessarily true
    • Most IT hardware, upon which the Web depends, is not easily recyclable. In fact, some elements are toxic to humans.
    • Data centers that online companies, such as Facebook, rely on coal power plants to run the servers.
  • Holistically managing the eco-efficiency (energy consumption, emissions) of ICT (information
    and communication technologies
    ), can reduce at least 15% of greenhouse gases produced by non IT sources.
  • Discussed how the CLUMEQ Supercomputing Center convective air cooled data center, in collaboration with Sun, has rethought the whole concept of managing server farms.
cloud,sustainability,datacenter,silo,sun,clumeq

An innovative, energy-efficient cooling enclosure leveraging a 3-level cylindrical floor plan with up to 1.5 megawatts of cooling capacity and space to host up to 56 standard-sized racks. Free cooling conditions the air inside the silo by using cooler outside ambient air, along with a system of water filled pipes and coils, drizzle humidifiers and very high-efficiency fans.



Photos from Old Saratoga Post Office Cloud Computing SIG Meeting

Thomas L. Rosenberg, Taff Dirks, Julie McDaniel

Thomas L. Rosenberg, Taff Dirks, Julie McDaniel Setting up presentation laptop & projector

Thomas Loxley Rosenberg, Opening Presentation Slide

Thomas Loxley Rosenberg, Opening Presentation Slide

Thomas Loxley Rosenberg, What is Environmental Sustainability?

Thomas Loxley Rosenberg, What is Environmental Sustainability?

Mo Aidi, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation

Mo Aidi, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation

Sherwin Deng, Taff Dirks, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Ed Leung, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation

Sherwin Deng, Taff Dirks, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Ed Leung, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation

Sherwin Deng, Taff Dirks, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Ed Leung, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation

Sherwin Deng, Taff Dirks, Thomas L. Rosenberg, Ed Leung, Speaking to SIG Members after Presentation



Thursday, February 11, 2010

Cloud Computing meets Smarter Planet Initiative

I made the following post at the CSix Cloud Computing SIG blog. I'm copying here in case people don't see it there. Be sure to check out the Cloud SIG main website and Facebook page too.



Earlier this week, I attended an IEEE Cloud Computing meets IBM's Smarter Planet Initiative event put on by the Santa Clara Valley Chapter Computer Society. The speaker, Lennart Frantzell, PhD of the IBM Innovation Center, San Mateo, has the goal of pushing technology until computers replace mankind.

Cloud Computing Adds Value in Specific Ways
Cloud Computing Adds Value in Specific Ways

The core of Cloud Computing made up of
- virtual machines
- high capacity broadband
- open source SW
- smartphones
- app stores such as Amazon Web Services (AWS)

I liked how Lennart Frantzell tied in current trends of smartphones and social networking to the growth of cloud computing. Without demand for more bandwidth and vendor neutral infrastructure by web users, the challenge of cloud computing activity may have stayed in the enterprise domain. Social networking is driving the growth of cloud computing.


Cloud Computing Globalization and Globally Available Resources
Cloud Computing Globalization and Globally Available Resources

Frantzell explained how IBM Innovation Centers play a role in expanding the global digital infrastructure. A behind the scenes innovator in converting the world from analog to digital. The demo of one hospital based Cloud Computing implementation looked a lot like Big Brother. Wearable tracking systems allow computers to determine how well a doctor sticks to a predetermined checklist. Medical practitioners are at risk for being beeped at for failing to wash their hands long enough. The level of remote monitoring gave me shivers. Other remote management, like reading energy meters, are less intrusive.

Lennart Frantzell also discussed the differences between private clouds, public clouds and hybrid clouds and how they interact. Hybrid and public clouds can act as storage or computing capacity backup or fail over. Hybrid and public clouds give enterprises the flexibility to have an internal private cloud as well immediate ability to absorb short term spike in need.

Three co-existing Cloud Computing delivery models
Three co-existing Cloud Computing delivery models

Post by devans00
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Abstract of Talk

As the world becomes more and more global, integrated and "flat", it is also facing an array of problems: a financial crisis, climate disruption, energy geopolitics, food supply hazards etc. This is coinciding with technological innovations such as the following developments that can assist in resolving these problems:

The world is becoming instrumented. There are a billion transistors per human, each one costing one ten millionth of a cent.

Cloud computing and mobile computing are changing how software is deployed and used throughout the world.

IBM presentations of their cloud computing offerings available on cloud homepage.


All things are becoming intelligent. Algorithms and powerful systems turn those mountains of data into decisions and actions that can make the world work better. Smarter.

As the world's leading globally integrated IT company, IBM is attempting to use modern IT technology to tackle many of the world's problems. In this presentation, Lennart Frantzell will talk about IBM's global smarter planet initiative in its quest to make the world a smarter place.


About the Speaker
Lennart Frantzell, PhD, is a technical consultant at the IBM Innovation Center, San Mateo. He works with IBM Business Partners and startup companies in the IBM smarter planet initiative. The IBM Innovation Centers is a world-wide network of IBM business partner centers that provide business- and technical support to help companies get started and deploy applications in the IBM smarter planet space.

Lennart Frantzell has expertise in Cloud Computing, IBM Industry Frameworks, IBM Tivoli systems management, WebSphere and other IBM middleware products. He has worked in artificial intelligence, object-oriented programming and computer games.