Google, Amazon competition heats up

Google has introduced an early version of an Internet-based storage system acting as a direct competitor to a widely used Amazon.com service, states ZDNet.

Similar to Amazon's well-established Web Services offering called Simple Storage Service, Google Storage for Developers provides a mechanism to access data that Google houses.

Web sites and Web applications can access the data as needed, and Google charges through a utility-computing model, that means the more customers use, the more they pay.

In its first quarter, Dell posted a profit of $441 million, or 22 cents a share; this is a 52% rise from the same period last year, reports The New York Times.

Dell says the profit stems from rising interest in the sales of storage systems to corporate customers but adds that it needs the PC refresh cycle to begin in order for the hardware maker to post banner figures.

Dell's revenue increased 21%, to $14.87 billion from $12.34 billion.

Researchers at HP Labs have expressed interest in a research project that uses biogas generated from cow manure to power data centres, says Computerworld.

HP researchers claim 10 000 dairy cows could power a 1MW data centre with 1 000 servers and could reduce energy consumption in data centres.

The US Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are 125 operating digester projects at commercial livestock facilities in the US and in 2008 they produced, in total 290 million kWh.