✅ Final Thoughts Friday for 2024-09-20
Wrapping up AI Field Day 5 notes while exploring energy solutions for data centers.
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As of this update, AI Field Day 5 for Tech Field Day videos are posted and I am wrapping up publishing my delegate notes on Keysight, Integrail, Cisco, VMware, Elastic, Arista, and Enfabrica as well as a Delegate Ignite Talk series and Delegate Roundtable.
I would like to give a HUGE shout out to the team that makes Tech Field Day possible and to Futurum Group as well the sponsoring companies for making the event possible. 🙏 🙏 🙏
Once again, I am thankful for new and ongoing client work and catching up with past co-workers. Catching up on sleep from the travel means it is back to the gym and hiking in sensible shoes then digging into my non-technology projects.
The biggest stories this week were a mixed for me. On the one hand, I get that tech journalism has to earn their impressions and drive clicks. On the other hand, clicks from spicy headlines sometimes turn into reading just a few hundred words that do not support the headline. 🤷♂️
Techmeme: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy tells staff to return to the office five days per week from January 2, 2025, citing the importance of the policy to the company's culture (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
By Annie Palmer / CNBC. View the full context on Techmeme.
For context, I personally and professionally know 100s of people at AWS all over the planet. I was also on the AWS Partner Advisory Board during my time at IBM.
While I have no inside information, I can say that Return To Office (RTO) is a polarizing topic. However, I can also say that one of the Amazon leadership principles is…
Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Source: Leadership Principles
Techmeme: LinkedIn confirms it's training its AI models on user data by default, and says it is “making sure that those who have specific privacy preferences” can opt out (Joseph Cox/404 Media)
By Joseph Cox / 404 Media. View the full context on Techmeme.
I shared an update about this LinkedIn “setting” and a parting thought on the topic itself.
If you reading this in the United States — you can check your LinkedIn “setting” at this link:
https://www.linkedin.com/mypreferences/d/settings/data-for-ai-improvement
Techmeme: A US FTC report on the data practices of Meta, YouTube, TikTok, and six other companies finds “vast surveillance” of consumers to monetize their information (Cecilia Kang/New York Times)
By Cecilia Kang / New York Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
A report on a report lands as somewhat limited coverage…
So, now do one on credit cards too! 🤔
Techmeme: Constellation Energy plans to invest $1.6B to revive the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and sell all the output to Microsoft for data centers (Bloomberg)
From Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
Physical Power Purchasing Agreements (PPA) and financial virtual PPAs (vPPAs) are entering the wider lexicon. That’s a good thing.
When I think about data centers (which is a lot), it reminds me that builders and operators of data centers work with regional power providers to secure vPPAs or PPAs as well as ensure all uses of public lands for any new transmission lines, substations, and related infrastructure builds are reviewed with the relevant utilities commission to be consistent with regulatory requirements, attestation of environmental impact including WUE/PEU as well as noise abatement commitments, zoning laws, third-party supplier agreements, and any public-private partnerships that involve permitting, construction, and neighboring community outreach/communications/etc.
That’s a lot. As it should be too! Data centers operate on the scale of a small city using the power of hundreds of thousands of homes.
Once you read more deeply into the topics, there is a case to be made that releasing more carbon into the atmosphere or pushing the heat into the atmosphere is probably a “bad idea” ™️ in the range of bad to worse ideas. But, okay, let’s go with “nuclear bad” and make a zinger headline that conjures fears of people old enough to remember the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 2010s.
I think this is Microsoft demonstrating leadership in sourcing energy with the technology that does not fall into a worse idea category. I also think more leadership like this example from Microsoft is needed.
I believe that small modular reactors (SMRs) will become more common. I also believe that the projects of power requirements based on trend lines for current technologies need future answers to arrive faster… but the market is moving right now.
Meanwhile AWS is reportedly going to go live with a 30 year (v)PPA… gee… I wonder what will fulfill that 30 year PPA? ☢️
Apple claims 32% of their (v)PPA supplied by… gee… I wonder what that might be? ☢️
Meta / Facebook may just end up BUILDING or BUYING their way into more power… gee… I wonder what source? ☢️
Note: Some images via Unsplash
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Cuthrell Consulting LLCAttn: Jay Cuthrell1903 Live Oak St #92Beaufort, NC 28516-0092
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