The Eco Side of Sun Microsystems
Tagged with: computers • eco • energy savings • environment • Sun Microsystems • technology
So lately, Sun has been doing a few things right in terms of being Eco-friendly. They just launched a website called OpenEco. The purpose of the site is to bring together all kinds of organizations that are working on environmentally friendly areas so they can share their data.
For instance, suppose you are a business and installing a script to automatically shut down your computer systems has saved your company “x” amount of dollars. Well now you can share what you did and how much it saved you with others, so they to can see what other businesses are doing to make a difference. The site is free to register and is very easy to use.
Another notable is Sun’s Ray 2 computer. Go check it out! It’s a pretty slick machine for sure. And it only uses 4 watts of power compared to the average PC which uses around 80. That’s one heck of a reduction in energy usage.
However, it is important to note the Sun Ray 2 is a thin client, meaning it pulls content down from a server, so it really doesn’t do much work at all. It leaves all the calculating up to a server. But the idea is pretty ingenious. Sun has a flash system that explains the design very simply.
I like reporting on items like these because it shows improvements are being made and some companies are trying to change the glutinousness we Americans seem to embody.
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September 26th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Ok — imagine utility computing….
Instead of a workstation you use the computing power of a server provided by the city (like your electric and water utilities might be provided). No one has PCs or workstations. Instead, we’ll use networked thin clients (ay home, in car, on cellphone, on fridge) and on the far side, we have server farms that contain virtualized workspaces and storage.
As we need more computing power, our virtual workload can shift to different servers so that they remain at 80% utilization.
If a server is at less than 70 percent utilization it gets turned off (programmatically). If the server bank (processor area network) goes above 90%, a new server is turned on automatically and load shifted transparently. As workload fades, the servers shut down again. Like cell service, as you travel around the countty, your workload gets passed along to different utility centers.
You pay by consumption rate and by software as a service.
I can’t wait.
September 26th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Hmm… damn interesting idea. And would be a great way to reduce waste and increase computing power use efficiency.
But the geek in me wants to control my own computers and server here at the pad, and what distro I use. I’m not sure my city officials are smart enough to make that decision for me.
But I guess if you left the decision up to the consumer as far as what system to use, then there will still be plenty of people whom would likely choose the virtual option.
The place you will likely see that model first is in businesses and organizations. I can wait. Imagine how much easier and efficient it is to manage a few servers rather than 500 computers.
September 26th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
You just get a VM. You load it from whatever image you want, you update it, etc. It would need to have a common hypervisor so that you can step back — out of the vm — to reload it as necessary, or just drop some coins into the slot and get a preconfigured system.
But something has to give. You’ve got to give up the need to buy, touch hardware. And stop throwing the junk away and filling up landfills with crap. We all need to change in order to change.
September 26th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Very true! I am always a fan of reducing waste. But instead of having the government do this, why not start a business that houses these servers. Then build a LEED platinum building that runs off of solar and wind power. All of which will allow said business to apply for grants and get money from the government. But security will probably be the biggest problem. How safe would you feel checking your online bank account.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:45 am
I’d feel fine about if (online banking) the rules were on the side of the consumer. They’re not and we need to demand that they swing from corporate protectionism, back to citizens.
Re: private vs. public infrastructure — I see a lot of stupidity at the federal level, but many people that I work with at the state and local govt levels are very green and very conscientious. Much more so than profit driven would be because profit drives short term gain at the expense of long term. Not a good combination there if you’re trying to conserve. Amassed wealth allows us to make a quick, short term hit at the expense of everyone else and say goodbye. Many people taking the quick hit leads us to where we are.
As an additional point, I would see no problem in allowing the “utility” to control the type of channels that we’re allowed to use for the transactions (i.e. sniff for theft and for the benefit of infrastructure reliability). I believe that by itself would cut down on illegal web use because servers wouldn’t be anonymous in Russia or Bulgaria but would be part of a regional, national, global processor networks. If your transaction leaves the PAN pool, it should be tagged as such. We have a long way to go because national boundaries define legal issues on how data is treated. For example if the PAN pool extends from the US to Europe, there would need to be commonality in data handling. Currently we have different data standards in EU and US.
My goal is to erase national boundaries by conflating cultural and legal frameworks. When all of them become us, we won’t tend to want to bomb them.
September 28th, 2007 at 5:32 am
That model could also cut down on spam as well. At least, your pool wouldn’t allow mass messages to leave. But it can still lead to a slippery slope of government control of information, or having a Scorpio that is trying to take over the world.
This model though could also allow the system to be implemented that actually beats spam. Where you come up with a unified currency and charge $0.01 per message sent. Then create a credit system for companies and other organizations.
I like this idea a lot for that simple reason though.