Internet giants are spending millions to cool the computer containing their data. A Reykjavik propose to exploit the cold weather to save money and save the environment. But questions remain ALESSIO BALBI Iceland, between cold and Internet "We make the servers of the world"
have called it "cold rush", the race to the cold, in imitation of the "gold rush, the rush to ' gold in the nineteenth century. That transformed the village of San Francisco, California, in the city to become the heart of Silicon Valley. This section will move a substantial slice of the business going around Internet and new technologies to lands hard hit by the financial crisis. Having experienced the most disastrous bank collapse ever suffered by a single nation, Iceland tries to recover by offering the giant internet resource which is rich: its cold climate.
Anyone taking a laptop on your lap knows where temperatures can reach the circuits that run our computers and how the cooling fans must work to ensure that these are based. Multiply this figure experience to a few million units, and you have an idea of \u200b\u200bthe costs incurred by large Internet company to control the temperature of the servers in their large data centers. According experts, even companies that adopt more efficient energy plans pay an increase of between 40 and 60 per cent on the bill because of air conditioning needed to cool their equipment.
In Iceland, the air and water are cold all year, and continue operating a server over there costs a fraction compared to California or Europe. Not counting the gain from the environmental point of view: according to research firm IDC, the IT industry is responsible for 2 percent of global emissions of CO2, a level comparable to that of air transport and likely to increase rapidly given the rate of development of the sector. Whereas, thanks to geothermal, virtually 100 percent renewable electricity is Icelandic, the benefit to the climate is evident.
These are the advantages. On the other hand, move millions of data invaluable to thousands of miles away is not an operation that can be done in one night and not consider all the variables involved. For example, Iceland has fiber connections with Europe and North America, and now a data packet takes 17 milliseconds to travel between the island and the nearby Great Britain. For an ordinary Internet user is an imperceptible delay, but for some companies, and certain types of data may be too. Also, someone points out the risk of bringing the server to which revolve around business millionaires in a country dotted with active volcanoes, and that only a year ago he suffered an earthquake of the sixth on the Richter scale.
the outskirts of Reykjavik is rising, by the Global Verne, the first data center within one year, if the predictions are fulfilled, will be ready to host the first server. If the project proves successful, have already been identified for other areas to build. Iceland hopes that within five or ten years, the cold and computer science are combined to become the leading industry of the country.
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