super nada
Power Member
Have you ever wondered how Microsoft provide those services for you? XBOX LIVE for instance surely must need more horsepower than a general website would need, wouldnt it?It’s probably safe to bet that all of Microsoft’s online operations doesn’t run off a single server in the basement of Gates’ house. However, a recent promotional video produced by Microsoft’s Environmental Sustainability group may have accidentally spilled the beans.
The following screencaps are from taken from the video Q&A with Rob Bernard, Chief Environmental Strategist, at 2min 29sec to 2min 35sec for those of you playing at home.
Some quick stats gathered from the above clippings: 15 datacenters hosting 148,357 servers sitting on 17,406 racks consuming 72,500KW of utility power as of the end of January 2008 (as indicated by the bar chart).
On the same page there’s also an interesting graph showing the distribution of servers per “property”. Live Search is in the clear lead with approximately 75,000 (50%) of the servers pushing out those less-than-desirable search results, followed by Hotmail. The other notable property occupying a large chunk of the servers would be “other” (appropriately named), which one could assume be dedicated to XBOX Live services and the like.
Assuming these statistics are real and accurate, then at the growth rate of 10,000 servers a month Microsoft should be at 218,000 servers at the end of August 08. A mind-blowing number. They’re going to need more horses.
But, er, if those numbers are to be believed, then Microsoft runs about 8.5 servers per rack, which seems disheartening in this day and age of bladey goodness.
http://www.vgwatchdog.com/?p=35