A remote computer, so you can cloud to describe. But up close, in the middle of the data center, the cloud sounds like a computer orchestra. An orchestra that requires hearing protection: you hear whizzing hard disks in servers on which files are stored. A little further down the road, computers with graphics processors are munching on algorithms. The roar of huge fans and the hum of backup batteries complete the symphony.
In the event of a power outage, the batteries will keep hundreds of thousands of computers running for four minutes. “Then the diesel generators kick in,” says Rob Elsinga. “But that’s never happened – just for testing.”
National technology officer, it says on Elsinga’s business card. On behalf of Microsoft, he is the one who guides the visitors through the enormous data centers in the Wieringermeerpolder.
Also read: New data centers? The paperwork will come later
The American tech company has recently allowed strange eyes to enter the Dutch data centers. Audit teams sometimes come by to check for customers whether the data center meets all requirements. But it had to be kept secret from the outside world for years that these data centers were from Microsoft in the first place.
The tech giant regrets that secrecy afterwards. On Monday evening, local residents will receive text and explanation for the first time about the expansion plans and lingering permit issues. Actually, that is six years too late, Microsoft acknowledges. Elsinga: “When we built our first data center here in 2014, people suddenly saw a green box in a meadow: without a telephone number and without a doorbell. We need to be more transparent. ”
In order to be “a good neighbor”, the American tech company has distributed 1.1 million euros in the municipality of Hollands Kroon since 2018. This is done through a community fund that supports, for example, schools, cultural activities and sustainable initiatives. Microsoft also uses this strategy in other European countries where the company builds data centers.
Hyperscalers drive data
Microsoft is a hyperscaler: Like Amazon and Google, the company offers computing power, data storage and software in data centers on a large scale. That is more efficient, the idea is, than companies that all keep their own servers running.
Microsoft delivers Office and Windows via the cloud, business customers can set up their own infrastructure remotely with Azure. The hyperscalers are driving the digital economy, Microsoft argues. The company quotes an IDC report: every euro that Microsoft earns with the cloud would ultimately generate 20 euros in revenue for other parties.
Due to the corona crisis, the data centers had to run at full capacity and Microsoft hurriedly placed additional servers, also in Middenmeer. Microsoft is not yet bothered by the worldwide shortage of chips. Elsinga: “The chip shortage mainly affects the car industry, which uses less advanced semiconductors.” Microsoft designs its own servers and also develops its own chips for data centers. They should be in use in a year or three.
The 375 employees do not know what is happening on the servers in Middenmeer
The 375 data center employees are not concerned with what exactly happens on the servers in Middenmeer. The staff – 80 percent Dutch, according to Microsoft – take care of the cooling, energy supply, the network connection and install hardware. The servers are replaced every three to five years and the parts recycled. There is no second life for hard disks; they are pulverized into metal granules because no data is allowed to escape.
Security also requires a lot of manpower. The data centers are closed like an oyster, with triple security at the gate and intermediate checks. Microsoft promises to be online with five nines after the decimal point (99.99999 percent). That is why the company is building data centers at three different locations per country, at least 16 kilometers apart. This way, you can switch gears in the event of a disaster.
Two of those locations are near Schiphol, the Wieringermeer is the third place. Microsoft already runs seven data centers here, which are also called ‘Amsterdam’ for convenience: from AMS 5 to AMS 12. Construction of numbers 13 and 14 will start next week – they will be up and running in about nine months.
Also read: ‘We shouldn’t have been so secretive about our data centers’
Together, Microsoft’s servers in the Netherlands require 270 megawatts of power. This comes largely from the nearby wind farm and a wind farm in Borssele. “These are long-term contracts of fifteen years, which are needed to build the wind farms in the first place,” says Elsinga.
The stomping computers in the data centers are cooled with outside air 95 percent of the time. If it is warmer than 27 degrees outside, the air is first pre-cooled with water that is on top of the roof. The residual heat, slightly more than 30 degrees, is unsuitable for reuse in the agricultural sector, says Elsinga: “The nearby greenhouses have their own gas turbines that produce CO2 and generate heat for the plants.”
That was a promise that was made when the municipality of Hollands Kroon discussed the permit. Perhaps Microsoft will switch to immersion cooled servers in the future. Such systems can be closer together – useful for increasing capacity – and have a residual heat of 50 degrees. With an intermediate step, you could probably heat households with this, Elsinga thinks. “But reusing heat remains difficult, at such a great distance from a city.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
A remote computer, so you can cloud to describe. But up close, in the middle of the data center, the cloud sounds like a computer orchestra. An orchestra that requires hearing protection: you hear whizzing hard disks in servers on which files are stored. A little further down the road, computers with graphics processors are munching on algorithms. The roar of huge fans and the hum of backup batteries complete the symphony.
