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Alphabet ( GOOGL ) has joined the Open Compute Project, or OCP, which Facebook ( FB ) formed in 2011 to save energy costs on computer servers that help power the Internet. Alphabet joins Apple ( AAPL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), Cisco ( CSCO ) and others in the project. The idea behind OCP is to share specifications for data servers, storage systems, networking gear and power supply units to lower costs and save on energy use. Facebook says that OCP has saved it more than $2 billion in data center expenses. Apple joined one year ago. Its membership in OCP was seen as a surprise, as Apple had strongly protected its proprietary hardware. But Apple’s huge success with consumer devices has resulted in the rapid expansion of data centers to support projects like Apple’s Siri and its iCloud operations. The addition of Alphabet is also a big step, as Google is known for developing its own proprietary technology for running networks and data centers. “We’re excited to announce that we’re joining the Open Computer Project to help drive standardization in IT infrastructure,” wrote John Zipfel, technical program manager at Google in a blog post Wednesday. He said that Google will design new data rack specifications that will allow it to fit OCP server racks into its data centers. “We believe this will help everyone adopt this next generation power architecture and realize the same power efficiency and cost benefits as Google,” he wrote, adding that today’s launch would be part of a larger effort that will include new disk drive technology for cloud computing. Microsoft joined OCP in January 2014. The OCP technology has been used to power its Windows Azure cloud computing platform, Office 365 and Bing. Cisco joined in October 2014. That also came as a surprise, as Cisco criticized OCP when it was first announced. Scalper1 News
Scalper1 News