Environment
Data centers the next big energy users
SAN RAMON, California, August 26 /PRNewswire/ –
- Data centers, projected to be one of the world’s biggest energy users, face rapidly rising costs and tough carbon regulations
TrendPoint Systems, a leader in data center energy management solutions, today announced a four-point plan aimed at dramatically reducing energy costs and carbon emissions at data centers. A recent study by McKinsey & Co. predicted that data centers will surpass the airline industry as the largest source of carbon dioxide emissions by 2020 and called for data centers to double their energy efficiency by 2012. TrendPoint projects that by implementing only a part of its plan — focused on managing cooling costs — data centers can reduce energy cooling costs by a third or more.
The four point plan from TrendPoint provides a comprehensive approach for actively monitoring and managing energy use in data centers in order to help companies tackle this urgent problem. The plan will enable companies to set and manage energy budgets at the user and departmental level, allowing them to comply with proposed regulations on energy emissions, such as those slated for enforcement in the Western United States and Canadian Provinces by 2012. This group has established the Western Climate Initiative to follow the lead of the U.K. and other European countries in establishing “cap and trade” regulations on energy use. Businesses that comply will be able to trade their energy savings on the open market in an “energy exchange.”
According to Bob Hunter, CEO of TrendPoint, it is critical that data centers get control of their energy use, especially as these new regulations loom that will require energy and carbon reductions. Reducing energy use will be especially difficult, given the rapid increases in server processing power, resulting in more power consumption, and a greater demand for cooling in data centers.
“Data centers will soon be hit with a ‘perfect storm’ in terms of coal and natural gas driven utility cost increases coupled with the new carbon caps. These sites already have energy densities that are ten times greater than that of commercial office buildings, and their energy use is doubling every four years. The combination of rising energy usage coupled with significant electricity price increases and carbon caps creates a very troubling picture for data centers. Companies need a complete solution to deal with this pending crisis and that is exactly what we provide. We’ve taken a comprehensive approach to the issue, giving data center owners and users the ability to set energy budgets and the tools to manage their energy efficiency over both the short and long term. That’s the only way to take control of this rapidly accelerating problem.”
An interesting read and it highlights the contribution data centers make to the carbon footprint of your business, our economy and our world. With this in mind, and the ongoing pressures in not just energy efficiency, but corporate social responsibility and the availability of power. How we provision, manage and account for our data centers financially and in terms of their carbon footprint, our corporate social responsibility becomes that bit more important. As a client it might not be the first thing that comes to mind, but as my costs start to include the possibility of a ‘carbon rating’, is your IT going to be as much a benefit as a hindrance to your business?
That one day soon, like the airlines, corporates could be issuing statements like “Profits are up, but we’ve had to pay more in carbon credit this year, so this has had an effect on costs. Capitalization is at…. and overall profits for the quarter are…”
Data center power debate continues
26th August 08 – With a large number of organisations making energy cuts a top priority for 2008/9 (1), many are not taking green issues seriously enough and are adopting a do-it-yourself approach argues data centre consolidation specialists, RichardsoNEyres.
This DIY approach has been revealed in research commissioned by RichardsoNEyres to highlight the main data centre challenges IT managers are currently facing. The research was conducted in association with industry analysts IDL and it has prompted RichardsoNEyres to announce a six-step action plan to help businesses achieve greener data centres.
Check out this interesting article which talks about the steps you can take in improving your data center from an energy standpoint. It’s always good to read about what people think about in this space, to see what others are doing, what might work for one end user community might not for another, the more we exchange ideas, the more we can find the right solution for me and my business.
The green data center is the way forward
Yes, but the shade of green will vary. While it’s clear that the next generation data center will be an energy efficient data center, incorporating other green data center features — from reduced water usage, to sustainable site planning, to sourcing IT gear manufactured in a more eco-responsible fashion — are not likely to happen at the same pace.
Why? Reduced energy consumption in the data center offers tangible and immediate environmental and economic savings, but also goes hand-in-hand with alleviating out of space and out of power concerns — challenges, that for now, trump purely green motivations.
Check out this great post about the green data center. I think by default data centers are going to have to become green (or more energy efficient) in order to contain operational costs, but also as a result of more focus on corporate social responsibility (the carbon footprint of your data center/your business) as well as the availability of power. I wonder if we wont find that the next generation data center utilizes smart technology and energy efficient processes to achieve the levels of service/functionality we need within the power and cooling constraints that we have.
Dell gets carbon neutral
ROUND ROCK, Texas — Dell’s three-tiered plan to neutralize its carbon footprint has reached its goal five months early and saved the company $3 million, Dell said Wednesday.
“It’s a piece of our overall strategy and one we’re pretty excited about,” Dane Parker, Dell’s director of environmental, health and safety, told GreenBiz.com.
The company announced last year its goal of becoming carbon neutral by late 2008. Since then, it focused on reducing energy consumption and buying renewable energy before offsetting the remaining emissions.
Overall, Dell lowered total energy demand by about 5 percent through efficiency projects such as lighting upgrades, HVAC retrofits, tweaking building temperature settings and shutting off computers not being used.
