virtual insanity

I was given the opportunity to get a “sneak peek” of an article that will be released tomorrow on Virtual Strategy Magazine, the work of independent industry analyst Steve Denegri.  According to his research, he theorizes that the two megastars of technology, Microsoft and Google, have a very different view of the green data center.  You and I may be looking at virtualization as a way to, among other things, reduce data center energy consumption and save ever increasing energy costs.  But Microsoft and Google are, according to Denegri, taking a Warren Buffet like approach to the situation.  They are doing what everyone else is afraid to do, consume energy.  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Unlike Warren Buffet gobbling up stocks at rock bottom prices, energy isn’t cheap.  Good point.  Energy isn’t cheap … for you and I.

And here is where the story gets fun, and somewhat sinister.  If Mr. Denegri’s theory turns out to be correct, then Microsoft and Google are in the midst of executing a plan to secure extraordinarily low, fixed, long term energy contracts (aka Power Purchase Agreements, or PPA’s) via renewable energy sources.  And at the same time, they are exerting their political influence via various lobbyists and other groups to inflict a “carbon tax” for high energy consumers (can you think of anything that consumes more energy than a data center?).   In fact, here’s a direct quote from an abstract of tomorrow’s article I just received from Virtual Strategy Magazine …

“Microsoft has said publicly that it is authoring software in collaboration with the largest municipalities across the globe that will help each city monitor its carbon emissions, giving each the ability to implement a tax system based upon environmental sustainability.  Since those data centers that are not powered by renewable sources are among the biggest emitters of CO2, such taxes will further elevate the cost of running a data center.”

Wait wait wait.  Hold up.  Back the truck up.  Did you get that?!  Microsoft is writing the code to help monitor and potentially enable municipalities to levy a tax on Microsoft competition.  A tax that they themselves would be immune from.  Oh, and it gets better.  The report goes on to conclude that if Microsoft is successful, the future data center would be controlled, managed and delivered at the local level.  Meaning, you could soon be ordering data center services much like you would order electricity or telephone service.  Another direct quote from the abstract …

“Recent presentations by Microsoft reveal that it now charges for data center services on a per-watt basis, since its internal cost analyses demonstrate that growth scales most closely to power consumed. Therefore, municipalities are likely salivating at the thought of owning and incorporating compute utilities into their city’s budget structures, since such facilities have the potential to contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the municipal coffers each year.”

Holy monkey, the implications here are enormous.  It sounds to me like Microsoft is embarking on a mission that would guarantee substantial price protection for many years (obliterating their competition) with a model that is completely scalable and manageable.  I’m not in a position to say how accurate, or inaccurate, this article by Steve Denegri is.  But let’s assume for a second that he is correct and that Microsoft and Google will ultimately dominate the data center.  At that point, would it matter what OS and/or virtualization platform they’re using to power the data center?  If you’ve got no other choice, you take what you’re given.  Which brings me to the title of this post.

If all of this is true, wouldn’t Hyper-V be a fantastic distraction?  Let’s keep everyone focused on the green data center and the differences between VMware and Hyper-V and XenServer.  Let’s keep everyone pre-occupied on something that ultimately won’t matter.  Why won’t it matter?  Because you’ll take whatever Microsoft gives you.  And why will you take it?  Because you’ve got no other option.

What do you think?  Agree?  Disagree?   Please comment and let me know your thoughts.

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Green Data Center, Hyper-V, Microsoft