

Sears is Turning Shuttered Stores into Data Centers - 1SockChuck
http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2013/05/23/ubiquity/

======
brudgers
This makes sense. Most of the spaces Sears is closing are obsolescent for
retail uses for several reasons. There is a vast over-supply of retail space
in general, partially because the boom generated construction for the sake of
construction, partially because the bust reduced consumer spending and
partially because of the internet.

Retail shopping has also changed. Malls are being replaced by power centers
and urban core retail is being revitalized. And there's Walmart for household
items and Home Depot for white goods and Dicks for athletic equimpment etc.

One of the biggest changes is the way in which stores are placed relative to
catchment. Driving patterns have changed and interstate access is more
important than a high traffic corner for big box retail. Sears locations were
based on the old model.

That said, their locations on older arterials tends to correlate with high
levels of utility infrastructure. A collapsing retail micro-environment may
mean surplus utility capacity. Which reminds me that another trend making
Sears commercial buildings obsolescent is the radically improved energy
efficiency of modern retail design - big boxes have skylights, etc.

[edit] A bit more about power supply. Local power companies sell power. That's
how they make money. Like the Sears stores are surplus retail space, they
often have capacity in the wrong places. They will cut deals in exchange for a
long term return - it's why they run lines to a site in the first place.

~~~
Pxtl
Still, it's ridiculous that Sears fumbled so thoroughly information age. Their
background as a catalogue store should've positioned them perfectly for online
shopping - effectively just an expansion of the catalogue concept. Having a
physical storefront in tandem with a catalogue is fantastic for returns and
other problems, and their full appliance service model is also still an
impressive product even today.

Sears was positioned to do far better than it did, even with its anachronistic
department stores. The leadership just completely fumbled the information age.

~~~
samatman
They had a head start, too:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(online_service)>

------
alberth
Rackspace's corp HQ is a converted old mall (the entire mall) in San Antonio
[1].

[1]
[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/realestate/commercial/rack...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/31/realestate/commercial/rackspace-
revitalizes-a-defunct-mall-into-an-unorthodox-tech-
campus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0)

~~~
noonespecial
Wild. I used to hang out at Windsor Park in the 80s. I still have a Rubiks
Cube I bought there.

~~~
powermeat
Katrina refugees put the last nail in the coffin at Windsor Park

------
patrickk
_“Sears and Kmart never deployed wireless on the rooftops, so there’s no
rooftop usage at present,” he added. “There’s tons of interest. I will put as
many of the rooftops in play as I can.”_

I wonder if they will consider covering excess space with solar PV panels?
They could become a massive distributed power source, which would contribute
somewhat towards the power requirements of the data centre below.

It's amazing to think of how the internet is changing cities and buildings.
Reminds me of phone boxes that are being converted into other uses (such as
electric vehicle recharging stations, mini-libraries and Wi-Fi hotspots) since
they've been made obsolete by mobile phones.

[http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/10/spectrum-interactive-
wifi...](http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/10/spectrum-interactive-wifi-
hotspots-london-phone-boxe/)

<http://phys.org/news192197933.html>

[http://www.gadling.com/2012/08/19/british-phoneboxes-
convert...](http://www.gadling.com/2012/08/19/british-phoneboxes-converted-
into-libraries-art-spaces/)

~~~
josh2600
Somewhat tangential, but still part of the core argument:

Most of the issue with power is moving it. Generating power is not trivial,
but it's easier than moving power, which is still very inefficient.
Distributed solar panels on the roofs of Sears facilities might offset their
own carbon footprint, but it's unlikely that the power they generate would
have a significant impact on the surrounding area.

This is the reason we don't have giant floating solar panels in the ocean, for
example.

~~~
dredmorbius
The bigger issue for renewables than transmission (we already transmit hydro
and some nuclear power long distances) is storage and damand-matching.
Conventional and nuclear plants (as well as hydro and geothermal) are
_dispatchable_ power. The output can be dialed up or down to meet demand
(faster for some means than others, hydro can spin on a dime, nukes and coal
plants not so much).

