GigaOm, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch have gotten together again to put on the Academy Awards of the tech industry - the Crunchies. Backblaze is honored to have been named a finalist in the category: Best Technology Achievement of 2009.

Not sure if you have heard of the other finalists…one is a little startup called Google and the other some company named Microsoft.

Voting for the Crunchies ends this Wednesday Jan 6, 2010 at midnight and we would love to have your vote. (It takes just a click to vote - no personal info or sign-ups.)

How did we get selected to be a finalist?
Nominations from you and selection by the Crunchies Committee.

What is the technology achievement?
A combination of the unlimited, unthrottled, backup-all-data online backup service itself and the uber-inexpensive cloud storage hardware design we gave away.

So, what now?
Vote for us! We promise to still be your friend after we’re famous.

What do Google providing search, Coca-Cola operating its systems to track inventory, and Backblaze backing up your data have in common? The computers that handle all of this live in data centers. And those data centers use power - lots of it.

In the U.S. alone there are over 20,000 data centers - each of which houses thousands or tens of thousands of servers. Combined, these data centers make up 3% of all U.S. energy consumption (not just electricity) - more than the entire domestic air fleet.

So when I went to an event on Wednesday called:
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE FUTURE OF THE DATA CENTER:
CLOUD, COLOCATION, & DATA CENTER REAL ESTATE
it should be no surprise that the focus was on power, power, power.

And lest you think this is people getting wrapped up in the green movement or just jumping on a marketing trend - let me dissuade you. Datacenters in the U.S. spend $23 billion a year on electricity according to KC Mares of MegaWatt Consulting. In fact, electricity can often cost over 50% of the purchase price of a server over it’s lifetime. Minor improvements can have massive implications not only on global warming but also company bottom lines.

KC provided a fascinating overview of innovations and experiments that operators of data centers and the companies building out large server deployments are pursuing. Some examples:

* VFDs - variable frequency drives to adjust the speed of blower fans that adjust to need rather than spinning at a constant rate.
* Natural cooling - using outside air and fans rather than air-conditioning to keep data centers cool; it turns out most servers are perfectly happy running at temperatures much higher than what data centers attempt to keep them at.
* Shorter cooling regions - having air flow almost directly around a server in the process of cooling it rather than through the entire building; shorter distances mean less air friction and less energy spent moving it around.
* Eliminating UPS systems - getting rid of the backup power systems and assuming servers will go down…and having backup servers or data centers instead.
* Using 480 volts - higher voltage means lower amperage and thus less heat loss and higher efficiency. More of today’s server systems are capable of handling this voltage.
* Higher efficiency power supplies - switching to 90% efficient power supplies on servers rather than using 70% or 80% ones; these are more expensive upfront but can still pay off fairly quickly.

A number of these items pay for themselves in a couple months and then generate savings ongoing from then on. KC has a variety of information on his site and blog.

Are you in San Francisco for Salesforce’s Dreamforce event?

3 days, 15,000 people, booming sounds booths, light shows, and lots of clouds - both the real and virtual type. Salesforce provides you plenty of guidance about what to do at Dreamforce.

But what should you do when you are outside of Dreamforce?

You could go to the standard nearby corporate locations: Chevy’s, the W Hotel bar, Thirsty Bear, or Starbucks. But…the Backblaze team lives here and we like a little variety. So, shhhh…we’ll share with you a few of our favorite spots that are walking distance from Dreamforce, but provide a little local color.

Samovar - Directly above Moscone center, in the upper terrace on Yerba Buena Gardens but ironically REALLY hard to find. Quite possibly the best tea in San Francisco. Their Chai is mindblowing.

Metreon Farmers Market - Yes, it is an indoor farmer’s market. Great spot for a quick eat during the busy conference. Our favorites include the gyros, indian wraps …and of course, red velvet mini cupcakes. Also, as an appetizer, definitely try some of the afghani bread; if you stand at their booth long enough, you might not need lunch. (Metreon building - entrance at the corner of Mission St and 4th St.)

Pazzia - Great local Italian place. Italian style pizzas served by Italians. Go ahead, practice your Italian on the waiters and waitresses… They love it! (337 3rd St between Folsom and Harrison)

Epicenter - Good coffee, good sandwiches, free wifi. A Backblaze favorite. (764 Harrison St between 3rd and 4th)

Blue Bottle Coffee - These guys are serious about a cup of coffee. Everything they do, from selecting the beans, to assembling the blends, to roasting is painstakingly detailed. Then, each cup is brewed at the time you order it, one at a time. Once you have Blue Bottle, you won’t want anything else. (66 Mint Street at Mission St.)