In the event of a power outage, the batteries will keep hundreds of thousands of computers running for four minutes. “Then the diesel generators kick in,” says Rob Elsinga. “But that’s never happened – just for testing.”
National technology officer, it says on Elsinga’s business card. On behalf of Microsoft, he is the one who guides the visitors through the enormous data centers in the Wieringermeerpolder.
Also read: New data centers? The paperwork will come later
The American tech company has recently allowed strange eyes to enter the Dutch data centers. Audit teams sometimes come by to check for customers whether the data center meets all requirements. But it had to be kept secret from the outside world for years that these data centers were from Microsoft in the first place.
The tech giant regrets that secrecy afterwards. On Monday evening, local residents will receive text and explanation for the first time about the expansion plans and lingering permit issues. Actually, that is six years too late, Microsoft acknowledges. Elsinga: “When we built our first data center here in 2014, people suddenly saw a green box in a meadow: without a telephone number and without a doorbell. We need to be more transparent. ”
In order to be “a good neighbor”, the American tech company has distributed 1.1 million euros in the municipality of Hollands Kroon since 2018. This is done through a community fund that supports, for example, schools, cultural activities and sustainable initiatives. Microsoft also uses this strategy in other European countries where the company builds data centers.
Hyperscalers drive data
Microsoft is a hyperscaler: Like Amazon and Google, the company offers computing power, data storage and software in data centers on a large scale. That is more efficient, the idea is, than companies that all keep their own servers running.
Microsoft delivers Office and Windows via the cloud, business customers can set up their own infrastructure remotely with Azure. The hyperscalers are driving the digital economy, Microsoft argues. The company quotes an IDC report: every euro that Microsoft earns with the cloud would ultimately generate 20 euros in revenue for other parties.
Due to the corona crisis, the data centers had to run at full capacity and Microsoft hurriedly placed additional servers, also in Middenmeer. Microsoft is not yet bothered by the worldwide shortage of chips. Elsinga: “The chip shortage mainly affects the car industry, which uses less advanced semiconductors.” Microsoft designs its own servers and also develops its own chips for data centers. They should be in use in a year or three.
The 375 employees do not know what is happening on the servers in Middenmeer
The 375 data center employees are not concerned with what exactly happens on the servers in Middenmeer. The staff – 80 percent Dutch, according to Microsoft – take care of the cooling, energy supply, the network connection and install hardware. The servers are replaced every three to five years and the parts recycled. There is no second life for hard disks; they are pulverized into metal granules because no data is allowed to escape.
Security also requires a lot of manpower. The data centers are closed like an oyster, with triple security at the gate and intermediate checks. Microsoft promises to be online with five nines after the decimal point (99.99999 percent). That is why the company is building data centers at three different locations per country, at least 16 kilometers apart. This way, you can switch gears in the event of a disaster.
Two of those locations are near Schiphol, the Wieringermeer is the third place. Microsoft already runs seven data centers here, which are also called ‘Amsterdam’ for convenience: from AMS 5 to AMS 12. Construction of numbers 13 and 14 will start next week – they will be up and running in about nine months.
Also read: ‘We shouldn’t have been so secretive about our data centers’
Together, Microsoft’s servers in the Netherlands require 270 megawatts of power. This comes largely from the nearby wind farm and a wind farm in Borssele. “These are long-term contracts of fifteen years, which are needed to build the wind farms in the first place,” says Elsinga.
The stomping computers in the data centers are cooled with outside air 95 percent of the time. If it is warmer than 27 degrees outside, the air is first pre-cooled with water that is on top of the roof. The residual heat, slightly more than 30 degrees, is unsuitable for reuse in the agricultural sector, says Elsinga: “The nearby greenhouses have their own gas turbines that produce CO2 and generate heat for the plants.”
That was a promise that was made when the municipality of Hollands Kroon discussed the permit. Perhaps Microsoft will switch to immersion cooled servers in the future. Such systems can be closer together – useful for increasing capacity – and have a residual heat of 50 degrees. With an intermediate step, you could probably heat households with this, Elsinga thinks. “But reusing heat remains difficult, at such a great distance from a city.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
A remote computer, so you can cloud to describe. But up close, in the middle of the data center, the cloud sounds like a computer orchestra. An orchestra that requires hearing protection: you hear whizzing hard disks in servers on which files are stored. A little further down the road, computers with graphics processors are munching on algorithms. The roar of huge fans and the hum of backup batteries complete the symphony.