For solar, wind, and tidal power, you get what you're given, and deal with
additional demand by building overcapacity, through dispatchable power
(conventional plants or biofuels in addition to hydro and geo), or by
_building storage._

Building a nation-sized battery is a pretty heady task. There simply aren't
sufficient mineral resources for many electrolytes (including lead) to build
sufficient capacity, though some abundant salts and metals may be suitable.
Efficiency matters far less than scale and cost.

Floating solar hasn't been built because solar panels have until recently been
more expensive than conventional sources, and more significantly, because
marine environments are _unbelievably_ harsh and electrical equipment will
degrade quickly. It's far more cost-effective to simply build them on land.
There's plenty of rooftops and unused acreage.

~~~
NickNameNick
On the contrary, coal and nuclear thermal power plants take a long time to
throttle up and down.

To increase the output of a thermal plant you need to increase the heat
production, wait for the steam pressure to increase, then open the steam tap
to increase the turbine power.

With the exception of New Zealand, which is ~80% hydro, most countries use
coal for base-load, and hydro for peak generation.

Other peaking options are natural gas turbines and diesel generators, both of
which are quick to start, and quick to throttle.

Additionally, Hydro power is easy to store - just leave the water behind the
dam. Hydro will probably provide the national grid sized battery we will need
to balance out transient generation like solar and wind.

~~~
dredmorbius
_On the contrary, coal and nuclear thermal power plants take a long time to
throttle up and down._

It's the fact that they can be throttled. _You cannot control the throttle on
wind and solar._ You _can_ control the brake (how much of the generated
electricity is released onto the grid). But if the motor ain't running you
can't make it go. And if much of your power is dynamic and non-dispatchable,
you've now got variance on _both_ the demand _and_ supply sides of your grid.

Hence: the need for storage. _If_ you can take the surplus available at times
when you don't need it and store it somehow, _then_ you can match grid demand.

The problem with hydro is that there's simply not enough capacity. A small
number of nations (New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Brazil) have large hydro
capacities (and relatively small populations for the most part). For the US,
and much of the rest of the world, most available hydro sites have been built
out.

Other options include geothermal. There's a vast potential under Yellowstone
National Park, though it's politically untenable to even contemplate tapping
it (a USGS survey of US geothermal resources didn't even mention it):
<http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3082/>

Iceland, Hawaii, Japan, and Kenya also have very significant geothermal
potential.

------
jmharvey
I'm a little surprised by this. The article implies that shuttered Sears
stores already have the power and data capacity to function as a data center,
but I can't imagine why. Compared to similar sized buildings (office buildings
or factories, mostly), Sears retail locations don't seem to have a lot of
power- or data-intensive needs.

Sears does have some amazing infrastructure (lots of square footage, locations
at key transportation points in densely populated areas throughout the
country, huge parking lots) but those aren't really the kind of features that
data centers are usually optimizing for. I'm sure they're finding creative
uses for this infrastructure, but I doubt it's anything like a data center as
we think of one.

~~~
wikwocket
The article mentions that the target locations are standalone buildings with
good fiber and power already connected. They mention 5 megawatts for one
location.

I don't know why a Sears location would need lots of power (beyond tons of
lights and powerful HVAC units), but I can see the need for quality and low-
latency data: retail POS generates a large amount of transactional data, and
you need low latency for database syncing and credit card/loyalty card
transactions.

~~~
protospork
> retail POS generates a large amount of transactional data, and you need low
> latency for database syncing and credit card/loyalty card transactions.

I've always been curious about what sort of infrastructure the average big-box
retail store actually needs. My local Walmart can't have anything but a
wireless uplink, unless they actually installed 5+ miles of fiber or something
when they built the store.

~~~
barake
This Quora answer gives a little insight in to the needs of a modern store:
[http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-new-instantaneous-
payment-s...](http://www.quora.com/What-is-the-new-instantaneous-payment-
system-being-used-at-Target)

Also these stores basically couldn't exist without robust inventory management
systems. There is probably more technology in the average big box than we
realize.

