Archive for August, 2007

http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/supportsite.wss/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-59842&brandind=5000020

V1.26 - BKE126A - Aug 16, 2007

Feature: Support PXEROM.BIN (option rom image) greater than 64K

Added the size of PXEROM.BIN can be up to 128K.
Feature: Yellow text on menu

Added it on CPU menu.
Problem Fixed: Power Exec.

Fixed the minor problem on ACPI table.
Fixed boot from USB flash disk

Upgrading your system firmware remains an important aspect of server management, both in order to remain in line with vendor support standards and also to enhance functionality (in some cases), check this out and see if your LS20 blades need upgraded.

www.datacenters.com

London & Singapore, 28 August 2007 – The Green Data Centre Workshop, forming part of the forthcoming Internet Data Centres Asia summit taking place in Singapore 27-28 September 2007 (www.datacentres.com/idca) will focus on new technologies as well as the practical implement of Green in the data centre facility.

BroadGroup, who produced the recent report, The Evolution of Green Data Centres – A Practical Guide – and is the researcher and producer of the summit, has announced that the workshop will address how green and sustainable should data centres become. A briefing will be provided by Peter Samain, Director of Mission Critical Facilities at global consultancy ARUP. Mr Samain will review the drivers and global trends in green, and the impact of current and upcoming legislation worldwide. He will also deliver a review of Green Technologies including heat pumps, solar DHWS, PV, wind turbines, CHP, CCHP, biofuels, and fuel cell solutions, what they are, and their benefits and downsides.

Eugene Zaid, Data Centre Strategy Manager, Westpac Banking Corporation, Australia will provide the second part of the workshop which will offer a practical guide to adopting Green Practices and Technologies in the data centre.

Greening is among the most critical factors impacting the current growth of data centres in tandem with Power and Cooling and presenting significant challenges as user transaction demand is accelerating and MNCs continue to move into Asia. Data centres in the region will begin to encounter the impact of greening particularly as CSR requirements by multinational firms are included in outsourcing specifications.  In addition, global pressures to reduce carbon emissions, curtail energy requirements, introduce green technologies and comply with a raft of legislative and regulatory requirements, now demands new thinking about the future of data centre businesses.

IDCA will aim to answer many of these critical questions as well as deliver insight into business models, investment decisions, markets, pricing and cost trends, issues of security, gaming, content, evolving user requirements, as well as virtualisation, power and cooling.

“The summit is fundamentally different because it is a regional Asian event, and therefore provides both operators, enterprises, technology providers and regulators with a valuable opportunity to network, but also to gain insight into what is happening across the economies of the whole region, rather than just one country,” commented Philip Low, managing director at BroadGroup.

Sponsors of the summit include Tyco Electronics / AMP Netconnect, Active Power, Force 10 Networks, Panduit, Webvisions, CS Technologies, Chloride and EPI. The event is also endorsed by the Economic Development Board of Singapore.

Enquiries: enquiries@datacentres.com

This does sound very cool, and will be interesting to see what topics are discussed as well as to hear about the workshops which are set to cover quite a lot of topics in the green technologies area, which is set to be an area of growth in the future. It should be a great opportunity to meet people and see what people are talking about in the data center energy efficiency areas, is the DC the way forward? Should I be looking at water cooled data centers or moving on to renewable energy, do check it out, it’s set to be an interesting conference.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/08/28/226415/fujitsu-builds-44m-green-datacentre.htm

Fujitsu is the latest firm to build a green datacentre, spending £44m on its new London site.

Fujitsu said the 65,000-square-foot datacentre will have a low carbon footprint as a result of using new IT-cooling and processing technologies, saving enough electricity to power as many as 6,000 homes every year - equivalent to saving 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Very cool, this article is discussing Fujitsu’s move to build a ‘green data center’, I highlighted this at it illustrates (albeit) briefly how sometimes small changes coupled with good design can bring real financial benefits in containing your data center operating costs as well as helping with your corporate social responsibility aims.

http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2007-0829/index.jsp

On August 29, 2007, Sun hosted its first Emerging Markets Summit - a meeting among executives, experts and visionaries from some of the world’s most respected universities and technology companies, who held an open discussion on the issues and trends that are shaping the growth of network technology in - and its impact on - key emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India and China.

I was on the Sun site earlier today looking at their blades and comparing the X4600 and the HP DL585 for virtualization as one of my friends had mentioned that they were looking at them and I thought it was about time to see if the specs/offers had changed.

Anyway, check this out, they’re planning to host an event discussing the emerging markets, very exciting, it is these new markets which bring new opportunities for the vendors, for the user communities, and with different needs, different ways of doing thing, different customer operating requirements and issues which they want the technology to resolve, will need to log on and watch it.

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data%20centers.htm

Stand-by power of electrical equipment is the electricity consumed by end-use devices when they are switched off or not performing their main function. Stand-by power consumption is an increasing fraction of the European Union’s electricity use and the fast penetration of new and digital technology is likely to increase this share. It is estimated that stand-by power already accounts for about 10% of the electricity use in homes and offices of the EU Member States. Recently, the European Climate Change Programme indicated the urgent need to take actions to reduce stand-by losses (see press release).

Check this out, the European Unions’ discussions and reports on energy efficiency in the data center, it’s under development, but it’s really cool to see what the groups involved are talking about.