Microsoft knows that the future of computing is in the cloud server, and released a paper today that would address some negatives of the cloud computing revolution and turn them into positives. The paper starts out pointing out the similarities between today’s common furnace and water heater to a modern day data server. All three devices are large metal boxes that give off a lot of heat, and Microsoft argues that we can use that heat to warm up our buildings. By using energy that is already going to be used to heat a building, it would negate the power consumption of the data server.

We need to heat buildings in the winter, and we need cloud servers. Microsoft uses the example of an office building that could host its cloud servers in the basement. Having the dedicated data center so close to its users would increase performance, and reduce the building’s carbon footprint. Currently computer servers consume three percent of our nation’s energy, and heating houses consumes six percent.  If Microsoft can change those numbers around, and remove the energy used solely to power a “Data Furnace,” then the whole world would benefit.

You can read the rest of the article here.  What do you think of this?  All they really talk about are cloud server furnaces to heat buildingsand not about cloud server and how we are to cool them in the summer.  That would be a heating nightmare!