Engineers Pursue Cloud's Design,Test, and Use

摘要

The cloud and big data are presenting the engineering community with a variety of opportunities in the design, test, and use of cloud computing systems. Challenges range from implementing low-power servers that are central to the cloud to making sense of the terabytes of data it stores. Power consumption is a critical specification in cloud implementations. A recent article from The New York Times reported that yearly leases top out at about $150 per square foot for a trophy high-rise in Manhattan; they reach four times that for space in "low, bland buildings across the Hudson River in New Jersey." That's because the New Jersey buildings have sufficient electric capacity to power the data centers associated with the stock exchanges, banks, and high-velocity traders. The Times reported that the owners of the New Jersey buildings have evolved from landlords into power brokers: "Electrical capacity is often the central element of lease agreements, and space is secondary."