Butler & Chef - This lovely French bistro has the best croque monsieur and crepes in the city. Great spot for a breakfast meeting. (155A South Park St near 3rd St and Bryant St in South Park.)

farmerbrown’s little skillet - The closest you will get to southern cooking in San Francisco. Needless to say, whenever you are presented a menu with waffles and fried chicken, what could go wrong? (360 Ritch, between Brannan St and Townsend St.)

BrainWash - Get your laundry done while sipping a nice coffee. Or if you have brought enough clothes for the week, just enjoy the soothing sounds and smells of laundry machines and clean clothes. (A bit of a walk. 1122 Folsom between 7th St and 8th St.)

What about for a drink in the evening?

B Bar - The $1 oysters during happy hour are fantastic… and as long as the weather is sunny and warm, the outdoor patio rocks. (Directly above Moscone center, near Samovar, in the upper terrace on Yerba Buena Gardens but ironically REALLY hard to find.)

Mr. Smiths - A hipster bar in a dive bar area. Happy hour goes till 8pm. (34 7th St between Market St and Mission St.)

111 Minna - An art gallery with a drinking problem. (Surprisingly located at 111 Minna St, just off 2nd St between Mission St and Howard St.)

Chieftain - Relax with a Guinness at this Irish pub that’s just a block away from Dreamforce. (198 5th St at Howard St.)

Bourbon and Branch - San Francisco’s very own speakeasy. You don’t need a reservation at the library, but you might need the password. (Locals know it’s, “Books” … Ssshhh, don’t tell anyone.)

And just for fun, you can stop by Central Computer - the place we started out buying hard drives by the pallet to fill our Backblaze Storage Pods so we could help backup all those sales laptops (837 Howard Street between 4th St and 5th St.)

TechCrunch is holding its next roundtable on Feb 27th asking the question, Who’s Cloud Is It Anyway? Assembling 275 people together, TechCrunch intends to discuss whether clouds will be closed warring platforms or open, interconnected systems.

Other questions I believe should be discussed include:
* What is the appropriate level for a cloud to exist at? (providing raw computing power? API-level applications? complete services?)
* Build vs. Buy - when should organizations build their own clouds?
* Should consumers and businesses aim to consolidate into a single cloud or distribute their reliance among clouds?

I’m looking forward to a fascinating discussion. Sign up for the event, email me if you would like to meet there, and follow Backblaze on Twitter for event updates.

CloudCamp gathered a crowd of developers, entrepreneurs, business people, and investors last night to have an un-conference focused on honing the future of computing clouds. Despite spending less than a month on the event, Reuven Cohen and his team attracted several hundred people and 22 sponsors including Sun, Microsoft, Dell, Amazon and a number of smaller companies. This was a testament to the organizers, but also an indicator of the fervor surrounding cloud computing.

Run in the traditional “BarCamp” approach, following a brief introduction the audience was invited to offer discussion topics they would like to lead with a set of 30 session slots available. Many topics revolved around:

• Deploying, scaling, and automating cloud computing applications
• Best practices and common pitfalls in using cloud computing
• Vendor discussions around how to use their products with cloud computing

…but “What is Cloud Computing?” drew perhaps the largest attendance.

In this discussion, cloud computing was likened to electricity (”you should be able to plug in, use as much as you want, and have a standard interface to access it.”); people discussed whether cloud computing is a technology or a business model; some pondered whether the margins of cloud providers would eventually be driven to zero; and many struggled with what really is cloud computing and how is it different than hosting and shared servers.

Vendors like Amazon with its AWS and Nirvanix provide numerous benefits, especially for early stage companies:

• Pay-per-use computing and storage – limiting capital investments
• Ability to scale up quickly – good if you get a burst of usage
• Ability to scale down quickly – good if that burst goes away
• Allowing companies to focus on their core – which is often not infrastructure

Technology startups building social applications with viral hooks trying to fund advertising based business often use miniscule processing and storage relative to the business, marketing, and salary expenses. At least until they hit that viral hockey stick that requires scaling up at hyperspeed. If that magic happens, the question of “will we continue to see this and we should throw servers at this, or is this a flash of momentary virality and we’ll need to scale down on Wednesday” arises. Leveraging a cloud provider for these startups may be an excellent decision enabling them to scale up, scale down, and pay-per-use.

So did Backblaze use a cloud vendor to power our online backup service? No.

There is wisdom in clouds, but they aren’t for everyone. Stay tuned and I’ll explain our logic and approach in a post coming soon.