Yahoo's "Chicken Coop" Data Center Design

1sockchuck writes "Yahoo has come up with a data center design called the Yahoo Computing Coop, which it says will make its new data center in Lockport, NY one of the most efficient on earth. The design features 120-foot by 60-foot metal prefabricated facilities with louvers on the side to support free cooling, and a peaked roof to manage the release of waste heat from the hot aisle. Chief Yahoo David Filo said the name was adopted 'because it looks like something chickens live in.' The $150 million data center in Western New York, which was announced earlier today, will run on cheap hydro power from the Niagara River."

Re:um...grats?

[Statecraftsman]

Some people like the clean look of a Google homepage while others who want a little news go with Yahoo. Also, AT&T plugs a lot of people into a Yahoo homepage by default. For many, it's not about search, it's about homepages.

Re:um...grats?

[HuckleCom]

Yahoo, like google doesn't -JUST- provide a search engine nad I hope you've noticed that. In my world at least Yahoo definately has it going on with YUI - so much so that google homepages are using yui components

Lockport

[westlake]

Lockport is where the Erie Canal climbs the Niagara Escarpment.

The canal itself was and is a source of hydro-power - think of it as a 350 mile nineteenth century industrial corridor cut across upstate New York. The work of self-taught engineers and Irish immigrant labor - with no better tools available than the pick axe and black powder.

Lockport is a small city of about 20,000 that has been spared the frauds and fancies that have plagued the redevelopment of Niagara Falls. It is about 16 miles northeast of the SUNY Amherst campus.

Re:um...grats?

[afidel]

Uh, my igoogle entertainment page is much more usable than that ugly mess and it's specialized to the teams I follow as well as including general sports information. It also includes non sports related entertainment addons which I mixed and matched to meet my preferences, not something provided to me on some media companies terms.

Re:um...grats?

[Jeeeb]

For one mail - Even when gmail came out with all the hype about 1gb of storage space, I stuck with yahoo and the puny 4mb it was offering, for the simple reason that changing mail address is a pita. Now I'm not sure if there is even a storage limit at all. I also now have multiple yahoo address all redirecting to my main one. That way I have an address with my real name for things like resumes .etc.

There are lots of other services though. Yahoo auctions is extremely popular in Japan. I've never heard anyone mention e-bay here.

The Yahoo Japan travel service is also pretty popular and convenient. I've booked night bus tickets between Osaka and Tokyo several times through it. Could search and compare prices, all the form details are stored with my yahoo ID and you can use the payment systems at convenience stores here to pay in cash rather than giving out your credit card details :)

Another big one is the biggest of the job-hunting sites here (rikunabi) is linked to yahoo. You login with your Yahoo Japan ID.

Then there's TV guides, news, shopping, weather etc. Through yahoo sports you can get live updated coverage of sporting events. Great for things where you don't want to sit watching it but do want to track the score :).

To be honest I'm surprised yahoo isn't more popular in the west. For most of what people want to do on the web you don't really need search and having a central hub to deal with it all actually makes a lot of sense.

Re:um...grats?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm mystified by the "cheap hydro power from the Niagara River" part.

I believe that part had far more to do with their decision. Everything after that is just an extra description saying where it's from.

As for your claim of them "stealing" the power from other people:

The first phase will receive 10 megawatts of hydro-electric power from the New York Power Authority, which will also provision 15 megwawatts for the second phase of construction.

At the end of 2006, the New York Power Authority completed an upgrade to the Niagara power project [nypa.gov]. The station can now produce 2,400 megawatts. This study [nypa.gov] [pdf] puts the peak load at a little under 2.2 megawatts.

As you can see, there is plenty of power