In the event of a power outage, the batteries will keep hundreds of thousands of computers running for four minutes. “Then the diesel generators kick in,” says Rob Elsinga. “But that’s never happened – just for testing.”
National technology officer, it says on Elsinga’s business card. On behalf of Microsoft, he is the one who guides the visitors through the enormous data centers in the Wieringermeerpolder.
Also read: New data centers? The paperwork will come later
The American tech company has recently allowed strange eyes to enter the Dutch data centers. Audit teams sometimes come by to check for customers whether the data center meets all requirements. But it had to be kept secret from the outside world for years that these data centers were from Microsoft in the first place.
The tech giant regrets that secrecy afterwards. On Monday evening, local residents will receive text and explanation for the first time about the expansion plans and lingering permit issues. Actually, that is six years too late, Microsoft acknowledges. Elsinga: “When we built our first data center here in 2014, people suddenly saw a green box in a meadow: without a telephone number and without a doorbell. We need to be more transparent. ”
In order to be “a good neighbor”, the American tech company has distributed 1.1 million euros in the municipality of Hollands Kroon since 2018. This is done through a community fund that supports, for example, schools, cultural activities and sustainable initiatives. Microsoft also uses this strategy in other European countries where the company builds data centers.
Hyperscalers drive data
Microsoft is a hyperscaler: Like Amazon and Google, the company offers computing power, data storage and software in data centers on a large scale. That is more efficient, the idea is, than companies that all keep their own servers running.
Microsoft delivers Office and Windows via the cloud, business customers can set up their own infrastructure remotely with Azure. The hyperscalers are driving the digital economy, Microsoft argues. The company quotes an IDC report: every euro that Microsoft earns with the cloud would ultimately generate 20 euros in revenue for other parties.
Due to the corona crisis, the data centers had to run at full capacity and Microsoft hurriedly placed additional servers, also in Middenmeer. Microsoft is not yet bothered by the worldwide shortage of chips. Elsinga: “The chip shortage mainly affects the car industry, which uses less advanced semiconductors.” Microsoft designs its own servers and also develops its own chips for data centers. They should be in use in a year or three.
The 375 employees do not know what is happening on the servers in Middenmeer
The 375 data center employees are not concerned with what exactly happens on the servers in Middenmeer. The staff – 80 percent Dutch, according to Microsoft – take care of the cooling, energy supply, the network connection and install hardware. The servers are replaced every three to five years and the parts recycled. There is no second life for hard disks; they are pulverized into metal granules because no data is allowed to escape.
Security also requires a lot of manpower. The data centers are closed like an oyster, with triple security at the gate and intermediate checks. Microsoft promises to be online with five nines after the decimal point (99.99999 percent). That is why the company is building data centers at three different locations per country, at least 16 kilometers apart. This way, you can switch gears in the event of a disaster.
Two of those locations are near Schiphol, the Wieringermeer is the third place. Microsoft already runs seven data centers here, which are also called ‘Amsterdam’ for convenience: from AMS 5 to AMS 12. Construction of numbers 13 and 14 will start next week – they will be up and running in about nine months.
Also read: ‘We shouldn’t have been so secretive about our data centers’
Together, Microsoft’s servers in the Netherlands require 270 megawatts of power. This comes largely from the nearby wind farm and a wind farm in Borssele. “These are long-term contracts of fifteen years, which are needed to build the wind farms in the first place,” says Elsinga.
The stomping computers in the data centers are cooled with outside air 95 percent of the time. If it is warmer than 27 degrees outside, the air is first pre-cooled with water that is on top of the roof. The residual heat, slightly more than 30 degrees, is unsuitable for reuse in the agricultural sector, says Elsinga: “The nearby greenhouses have their own gas turbines that produce CO2 and generate heat for the plants.”
That was a promise that was made when the municipality of Hollands Kroon discussed the permit. Perhaps Microsoft will switch to immersion cooled servers in the future. Such systems can be closer together – useful for increasing capacity – and have a residual heat of 50 degrees. With an intermediate step, you could probably heat households with this, Elsinga thinks. “But reusing heat remains difficult, at such a great distance from a city.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021
A remote computer, so you can cloud to describe. But up close, in the middle of the data center, the cloud sounds like a computer orchestra. An orchestra that requires hearing protection: you hear whizzing hard disks in servers on which files are stored. A little further down the road, computers with graphics processors are munching on algorithms. The roar of huge fans and the hum of backup batteries complete the symphony.
