Skip to main content

U.S. Government shutting down 800 data centers by 2015

ServerFarm
Image used with permission by copyright holder

The federal government released information on a plan to close over 350 data centers around the United States by the end of 2012 and another 400 by the end of 2015. This is an effort to bring the remaining data centers up to capacity. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra stated that more than 2,000 data centers around the nation have been running at about 40 percent storage capacity and 27 percent computing capacity. Compared to a regular office building, the average data center consumes 200 times the amount of electricity.

data_center_map__2This move is estimated to save U.S. taxpayers $3 billion. The White House sited examples of the current waste including a 195,000 square foot facility in Alabama that’s used by the Department of Homeland Security, the equivalent of three and a half football fields. A facility used by the Department of the Treasury in Maryland costs taxpayers over $400, 000 a year for leasing and electricity, all for 250 servers. Since 1998, the number of data centers has more than quadrupled across the United States.

Thirty states will be effected by the closures, however there are few jobs associated with managing the server farms. The Department of Defense is most effected by the closures with 113 data centers shutting down. All the data from the closed facilities will be moved to the remaining 1,200 facilities around the nation. Many of the locations have been undisclosed to protect the security of the data.

While the remaining data centers will house the relocated data, there has been no announcement around energy efficiency improvements to those facilities. Google recently showed off a new data center in Finland constructed inside an old paper mill. The building uses 20-year-old pumps to send water from the Baltic Sea into the facility to cool the systems. The data center will also use wind power to help run the facility.

Topics
Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
The HP Victus gaming PC with RTX 3060 has a $550 discount
The HP Victus 15L gaming PC in white.

Gamers don't need to spend more than $1,000 if they want to buy a new gaming PC because there are affordable options like the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop. From its original price of $1,400, you can get it for just $850 as HP has applied a $550 discount on this machine. However, you shouldn't delay your purchase because there's no assurance that the gaming PC will still be 39% off tomorrow. If you want to make sure that you get it for less than $1,000, you're going to have to complete the transaction for it within the day.

Why you should buy the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop
You shouldn't expect the HP Victus 15L gaming desktop to match the performance of the top-of-the-line models of the best gaming PCs, but it's surprisingly powerful for its cost. Inside it are the 13th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, with 16GB of RAM that our guide on how much RAM do you need says is the best place to start for gaming. It's enough to play today's best PC games without any issues, and it may even be capable of running the upcoming PC games of the next few years if you're willing to dial down the settings for the more demanding titles.

Read more
This 17-inch HP laptop is on sale for just $300 — but hurry!
The HP 17t-cn300 17.3-inch laptop against a white background.

If you want to buy a laptop with a relatively large screen, the good news is that you don't have to break the bank with your purchase because you can get the HP Laptop 17t for a very affordable $300. It's on sale from HP with a $200 discount on its original price of $500, but there's no telling how much time is remaining before this offer expires. We don't think it will stay available for long because laptop deals like this almost always get sold out quickly, so complete the transaction as soon as possible to make sure that you don't miss out on the savings.

Why you should buy the HP Laptop 17t
With the 17.3-inch display of the HP Laptop 17t, you'll have a lot of screen real estate to work on your projects and watch streaming shows. It's pretty affordable for a laptop with this large screen, which offers HD+ resolution for sharp details and vibrant colors. However, despite its big display, the HP Laptop 17t maintains portability because it's only 0.78 of an inch thick, which makes it easy to slide into your bag when you're on the go, and it won't be too heavy to carry around because it only weighs about 4.6 pounds.

Read more
What to do if your Intel CPU keeps crashing
Pins on Core i9-12900K.

Despite being among the best processors you can buy, some high-end Intel CPUs have faced a wave of instability over the past few months. Intel is investigating the problem, but the company and its motherboard partners have already worked toward some temporary fixes to improve stability on high-end Intel CPUs -- even if it comes at a performance cost.

Before getting into the fixes, keep in mind that they are temporary. Intel will release a statement on the instability soon, likely with more direct guidance on what affected users should do. In addition, the scope of the problem isn't clear -- if you're not experiencing issues, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Who's affected

Read more