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Cloud computing involves displacing data storage and processing from the user's computer on to remote servers. It can provide users with more storage space and computing power that they can then access from anywhere in the world rather than having to connect to a single desktop or other computer with its finite resources. However, some observers have raised concerns about the increased energy demands of sustaining distributed servers and having them up and running continuously, where an individual user's laptop might be shut down when it is not in use or the resources utilization of the server is less than the lower threshold, for instance.
Now, writing in the International Journal of Information Technology, Communications and Convergence, researchers at the University of Oran in Algeria, have investigated how cloud computing systems might be optimized for energy use and to reduce their carbon footprint. Jouhra Dad and Ghalem Belalem in the Department of Computer Science at Oran explain how they have developed an algorithm to control the virtual machines running on computers in a cloud environment so that energy use of the core central processing units (CPUs) and memory capacity (RAM as opposed to hard disk storage space) can be reduced as far as possible without affecting performance overall.
Unfortunately, there is little detailed information on the algorithm itself in the article.
I suspect some Soylents have home servers which they access from within their home as well as remotely. What, if anything, do you do to reduce your energy costs?
(Score: 2) by hankwang on Saturday September 13 2014, @10:24PM
"Starting and stopping a disk is more energy intensive than letting it spin for 5 hours. Disk motors pull almost no power."
Do you have a source for that? A typical 2.5 inch disk will draw 5 W (1 A at 5 V) for 4 seconds to spin up. I highly doubt that air drag on the platters takes just 1 mW of power.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 14 2014, @12:35AM
.. if only we could couple it to some sort of flywheel to store the energy.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday September 14 2014, @03:29AM
Math fail.
You can't compare one spinup with an hour of idle time.'
You have to compare dozens of spinup, maybe even hundreds that you would have to over the hours that the drive is pulling .15 watts (150 mW) spinning.
And spin up is longer than 4 seconds. Closer to 10, plus you have head unload and retract time, head re-fly and track calibration time EACH time you power down. More than one drive? You might have to stager the spinups.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.