Today in Tech: Cloud and energy consumption; Vinod Khosla; Microsoft upgrades Hotmail

Power outage, the cloud and the big solution Over 600 million people were affected because of power outages in North India, raising serious questions about India’s infrastructure, and whether it can keep up even with the current economic growth. (Economic Times headline reads: Superpower India, RIP.)

Hopefully, this forces the government to step up its act on energy, which, as many have pointed out, would mean building more power plants and strengthening the distribution network etc. But, it’s also the time to think beyond more-of-the-same solutions. Technology Review points out that micro grids might be one way to go forward. Som Mittal, Nasscom president, suggested using predictive technologies to prevent such problems in the future, in a story on how IT/BPO companies fared in NCR. (They survived using gensets.)

In any case, this is a good time to think about power consumption in computing and IT. Business Line reports  that IT data centres and servers consume 14,000 MW of power every year globally. The number was quoted by V. Srinivasa Rao, a senior vice-president at Mahindra Satyam in a conference on cloud computing. He suggests moving to cloud as a way to cut power costs.

But, does cloud computing mean less power consumption? The answer is ‘It depends’. A paper by Jayant Baliga argued that cloud computing can save energy costs especially in cases of low intensity or infrequent computing. In some cases, it could be more energy efficient. It’s not always the greenest computing technology, they said.

Cloud or no cloud, IT Services companies have been talking a lot about going green for sometime now. Most initiatives they talk about are small steps. Perhaps, they help. But, Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, a respected venture capitalist, and one of the most influential voices in clean tech, has often argued the solution to energy and environmental problems is likely to be one big break through.

Here’s a speech he gave in TieCon 2011 that’s worth listening to, if you haven’t already.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P8fn5fhrhA[/youtube]

Microsoft upgrades Hotmail, and it’s cool
The much discussed essay on the lost decade of Microsoft pins down the problem to having sales people running a company, as against product engineers and designers. Microsoft’s upgraded email service - Outlook.com - seems to shout, ‘No, that’s not true of Microsoft’.

I don’t know if I will make Outlook my primary id, but I must say I loved what I saw. The design is minimalist, uncluttered and intuitive. You see only what you want. Other features are just a click away. Clicking on top left reveals metro style boxes that take you to contacts, calendar and skydrive. A pane opens up in the left, if you want to chat. I couldn’t spot any ads, even though I guess there will be some.

It’s also very functional. The automatic filters seem to be doing a good job of grouping / sorting mails with photos and documents for easy access. And, it integrates well with Microsoft’s other services. When you attach, say, a photograph, it offers to store them in skydrive, and send only a link to the receiver, making, i assume, the attachment size irrelevant. Skype is not yet there - and that would probably make it better.Its integration with social media is quick and easy. I could add my facebook and linkedin contact list, and link duplicates, without an effort. Equally easy was creating aliases (alternate email ids) in case you want to use different ids for different purposes.

This promotional video makes it clear what Microsoft is aiming at. It's Gmail.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDI6Itn7soQ[/youtube]

It might come as a suprise to many readers, but Microsoft is the market leader in webmail. Hotmail has 36% market share globally, followed by Yahoo (32%), and Gmail (31%), according to Comcast. But, Gmail is growing pretty fast. Microsoft is betting on Outlook.com to protect and increase its share. There’s no doubt that Outlook is far better than Hotmail, and in some respects even better than Gmail. But, the key factor, I feel, is how well Windows 8 and Surface tablet do in the market when they are launched. They can pull it down, or raise it to the next level.

Also of interest

• Hexaware Q2 net profit up 48% YoY at Rs 89 cr: Money control
• Firstsource Solutions Q1 net up 26% to Rs 29 cr: Money control
• Olympic Track and Field Doesn't Use Starting Pistols Because the Speed of Sound Is Too Slow: Gizmodo
• Google and Facebook's new tactic in the tech wars: Fortune
• Google Acquires Social-Media Ad Firm Wildfire Interactive: WSJ

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.