AMD consolidating data centers with cloud, hardware upgrades

27.04.2012
Advanced Micro Devices is cutting costs and reducing the number of its data centers worldwide with the help of the cloud and hardware upgrades, an AMD executive said Thursday.

AMD will reduce the number of data centers it has to three by 2014, of which two will be in North America and one in Asia, said Farid Dana, director of IT services at AMD, in an interview. AMD currently has 12 data centers, down from 18 in mid-2009 when the consolidation effort began.

The company's goal is to cut costs by shifting more tasks to the cloud, and by opening data centers in locations that have lower power costs and lower taxes, Dana said. AMD is moving away from high-cost-per-watt places like Boston and California and establishing data centers in places like Suwanee, Georgia

"We've gained some tax efficiency from the location," Dana said. "One of the factors is also disaster recovery. That's why we have three data centers and not one, and we are geographically dispersed."

Dana has a list of 40 physical factors to take into account when deciding where to locate a data center, include proximity to transit, weather, water sources and available electricity. Choices have to be made carefully, and something as simple as a nearby rail line could cause vibrations that harm server operations, he said.

But in downsizing, Dana wants to ensure AMD's engineers have access to the resources needed to design chips. AMD is trying to consolidate servers and reduce expenses such as electric bills through higher utilization rates. The company is also reducing network latency so engineers get quicker access to servers.