I don’t have a Second Life account. I’ve never been completely clear on the merits of the program, though I wouldn’t argue necessarily that they don’t exist. For me, it wasn’t so much a question of whether it was a good virtual world as it was a question of whether I needed to experience a virtual world at all. I don’t, I think. Not just now, anyway.
So when IBM announced earlier this year that it was launching a virtual green data center in Second Life, it made for an interesting story, but didn’t immediately strike me as something to check out. As I said, I don’t have a Second Life account.
And I’ll admit that, not having the perspective of a user, the concept of a data center in Second Life puzzles me somewhat – it’s sort of the opposite of a data center in the sense that it actually takes up space in one.
Of course, I understand the demonstration aspect of the thing. And the fact that it’s showing off the company’s green technologies is cool. I just wasn’t going to go visit it.
Fortunately, somebody else did.
On the Enterprise IT Planet blog, Pedro Hernandez, apparently more intrepid than I, ventured into Second Life, and posted a travelogue of his visit to IBM’s green data center, complete with screencaps.
Rather than repeat too much of the review, I’m just going to recommend that you go read it.
Some of the highlights of the tour: hot and cold air design demos, data center case studies, an actual server room (which I imagine would be particularly interesting to someone who hadn’t been in a server room), the NOC and a variety of multi-media presentations.
All told, it looks like a pretty interesting means of presenting these ideas, and I’m sure it would be even more exciting if I had a relationship with Second Life. If using the program to build demonstrations like this becomes more of a common project, I suppose I’ll have to acquaint myself with it.
Hey. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise either, but while doing a bit of poking around in Google for notes on IBM’s virtual data center, I came across a couple of YouTube clips.
This one even has a fairly informative “Project Big Green” voiceover:
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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