General Questions
Why not recycle older equipment?
24 August,2020
There are multiple reasons, the first being sustainability. As we visited remote locations in Africa, many of them were very difficult to get to. Some, we needed to travel via helicopter because there were no roads. Others we needed to go in off-road type trucks. We heard over and over again that one of the primary objectives was to minimize maintenance and maximize lifetime.
Second, most equipment made years ago consumed many times the power that the new equipment does.
Third, most older computers generate considerable heat. Having many of them in the same room could require air conditioning or at least a sealed environment (good windows, etc.) since those computers have intake fans. These fans pull dust into the computers, which greatly reduces their lifetime.
Older equipment is much heavier that newer versions. In many of the locations we visited, delivery of equipment would be either by off-road truck or helicopter, neither of which can carry very heavy loads.
Second, most equipment made years ago consumed many times the power that the new equipment does.
Third, most older computers generate considerable heat. Having many of them in the same room could require air conditioning or at least a sealed environment (good windows, etc.) since those computers have intake fans. These fans pull dust into the computers, which greatly reduces their lifetime.
Older equipment is much heavier that newer versions. In many of the locations we visited, delivery of equipment would be either by off-road truck or helicopter, neither of which can carry very heavy loads.
Why use a cloud for storage? Why the Oracle Cloud?
24 August,2020
A typical alternative to implementing software like this is to have a server installed locally and run the software from there, so students (in the case of education) can access it via a LAN (Local Area Network). This has been done with many of the implementations we've seen implemented in Africa and has the following challenges:
- Servers require significant power and generate significant amounts of heat. Together, these require either locally available electricity or a large solar microgrid, a sealed environment and most likely will require air-conditioning. If the environment is not clean and cool, the fans in the servers will pull dust into the computer which will greatly reduce the lifespan of the machine.
- In many locations, we have seen servers wired to user computers through a local switch. The problem we've seen with this is that it requires significantly more local expertise and maintenance in contrast with using all wireless components. In these African remote locations, wireless interference is not typically a problem as it is in more technically developed areas.