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| Dear Craig,
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Welcome to
CN Consulting's
"Cocktail Talk".
Cocktail Talk is a casual monthly newsletter
intended to arm you with amusing bits and bytes of information on
whats happening in the computer world. Topics sure to break
the ice and capture an audience at many a social or business
event.
There are buttons below
to do things including unsubscribe. If you unsubscribe you will be
immediately removed from our email list and may end up hanging
around a soggy fruit tray sipping warm beer, alone, at your next
Cocktail Party.
But that's your call, and
that's Cocktail
Talk.
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Seeing
Green
|
 Going "Green" is trendy and everyone wants to jump on the
bandwagon. And, like always, you're the one thats going to
suffer.
The United States Navy is bragging about its
"Sleeping SAN". That's SAN (Storage Area network), not SAM
(Surface to Air Missile).
A SAN is a bunch of huge disk
drives that aren't anywhere near you that you can use just like
they're inside your Laptop.
The Navy is bragging because its
Sleeping SAN goes into sleep mode (just like your PC) which saves
%40 on energy. It would save %100 if they turned it off
completely.
Well, I don't know exactly when the Navy
expects its SAN to go into sleep mode, but "not on my watch" sounds
reasonable. Maybe everything in the Navy should stay wide awake
right now including SANs and SAMs.
Going Green has bragging
rights for Corporate Executives too. Companies are saving big money
going Green (not from saving energy) and that makes the top
executives look good.
Computers and peripherals use
electricity so they're a popular target. Instead of having printers
in peoples cubicles companies have established Print Centers. Just
like in the 1980's. You print your stuff, enough stuff to make
the walk worthwhile, and go pick it up. Other people handle it, read
it, and accidentally toss it. You read theirs and toss theirs too.
So under the flag of saving energy there's one printer for
ten people to share, which saves corporate 90% on printers, people
have to actually walk to get their printouts, and they can't print
all the silly personal stuff they waste their days creating. Sorry,
no more color driving directions for lunchtime shopping or 4th of
July Party invitations (which I have not received). That saves
corporate money, and that's great, but has little to do with being
Green. Even the Data Center, Holiest of Holies, is going
Green.
Green Data Centers have UV protective tinted windows,
indoor lighting that adjusts according to the sunlight coming
in, are a comfortable 71 degrees, have grass growing on the
roof, and Mr. Coffee coffee makers are limited to 1,000 watts. Thats
not how it used to be, not how it should be. Its just not right.
A real Data Center has no windows, the lights are florescent
which makes your pasty white skin look green and they flicker
creating a nice strobe effect, its so cold you can see your breath,
the roof is called the first floor because you're in a basement, and
you wouldn't dare bring in even a cup of coffee. If you want coffee
its on top of the cigarette machine in the break room next to the
stale chocolate-on-chocolate doughnuts by the Dungeons and Dragons
magazines. That is a Data Center.
Oh, the clocks. It was
always twelve seconds to midnite in a Data Center and those twelve
seconds were painted red. Those red seconds are how long you've got
to evacuate if a fire starts. After twelve seconds a Halon 1301
discharge sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
With no
disrespect to the United States Navy; major technological
accomplishments housed in the Data Center are not called "Sleeping
SAN", they are called "Spock' or 'Kirk". Trust me on this; I've seen
multi-million Fortune 200 Data Center glass with NC-1701 on it and
traced internet routes through servers named Spock.
Please
leave our Data Centers alone, You can go Green if you want, thats
your call, and that's Cocktail Talk. |
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Thank you for
reading,
('Live long and prosper."),
|
Craig Phillips
CN Consulting, Inc.
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