4 ms·

Data centers are melting in U.K. heat wave

14 points by fariszr 4y ago

jaskyle 4y ago
Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably: https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-natick-underwater-datacenter/ https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-natick...
- hindsightbias 4y ago
  What about the plankton impact?
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    Where do you think he met Karen?
nathanyz 4y ago
It seems odd that the data centers would run on such tight max external temperature limits to where this causes such an issue. I am probably missing something though, anyone have insight into what is causing them to fall over so easily with these heatwaves?
- positr0n 4y ago
  > where the nation saw its first-ever 40-degree-Celsius temperature reading Unlike a residential house that is hard to model accurately, I'm guessing 99% of the heat load of a DC comes from the servers inside it. So you can create a really good model of how much cooling you will need. No idea, but perhaps they sized the AC for 39 degrees so they wouldn't spend money on condensers that they figured would never be used. Or maybe the HVAC was sized for this load but has never been stress tested this hard before and running full throttle for so long produced unexpected failures.
montalbano 4y ago
Before technically correct comments attack the use of the word 'melting' here, as in the runway threads, please give the journalist a bit of slack here for using it in the title. The key part about this is the consistent theme of the day that many parts of UK infrastructure, both public and private, were not engineered to withstand 40 degree Celsius.
- remarkEon 4y ago
  >please give the journalist a bit of slack here for using it in the title. No. Why should we encourage this kind of inaccuracy in Journalism? As a profession, fewer and fewer are taking it seriously and please can we just have accurate framing of what's going on here? It's really not hard. How about this: "Google & Oracle data centers are facing cooling-related outages in the UK heat wave" or "Google & Oracle data centers face outages in the UK heat wave" or "Google & Oracle data centers face outages caused by heat wave in the UK" Nothing is melting here. So why say that it is? >The key part about this is the consistent theme of the day that many parts of UK infrastructure, both public and private, were not engineered to withstand 40 degree Celsius. Okay. "Key UK Infrastructure at risk of failure in prolonged 40 degree Celsius heat wave" What is hard about this?
  - yellowapple 4y ago
    > Why should we encourage this kind of inaccuracy in Journalism? Oh no! A journalist used a figure of speech in a headline! This is unacceptable!
    - remarkEon 4y ago
      Yes? When there is a clear and accurate way to describe an event and you deliberately don't do that it is, clearly, unacceptable.
      - yellowapple 4y ago
        You must be a real hit at Vulcan social gatherings ;) Using figures of speech in headlines is hardly new; here on Earth, it's indeed quite common, and most of us Earthlings have no trouble understanding that "melting" ain't meant literally.
klunky 4y ago
OCI is experiencing a big outage since 4pm today and still no ETA to have it fixed

14 points by fariszr 4y ago

Microsoft finds underwater datacenters are reliable, practical and use energy sustainably: https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-natick-underwater-datacenter/ https://news.microsoft.com/innovation-stories/project-natick...

hindsightbias 4y ago
What about the plankton impact?
- yellowapple 4y ago
  Where do you think he met Karen?

nathanyz 4y ago

It seems odd that the data centers would run on such tight max external temperature limits to where this causes such an issue. I am probably missing something though, anyone have insight into what is causing them to fall over so easily with these heatwaves?

positr0n 4y ago
> where the nation saw its first-ever 40-degree-Celsius temperature reading Unlike a residential house that is hard to model accurately, I'm guessing 99% of the heat load of a DC comes from the servers inside it. So you can create a really good model of how much cooling you will need. No idea, but perhaps they sized the AC for 39 degrees so they wouldn't spend money on condensers that they figured would never be used. Or maybe the HVAC was sized for this load but has never been stress tested this hard before and running full throttle for so long produced unexpected failures.

montalbano 4y ago

Before technically correct comments attack the use of the word 'melting' here, as in the runway threads, please give the journalist a bit of slack here for using it in the title. The key part about this is the consistent theme of the day that many parts of UK infrastructure, both public and private, were not engineered to withstand 40 degree Celsius.

remarkEon 4y ago
>please give the journalist a bit of slack here for using it in the title. No. Why should we encourage this kind of inaccuracy in Journalism? As a profession, fewer and fewer are taking it seriously and please can we just have accurate framing of what's going on here? It's really not hard. How about this: "Google & Oracle data centers are facing cooling-related outages in the UK heat wave" or "Google & Oracle data centers face outages in the UK heat wave" or "Google & Oracle data centers face outages caused by heat wave in the UK" Nothing is melting here. So why say that it is? >The key part about this is the consistent theme of the day that many parts of UK infrastructure, both public and private, were not engineered to withstand 40 degree Celsius. Okay. "Key UK Infrastructure at risk of failure in prolonged 40 degree Celsius heat wave" What is hard about this?
- yellowapple 4y ago
  > Why should we encourage this kind of inaccuracy in Journalism? Oh no! A journalist used a figure of speech in a headline! This is unacceptable!
  - remarkEon 4y ago
    Yes? When there is a clear and accurate way to describe an event and you deliberately don't do that it is, clearly, unacceptable.
    - yellowapple 4y ago
      You must be a real hit at Vulcan social gatherings ;) Using figures of speech in headlines is hardly new; here on Earth, it's indeed quite common, and most of us Earthlings have no trouble understanding that "melting" ain't meant literally.

klunky 4y ago

OCI is experiencing a big outage since 4pm today and still no ETA to have it fixed