~~~
kyllo
I was told that every time an item is scanned at the register at any Walmart
store, it updates an inventory database in near real-time (I assume there is
some sort of message queue with that kind of volume and distribution). Then
their system automatically places replenishment orders with their vendors when
the inventory of that item goes below a certain level. They are a well-oiled
machine, focused on making sure that they almost never lose any sales due to
being out-of-stock, nor waste money on carrying excess inventory in their
warehouses. Mismatching inventory to sales will drive a retailer out of
business very quickly.

This is also part of the reason why they are able to push "everyday low
prices" instead of discounts. Discounting is what you do with the excess
inventory when you messed up and ordered too much of something.

~~~
marklabedz
The system is Retail Link and there's quite an ecosystem around it.

------
bluedino
Don't forget Rackspace turned an abandoned mall into their HQ

[http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2013/03/21/stormi...](http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/news/2013/03/21/storming-
the-castle-inside-rackspace.html?page=all)

~~~
function_seven
And if anybody is looking for more photos, [http://www.rackspace.com/blog/get-
an-inside-look-at-the-rack...](http://www.rackspace.com/blog/get-an-inside-
look-at-the-rackspace-castle-via-google-street-view/)

------
nlh
Interesting move -- feels like this is a natural response to the not-so-sudden
realization by "normal" folks that you can get a BIG multiple on $/sqft as a
data center over a more traditional tenant.

A parking lot is better than an empty lot. A warehouse is better than a
parking lot. And a data center is better than a warehouse :)

The good news for us consumers is that as the supply steadily ticks up,
pricing will come down (at least for space - who's to say where bandwidth
costs go).

~~~
fudged71
>A parking lot is better than an empty lot.

Paving paradise, &c ;)

------
jgeorge
It bothers me that the biggest issue I have with this article is that "blue
light specials" were K-Mart, not Sears.

~~~
symfoniq
I guess the author thought he could get away with it since Sears and K-Mart
are the same company now.

------
ManAboutCouch
Not quite retail, but Amazon's main Data Centre in Dublin is the former main
warehouse used by one of Ireland's largest retailers. It's gone from being
full of beans and nappies to servers full of kitten gifs.

[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/02/09/amazo...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2011/02/09/amazon-
buys-dublin-site-for-data-center/)

------
liotier
Cooling costs ! Buildings whose whole structure doesn't take data center
cooling requirements into account are at a significant cost disadvantage over
modern ones built specifically with cooling optimization in mind.

~~~
brudgers
The buildings do not have to be full to bring in more revenue than when
sitting empty. Once they pay for operating expenses, everything else is
profit. In many cases, I suspect the buildings are paid for, so the value of
the real-estate is a sunk cost.

These aren't going to be on Google's scale. This is Ace Hardware not Home
Depot. Optimization scales accordingly.

------
makerops
Now, all they need to do is to turn all the ghostmalls into hackerspaces and
we are on to something.

~~~
dredmorbius
I think that's Makers: <http://craphound.com/makers/>

One of the few fiction books I've read in recent years that's bent my mind.

~~~
makerops
Where do you think I stole the idea from? Great book.

~~~
dredmorbius
It's a good enough book to make the association concrete.

Agreed.

