We are officially at the height of the ‘hype cycle’ for cloud.
What does this example actually mean? Like, go home and do the laundry, mop the floors, 
empty the nappy bin? Accelerate your domestic productivity across a cloud-enabled domestic services platform? Agile housework, performed by an elastic service, adjusting dynamically to any mess you and your family can create?
Since settling in Sydney, I’ve been dabbling in setting up internet home-theatre. At this point I have all home entertainment media (local and online streaming) available through a single connection and server. Why, well partly because the technology is easy to figure out without cracking a manual and partly due to the fact you don’t really need a dedicated phone line and cable/satellite TV contract anymore. Granted, back in the US I had a tendency to keep these services alive, and ignore the fact you’re dumping 1000’s a year on services that are 5% utilised.
So here’s the setup:
So after a lot of tweaking, the Plex/Mac home theatre is working well. It still requires some nurturing, but in general the solution is an incredible alternative to web-browsing and using separate applications for streaming video, photography services, online and local music, etc. So all the standard issue streaming giants (NetFlix, Hulu, Last.fm, Pandora, etc.) and the dozens of others (Picasa, National Geographic, PBS, Pitchfork Media, etc.) are all available in your living room all the time. When it works, you have a personal cloud portal to video, music, and photography user services available with a silly-simple Apple remote interface.
A couple of key items to note:
Overall, the value for money is incredible once you get this setup. Next the server will start additional-purpose roles as a DVR (for over the air recording), a private FTP server, and IP/Skype dedicated ‘land-line’ home phone.
Last fall I liked to say….a global move is technically just like a cross country move, only you fly to get there and it costs a lot more money.
Here’s the skinny with 20-20 hindsight:
Planning – you can plan to death, but it doesn’t change the workload
Things – you can throw away things you don’t need for months, only to realise 6 months later you should throw away 60% not 20%
Disconnecting from your possessions for 6 months, and you’ll realise you really don’t miss or need them
Prepare for a lot of incremental expense, but constantly keep an eye out for fraud
Movers will be movers-
Watch for hidden costs and additive costs, and realise the quality of service drops on the receiving end of the move
Relationships – on the ground make everything easier…make friends not whiney noises
Today I spoke at the Data Centre GreenTech conference in Sydney. For once an IT infrastructure conference not withering on the vine. Plus, a broad range of content that smells innovative, and an overall attitude of ‘lets do better’ versus ‘lets sell you some IT shit’!
Some amazing stats from Kenneth Brill, arguably the godfather of PUE. Brill states, in the US, data center energy consumption (as a percentage of the overall grid) has increased from 1% in 2000, to 3% today, and is projected to 10% in 2020. Brill is an amazing guy – basically defined many operating standards for data centre efficiency and tier rating/design as we know them today. He clearly recognises the need to progress beyond the PUE centric thinking he incubated 10-15 years ago…
My talk suggested a framework for ‘Sustainable Data Centre Energy Management’, with a focus on closing critical gaps in the industry’s ability to manage data centre energy effectively and in a more sustainable way (i.e. not uncontrolled growth). The basic concept is to apply storage (asset) management disciplines to energy management, with a focus on measurement, process, governance, and putting real measurement in place.
One low-hanging fruit is to advance well and beyond PUE as a measurement stick for data centre energy efficiency. Good timing, since PUE has now attained global harmony for data centre energy efficiency measurement!
We’re suggesting CPU efficiency (KW/h divided by # of CPU cores) and Green House Gas (GHG) quantification as more meaningful metrics, in addition to PUE/DCIE, which are relative but easily skewed metrics. It doesn’t have to be rocket science as the next step beyond PUE. There are a dozen other practical and measurable metrics that for some reason are lost on the industry as the ‘next generation measurements’ transport me back in time to falling asleep in 3rd year calculus to an instructor who couldn’t speak English!
It’s good to be involved in a surprisingly fresh movement around data centre efficiency. The overall attitude is constructive and people are trying out new ideas. Reminds me of why I didn’t take the job on a rig in the Gulf of Mexico back in 1996.
