Microsoft is offering a rare peek behind the "cloud" with virtual tours of its Azure public data centers. These massive structures dot the globe and provide the necessary physical infrastructure of the modern web, but few outsiders have gotten a behind-the-scenes look.
"I think the public really doesn't have a great understanding of really what the cloud truly is," Brian Janous, general manager of energy and sustainability at Microsoft, told Cheddar.
Using a personal computer or mobile device, users can walk the halls of a typical Microsoft data center and learn about everything from security protocols to cooling systems.
The latter is an especially important aspect of running a data center. Temperature control is at the center of Microsoft's efforts to cut down on energy use at its data centers, which make up the majority of the tech company's carbon footprint.
The company currently uses various methods of cooling to keep temperatures between 70 and 80 degrees inside its data centers.
"One of the biggest challenges that we have in building data centers and operating data centers is keeping them cool," Janus said. "Every year servers are getting more dense, and therefore they're putting out more heat."
The company aims to become "carbon negative" by 2030, but just keeping up with demand has required a massive expansion of data centers, even as they become more energy efficient.
"When you look at the efficiency that we can deliver today relative to 10 years ago, it's just astounding," Janous said. "Internet traffic is up about 12x over the last 10 years, but energy consumed by all data centers globally is roughly flat over that time."
He noted that Microsoft has made improvements such as bringing in more outside air to help cool down servers — though more radical measures are in the works, such as a plan to place data centers on the seafloor to utilize ocean water for even more efficient cooling.
In addition, Microsoft on Tuesday said it plans to share previously secret energy-use information with select customers under nondisclosure agreements to help them become more efficient.
Essentially, as Microsoft improves sustainability at its data centers, it will in some cases reveal those gains to companies looking to bring down their own carbon footprints.
"It's really all about just being more transparent in terms of how we operate our infrastructure," Janous said.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
It’s a chicken-and-egg problem: Restaurants are struggling with record-high U.S. egg prices, but their omelets, scrambles and huevos rancheros may be part of the problem. Breakfast is booming at U.S. eateries. First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, nearly quadrupled its locations over the past decade to 570. Fast-food chains like Starbucks and Wendy's added more egg-filled breakfast items. In normal times, egg producers could meet the demand. But a bird flu outbreak that has forced them to slaughter their flocks is making supplies scarcer and pushing up prices. Some restaurants like Waffle House have added a surcharge to offset their costs.
William Falcon, CEO and Founder of Lightning AI, discusses the ongoing feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman, and how everyday people can use AI in their lives.
U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum “will not go unanswered,” European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen vowed on Tuesday, adding that they will trigger toug
The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down the agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal. Russell Vought is the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama created it following the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
