Virtual Earth Data Center now powered by Wind

<p>In an era when the cost** of running a data center far outweighs that of building a data center I was glad to see <a href="http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2008/Apr/18/microsoft_unveils_wind-powered_containers.html" target="_blank">this story in Data Center Knowledge</a> earlier this week featuring mention of the new Virtual Earth Container based data center in Boulder that is 100% wind powered. [more in <a href="http://dailycamera.com/news/2008/apr/18/at-the-center-of-virtual-earth-microsoft-unveils/" target="_blank">Boulder's Daily Camera</a>] This cluster of three trailer sized portable data centers is used for offline processing of the imagery you see in Live Maps and Virtual Earth 3D as well as creation of the 3D building models. Jerry* has some <a href="http://virtualearth4gov.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!369B39F890CE30C1!917.entry" target="_blank">amazing stats (5000 cores!) on the VE Public Sector blog</a>, as well as a couple of photos of the containers inside and out. This is a nice step - we have numerous larger datacenters for online serving that hopefully one day soon could also be powered by alternative energy sources. <p>** Cost as in total cost including energy, cooling and environmental impact <div style="padding-right:0px;padding-left:0px;padding-bottom:0px;margin:0px;padding-top:0px;display:inline">Technorati tags: <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Virtual Earth" rel=tag>Virtual Earth</a>, <a href="http://technorati.com/tags/Wind Power" rel=tag>Wind Power</a></div><img src="http://c.services.spaces.live.com/CollectionWebService/c.gif?cid=3151506992847969176&page=RSS%3a+Virtual+Earth+Data+Center+now+powered+ by+Wind&referrer=" width="1px" height="1px" border="0" alt=""><img style="position:absolute" alt="" width="0px" height="0px" src="http://c.live.com/c.gif?NC=31263&NA=1149&PI=73329&RF=&DI=3919&PS=85545&TP=virtualearth.spaces.live.com&GT1=virtualearth">

Click here to view the full post. (http://virtualearth.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2BBC66E99FDCDB98!14594.entry)