Google and Microsoft have nothing on - drum roll - the SuperNAP

$500m. That's the going rate for a data smelter these days. You know, a facility run by a company such as Google or Microsoft that moves bits around and consumes more power than old-school metal processing plants. Most companies in need of such horsepower go out of their way to build the computing centers in cities with cheap …

[Anonymous Coward]

RICA coming for them?

So did they pay for the use of that music in the video. I did not see any credits for its usage in the video. I hate RICA but business using music to for ads with out paying is one time I would like to see omeone pay up.

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like a nice single point of failure

Or, as it's the US, a single point of bombing/shooting.

No doubt they will get special license to play cop themselves from Homeland Security..

[Anonymous]

No

That song is public domain - composed by RIchard Strauss in 1896

[Anonymous Coward]

RICA too late?

The music, " Also Sprach Zarathustra, op. 30" by Richard Strauss, was composed in 1896.

At 112 years old it might be a bit out of RICA's juristiction.

[TheThing]

@ 'special license'

The closing screen of the vid says "Armed 24/7/365 military trained Switch employed security staff"

[Anonymous Coward]

Solar?

You would have thought they would have been a prime candidate for solar or wind power out there in the desert. Alternative energy is good political PR as well (with associated tax breaks) - Although I guess they will probably upgrade to a toshiba mini self contained reactor at some point in the future....

[John Watts]

@ @ 'special license' By TheThing

> The closing screen of the vid says "Armed 24/7/365 military trained Switch employed security staff"

So we just have to wait for a leap year? HA!

Or, if they're military trained we just have to wait for them to shoot each other or direct an air-strike on to themselves?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, "RICA" man...

You know that RICA stands for "Reading Instruction Competence Assessment"?

Step away from the comment section. Slowly.

Good, now turn around and "gb2/b/"

On another note. Do they have all these servers in Very Large Rooms? At my data center, they have small, separate "pits" (walled-off sections with fire-proof, secure doors), each pit with a few cabinets. Certainly a better solution security and damage-limitation-wise (though not very energy friendly as you need air conditioning in each pit).

Fire symbol, of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a bit of a shame really

That -erm- stunning video could really have been much, much better.

[Anonymous Coward]

Water

Electricity, either in price or availability, may not be a problem ... but water certainly will be. Nevada is drying out.

[Tim]

Single point of failure

"Or, as it's the US, a single point of bombing/shooting."

If someone is serious enough to lease space from Switch... they're serious enough to lease more space 20 miles away for DR.

[Anonymous Coward]

T-SCIF

Kudos for the new acronym for Hot-Aisle, Cold-Aisle, but zero-punct for originality.

There's an awful reek of B/S from this...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sweeeeeet!

I've been waiting for a new Quake map! This one looks great for CTF and has plenty of hiding spots for a big team deathmatch...

I wonder what weapons the "security staff" will be equipped with.

Any word on where & when the map files will be released?

Fascinating how the ONLY articles I've found about this company link back to these Reg articles...and that their domain's registered address is National City Bank in LV.

If _I_ had a data center I'd have armed guards, mine fields, and poison gas traps....and a couple flying cars so I could zip through the place and see everything at once!

[A]

@T-SCIF

Totalled, _____ SuperNAP's Churlish Industry Failure...

Whats the missing word?

I can't wait for this to fail..

[E]

Grammar

The correct grammar is "don't got nothing on".

[David S]

yebbut

Okay, but the important question is:

Does it run Vista?

[dB]

Waste heat

Surely there is a better use for all that waste heat than dumping into the Nevada sky? OK, so little scope for using it in a combined heat and power system, but there must be some profitable use for it?!

[Andy ORourke]

@ T-SCIF

"Kudos for the new acronym for Hot-Aisle, Cold-Aisle"

No, It's nothing like that, take a read of the full description, hot air from the equipment never enters the room, it is vented straight out of the cabinet, that's why they have 3 times the power / space availability than most "normal" data centers!

[Jernau Morat Gurgeh]

'Alternative' energy

---

You would have thought they would have been a prime candidate for solar or wind power out there in the desert. Alternative energy is good political PR as well (with associated tax breaks)

---

Why should they bother? They've got the Hoover Dam, and that's hard to beat when it comes to CO2 emissions.

[Herby]

Logical conclusion...

Is to have the nuclear power plant dedicated to the data center, and next door. When someone asks, all you do is "point".

Targets? Why have one when two will do?

[Dave]

drying out?

Nevada is drying out? I thought it was Arizona that's drying out.

Funny about the "how the ONLY articles I've found about this company link back ..." as previously noted

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: David S

Not yet, still waiting on a memory upgrade.

[James Pickett]

Maths

407,000 sq.ft @1.5kW per sq.ft = over 600MW, but their substation is less than half that. Do I detect a bit of hyperbole?

And why can't they do something useful with the waste heat?

[Stuart Halliday]

Eh?

"The raised floor kind of works against the laws of physics. Cold air does not want to fly up through a room. Everyone in the world knows that is probably not the right way to approach things."

Hot air rises mate. So you'll want to replace the vacuum on the floor with cold air not with hot air trying to re-circulate.

Also the reason we have 'raised floors' in ordinary server rooms was because if there is a flood then the servers don't get instantly killed, it's also a route for cables...

[tim chubb]

lots of window dressing

so what they are basically saying is that we have a cold air intake and a hot air exhaust and a triple redundant power set up, in a big warehouse in the desert, with the a-team doing security with ties to old money vegas and therefore casinoes, so the sales and marketing lot will have some nice incentives up there sleaves to make u choose them

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

A few notes from a Las Vegas Resident

I have always proposed colocation of server and video production with laundromats and apartments. Some power companies sell waste heat to greenhouses.

Nevada has the highest per capita wind and solar, a huge solar voltaic array is at nellis AFB, and a new parabolic trough heats transfer oil which then flashes water to steam to drive conventional turbine generators.

The evaporation of water is an issue, The Water District just purchased some ranches with water rights, and pipelines are being constructed.

Unexpected issues:

increased thunderstorms in the area, this already happens, localized thundershowers are common, but such a concentrated outpouring of warm moist air is sure to generate stronger cells.

salt particles in the air, my pet peeve about swamp coolers.

Increased humidity is gonna tick off ppl who came to the desert to enjoy dry air.

las vegas is at a crossroads of several major fiber paths.

if you are a typical contemporary human, choose one: las vegas | alrington. The furniture industry moved from North Carolina to Las Vegas on the same logic.

I also operate a "data center" the walls are painted beige, just like the other bedroom in my house. In the winter, i leave the door open, and heat the house with the server heat. In the summer a window air conditioner kicks in. the bandwidth is 17 strands of fiber, one of which is lit. my personal dream is to make a free local nap, traffic from my servers has to go to LA to reach a nap and come ack to vegas. at one time, 5 servers were twirling the meters, but it is now down to two, one of which is a friend's colo machine, he has vargonMUD.com, a multiplayer game thats been running since 1993. a third server still runs because i am afraid to turn it off.

...paris because she needs me.