------
mbesto
I'm not sure I understand this. Retail real estate is all about increasing
footfall, not just the size of it. Hence why you see the airport bombarded
with shopping nowadays. Unless there are particular Sears locations that don't
see benefit from adjacent footfalling (just made that word up) retail outlets,
then it makes sense. But then it wouldn't make sense for Sears to be there in
the first place if the footfall opportunity wasn't there or couldn't be
created there.

~~~
xhrpost
Times change, I've seen this locally. In the US Midwest, various metro areas
have lost population over the last couple decades. As a result, they don't
need as much retail space to support the current population. Something has to
give. The Sears closest to me is attached to a condemned mall. Sears stays
open because they own the building though. The reason they're there is because
originally, the mall was _the_ place to be for retail.

------
mbreese
I'm not surprised at all, given the Sears real estate portfolio. In
Indianapolis, a company converted an old mall into a data center, and it seems
to be working pretty well [1]. Retail buildings probably have a decent
connection to the power grid, so it would really make sense to make use of the
open spaces.

[1]
[http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/10/30/lifel...](http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2012/10/30/lifeline-
data-centers-announces-second-phase-at-former-shopping-mall/)

------
riggins
the erosion of shopping malls continues.

warrants noting that malls require anchor tenants to work. It's the
convenience of to being able to go to one location and get clothes, tools,
make-up, music, videos, books, etc, that makes malls work. I know people have
been predicting the demise of the shopping mall since their introduction but
this will be interesting to watch.

------
muzz
I realize they have a building with lots of empty square footage, but how do
they get enough power, bandwidth, cooling, etc?

Data centers built by Google, Facebook, etc. seem to all be built from the
ground up, and close to things like power plants.

~~~
josefresco
Also, wouldn't the premium of leasing or owning "retail" style property make
the cost of maintaining the building too costly? I don't think Sears needs a
datacenter on main street, or within a strip-mall.

After RTFA I pulled this:

"Farney acknowledges that many of Sears’ mall-based retail locations aren’t
viable for data center usage. “I don’t think the industry is yet ready for a
mall-based data center,” he said. “That may take some time. The stand-alone
location is optimal.”"

It seems they are considering it more for certain stand-alone locations.

~~~
brudgers
The real-estate deed for any mall location almost certainly precludes such
uses by covenant. If they didn't, Sears would never have bought the property
in the first place.

------
ChuckMcM
The challenge I see here is power provisioning. With the space that a Sears
store offers, you'd be hard pressed to put 10 to 50 MW of power into it. But
perhaps if you already have the land covered smaller things are more
desirable.

------
ceautery
But will they be using all those CompuServe disks they never sold as hipster
coasters? That's what I want to know.

------
sebastianavina
Tomorrow:

Google buys SEARS, register as a new G4 provider.

------
josephb
Good use of the sites.

------
maeon3
This is an opportunity where they could usher in a new glorious era of
personal cloud computing that solves the problem of the government basically
owning your hardware, software, and the usage of your software if the
government catches you (or the software) so much as jaywalk.

Instead of selling floor space, they could subdivide the space like the
"storage building" units. The customers could pay for a rack, and they would
need a key to access it. Legally the hardware, software and data would be
owned by the owner, and not the government. Anyone else would need a warrant
to come in and rape your data, software, and hardware just like if the server
was next to my bed.

Part of the reason why I have all my servers in places I own is because of
this problem. This is a brief opportunity to explore cloud computing and give
the communists and socialists who want everyone to share a common purse on the
computing front a black eye.

My pain point is "I want boat loads of CPU cycles and Internet connection
speeds, and I want physical legal ownership of the rack space, hardware,
software, AND data, and I don't want to have to buy a building that I have to
air condition, power, internet connect, secure, and pay taxes on.

~~~
nodata
_This is a brief opportunity to explore cloud computing and give the
communists and socialists who want everyone to share a common purse on the
computing front a black eye._

Wow, where did that come from?

Cloud computing is communist now? I could have sworn otherwise.

~~~
pessimizer
I'm pretty sure that it's more of a window into the poster's psyche rather
than an observation of fact (esp. based on the next post.) I guess right-wing
totalitarian dictatorships _don't_ want to read your mail?

~~~
cobrausn
Your comment is a bit of a window into yours - disparaging remarks made
against the left wing don't imply support of the right wing.

~~~
pilsetnieks
Read their second post - that person is either very, let's say, eccentric, or
under the influence of a psychedelic.

~~~
cobrausn
Yeah, I made that reply before I saw that second post. It doesn't really
change much though - something tells me he's not a supporter of totalitarian
right-wing rule either.

