Posted on 07/06/2009 4:36:22 PM PDT by FromLori
The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) is planning on spending around $1.8 billion to build itself a new, million square foot data center in Fort Williams, Utah, according to a document on military construction for 2009. This branching out is largely due to the fact that the NSA’s power bill is too much, so the move is in hopes of doing the same work in a place where electricity is cheaper. The initial infrastructure is for 65MW of power distribution, but it seems that the ultimate plan is to build a 5.8 million square foot “campus” at its current data center in Fort Meade.
This is some terrible news for private companies that want to build data centers as the proper territory is hard to come by. When Google wants to put up a new server building, they can’t just do it anywhere. Bad climates are prohibitive; if it’s too hot, your machines need more cooling, which leads to more of a power draw, and if there are a lot of natural disasters in the area, your whole operation could be wrecked in a single earthquake. The other factor in what makes good data center land is how cheap electricity can be bought for in a given region. Given the enormous amount of energy it takes to keep a building full of servers running, any lowering of the power bill is going to add up to a lot by way of savings.
The worst part of all this is that there’s no guarantee that building more NSA data centers will actually do anything useful. Apparently no one has ever run a cost-benefit analysis of NSA spending versus actually keeping people safe. And that’s really a shame, because the American tax payer is set to drop the $1.8 billion this scheme is going to cost, even if it does not lead to any real benefits. Hopefully Congress will step in before this plans are set into motion and require some report on whether or not this new data center will serve any beneficial purpose. Then again, the NSA could just take the money and run under pretexts of patriotism; it wouldn’t be the first time patriotism has been used to justify improper government action.
We’re worried about $1.8 billion for the NSA but not worried about trillions in welfare, government healthcare, bailouts, kick backs and waste?
Sorry, this article = fail, and only because truth would get me banned.
I want a job there...
Hopefully Congress will step in before this plans are set into motion and require some report on whether or not this new data center will serve any beneficial purpose.Ha, ha, ha, they're joking right? Or perhaps they're just idiots.
Then again, the NSA could just take the money and run under pretexts of patriotism; it wouldn’t be the first time patriotism has been used to justify improper government action.
Oh, well that answers that.
hyperion power generation - 70MW for 7-10 years .. $25m each
that would leave what... $1.75 billion for additional building? how big is the city they want to build??
Ha.
“Interesting article.”
And stupid.
“>> if << the move is truly about cheaper power... then the NSA should spend spend about $50m and get two hyperion modules for themselves”
That is one mighty big if right there.....
you don’t really think the NSA will come out and tell us what they really spend money on, do you?
“>> if << the move is truly about cheaper power... then the NSA should spend spend about $50m and get two hyperion modules for themselves”
That is one mighty big if right there.....
you don’t really think the NSA will come out and tell us what they really spend money on, do you?
You left out money for clunkers - we need lots and lots of money to buy back clunkers so people can drive new cars to stop global warming - that isn't happening (but what the hay - hey - hidy...)
This sounds familar ping.
Why don’t they just build windmills? The wind is clean and free, right???
Way to go, BGE (Baltimore Gas and Electric)! Drive out the largest employer in the state! Ya'll don't need those high paid government civilians and contractors anyway.
65M Watts isn't going to power much these days. Projections for an exascale system run between 250MW and 2.5GW and that is only a football field sized system. The data center size projected by this article would require quite a bit of power.
Don't know much about this location in Utah - with out regard to the cost of the power - are there local power sources that are capable of supplying hundreds and hundreds of megawatts of power?
just google the name.... not much comes up
where the heck is fort williams, utah?
This isn't the whole story, of course. When you get down to it, the NSA all at one location is putting a lot of eggs in one "vulnerable, right next to a freeway and between tow major cities" basket.
The cost of doing business, or just doing anything, in Maryland, is ridiculous, and more power for more people is just one of many problems.
This (pardon my technical jargon) dumbass author might not understand what the NSA does or why, but questioning it as if it's, say, a loony cap-and-trade bill, is a bit embarrassing for him.
It doesn't come up because it's name is actually "Camp Williams." Google that instead. It's an ANG base south of Salt Lake City.
People safe? The NSA's job is primarily keeping the NSA safe, then the government in general. The public is a distant third.
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