Rich Miller: Microsoft Data Center Battles Server Hugging
Posted: September 16, 2009Microsoft has provided a look inside a new data center facility in Redmond, Washington where it is consolidating servers for its research unit and labs. The company says the consolidation, which physically separates Microsoft engineers from the servers running their test code, enables an important shift to remote computing. After all, if Microsoft expects its customers to run their apps remotely in the cloud, shouldn’t its employees do the same?
Microsoft says remote server management requires an internal culture shift. The need to be near one’s servers – a tendency known as “server hugging” – is deeply rooted and can play a large role in a company’s decisions on outsourcing and data center site location.
