Microsoft’s Virtual Storage Centre

That’s what the BBC called it anyway!

With all the Azure stuff in the media I wasn’t surprised when this appeared on the BBC website

Microsoft has launched a new platform, Windows Azure, in which data and applications will not be stored on individuals’ computers.

The BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones opens the door on the company’s cloud computing centre in California.

It’s a short video that gives a brief glimpse at one of the Microsoft data centres. Obviously with my previously documented history this was like catching the 5 minute freeview if you get what I mean

Data Centers

Richard Tubb outed me over my data center “fetish” recently.

I find anything to do with data centers fascinating. I just love reading about how they are put together and any pictures and videos i find are of huge interest

I know it’s something I’ll probably never be involved with but i love the contrast in scale against the usual type of server installations i get involved with and the planning that goes into putting together a building that is secure and protected from as many eventualities as possible is mind-boggling (power failure, natural disaster, hardware redundancy, cooling, etc, etc)

It’s probably really sad as well that i see a well cabled rack as a piece of art!

Anyway i found this on wired, it’s not particularly interesting but shows the sort of stuff that catches my eye.

It’s a series of pictures for the “worlds densest meet-me room”. A meet-me room is where hundreds of different carriers equipment is joined together so you can get all across the Internet (wikipedia definition here)

I’ve got a couple of other interests for subjects i find fascinating that have no relevance to the day job. When i’m a bit “information overloaded” they do provide a welcome distraction.

It’s a bit weird i’m such a geek that i turn to even geekier stuff to relax 

However, i know i’ve just said it’s not always relevant to the day job, a couple of years ago i was doing a search for data center cages and a came across this blog post. It was the first time i read Vlad’s blog. I subscribed and as he started talking about SBS community this, user group that that also grabbed my attention………not really sure what happened after that!

Find a data center

Can’t remember how i found this but thought i’d share anyway

Someone has mashed together google maps with location data for worldwide data centers

http://www.datacentermap.com/

Each data center has contact details with links to the website etc

Probably a bit useless for most but i found it interesting