In the event of a power outage, the batteries will keep hundreds of thousands of computers running for four minutes. “Then the diesel generators kick in,” says Rob Elsinga. “But that’s never happened – just for testing.”
National technology officer, it says on Elsinga’s business card. On behalf of Microsoft, he is the one who guides the visitors through the enormous data centers in the Wieringermeerpolder.
Also read: New data centers? The paperwork will come later
The American tech company has recently allowed strange eyes to enter the Dutch data centers. Audit teams sometimes come by to check for customers whether the data center meets all requirements. But it had to be kept secret from the outside world for years that these data centers were from Microsoft in the first place.
The tech giant regrets that secrecy afterwards. On Monday evening, local residents will receive text and explanation for the first time about the expansion plans and lingering permit issues. Actually, that is six years too late, Microsoft acknowledges. Elsinga: “When we built our first data center here in 2014, people suddenly saw a green box in a meadow: without a telephone number and without a doorbell. We need to be more transparent. ”
In order to be “a good neighbor”, the American tech company has distributed 1.1 million euros in the municipality of Hollands Kroon since 2018. This is done through a community fund that supports, for example, schools, cultural activities and sustainable initiatives. Microsoft also uses this strategy in other European countries where the company builds data centers.
Hyperscalers drive data
Microsoft is a hyperscaler: Like Amazon and Google, the company offers computing power, data storage and software in data centers on a large scale. That is more efficient, the idea is, than companies that all keep their own servers running.
Microsoft delivers Office and Windows via the cloud, business customers can set up their own infrastructure remotely with Azure. The hyperscalers are driving the digital economy, Microsoft argues. The company quotes an IDC report: every euro that Microsoft earns with the cloud would ultimately generate 20 euros in revenue for other parties.
Due to the corona crisis, the data centers had to run at full capacity and Microsoft hurriedly placed additional servers, also in Middenmeer. Microsoft is not yet bothered by the worldwide shortage of chips. Elsinga: “The chip shortage mainly affects the car industry, which uses less advanced semiconductors.” Microsoft designs its own servers and also develops its own chips for data centers. They should be in use in a year or three.
The 375 employees do not know what is happening on the servers in Middenmeer
The 375 data center employees are not concerned with what exactly happens on the servers in Middenmeer. The staff – 80 percent Dutch, according to Microsoft – take care of the cooling, energy supply, the network connection and install hardware. The servers are replaced every three to five years and the parts recycled. There is no second life for hard disks; they are pulverized into metal granules because no data is allowed to escape.
Security also requires a lot of manpower. The data centers are closed like an oyster, with triple security at the gate and intermediate checks. Microsoft promises to be online with five nines after the decimal point (99.99999 percent). That is why the company is building data centers at three different locations per country, at least 16 kilometers apart. This way, you can switch gears in the event of a disaster.
Two of those locations are near Schiphol, the Wieringermeer is the third place. Microsoft already runs seven data centers here, which are also called ‘Amsterdam’ for convenience: from AMS 5 to AMS 12. Construction of numbers 13 and 14 will start next week – they will be up and running in about nine months.
Also read: ‘We shouldn’t have been so secretive about our data centers’
Together, Microsoft’s servers in the Netherlands require 270 megawatts of power. This comes largely from the nearby wind farm and a wind farm in Borssele. “These are long-term contracts of fifteen years, which are needed to build the wind farms in the first place,” says Elsinga.
The stomping computers in the data centers are cooled with outside air 95 percent of the time. If it is warmer than 27 degrees outside, the air is first pre-cooled with water that is on top of the roof. The residual heat, slightly more than 30 degrees, is unsuitable for reuse in the agricultural sector, says Elsinga: “The nearby greenhouses have their own gas turbines that produce CO2 and generate heat for the plants.”
That was a promise that was made when the municipality of Hollands Kroon discussed the permit. Perhaps Microsoft will switch to immersion cooled servers in the future. Such systems can be closer together – useful for increasing capacity – and have a residual heat of 50 degrees. With an intermediate step, you could probably heat households with this, Elsinga thinks. “But reusing heat remains difficult, at such a great distance from a city.”
A version of this article also appeared in NRC Handelsblad on 16 October 2021
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of October 16, 2021