This is great news for Dell, and highlights what can be achieved through looking at the way you do business. Even the simple things, shutting down idle computers, looking at your supply chain or your facilities can not only allow your business to become more energy efficient, it can make the way you do business more efficient and effective.
That Dell have made efforts in their carbon footprint is great in the respect that not only does it show how an enterprise can achieve this, but what the benefits of doing so can be. It also highlights the green IT message financially and environmentally which has to be a good thing for the end user.
AT&T joins The Green Grid
AT&T Joins Green Grid to Promote Data Center Energy Efficiency
Company Also Assisting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Developing ENERGY STAR Rating for Data Centers DALLAS, July 30
DALLAS, July 30 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced its affiliate AT&T Services Inc. has joined The Green Grid, the global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. AT&T also announced it will supply data center performance information to assist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in developing a new ENERGY STAR rating for data center infrastructure.
Membership in The Green Grid and participation in the ENERGY STAR data center initiative underscore AT&T’s commitment to minimize the environmental impact of its operations and to work collaboratively with industry organizations and suppliers to identify optimal solutions and best practices.
The more organizations and groups we bring into The Green Grid, the more points of view we gain, the more we can develop an industry wide and component level best practices, innovations to hel the end user in providing the IT service they need within the business and operational power/cooling constraints. It will be interesting to see what developments are announced relating to this in the near future.
Talking about the carbon footprint
Research commissioned by Fujitsu Services indicates that 76% of IT managers believe they should still account for the carbon impact of the IT operations they have outsourced.
Research undertaken among 100 chief information officers of UK companies employing more than 1000 people reveals that an overwhelming majority believe that the carbon footprint of outsourced IT operations should still count towards the overall footprint of their organisation.* However, Fujitsu Services, a major provider of IT outsourcing to public and private sector organisations who commissioned the research, believes that this could lead to an over-statement of total carbon emissions.
Fujitsu believes that many senior decision makers responsible for IT are in the dark as to the extent and responsibility for carbon emissions from IT operations. Whilst approximately three quarters (76%) feel that the emissions from outsourced IT operations should still count as part of their carbon footprint, almost a quarter (24%), believe the opposite and expect the contracting company to become responsible. Current advice on how and what to include in carbon footprint calculations can be confusing and this research suggests that many are erring on the side of caution, preferring to double-count rather than risk understating environmental impact.
An interesting an article. These kind of issues are going to arise ever more as we start having to declare our organizations’ carbon footprint, the carbon footprint of the data center, the desktops, printers and IT for example. Do check it out.
If I consume a service from a business, do I not expect that business to account for its’ organizational carbon footprint, it’s environmental policies and corporate social responsibilities? At the same time, do I not want to know what the carbon cost is of the transaction? At the same time, am I prepared to pay the ‘true cost’ of my data center? Once all costs are transparent, what is the value of that service to me as a business?
Talking about carbon footprint and the data center
CLEAR LAKE, Iowa, July 14, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — TeamQuest Corporation, the global leader in IT Service Optimization software, explains how IT and business leaders can understand and implement green IT solutions for quick wins in the data center.
To help IT leaders be viewed as part of the solution, TeamQuest has published two white papers that show leaders how to use IT Service Optimization (ITSO) and TeamQuest software to reduce their organization’s energy footprint. The generated savings can be used to fund other “business-wide” initiatives such as supplementing the grid with wind power.
Check out this article which is talking about reducing the data center carbon footprint, it’s always interesting to see what people are talking about within this space.
Demand for pcs continues
Worldwide PC shipments grew 16% to 71.9 million units in this year’s second quarter, according to Gartner, or by 15% to 70.6 million units according to IDC.
Hewlett-Packard held on to the top spot, growing slightly faster than the market (17.1% versus 16.0%), according to Gartner. However, Dell closed the gap slightly with 21.9% growth as it moved into retailing notebook PCs. Garter says: “Preliminary results showed Dell achieve over 40% year-over-year growth in mobile shipments for two consecutive quarters.”
The demand for worldwide pc’s seems to be continuing, I wonder if this is in new markets? If it is also related to Vista having been being out for a while now and people seeking to upgrade? Those new games/applications coming online that are optimized for the new platforms?
How many of the old pcs will be recycled or re-used? We’ll have to see, do check it out, it’s an interesting read.
Government to power down computers overnight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7511056.stm
The government hopes to be the first in the world to make its computer system “carbon neutral”.
The Cabinet Office hopes measures like switching off computers at night and making sure servers do not stand idle will save 117,500 tonnes of carbon.
Computer systems generate up to 20% of all carbon produced by government.
The environmental audit committee has warned that the government is “lagging behind” its own emissions targets and IT systems are among factors to blame.
Looking at the way you are providing the IT service can aid in reducing your operational costs, simple things like switching off the computers overnight might not only reduce the energy used, reduce the carbon footprint of your desktop systems.
You don’t necessarily need a product to achieve this, Microsoft’s shut down tools shutdown /l might just as effectively work as a scheduled task, with a setting in the bios to power the pc back up at 6 or 7am.
Switching off the pc’s at night might also reduce your support costs; through reducing known desktop issues that get logged to the helpdesk, that my pc is rebooted every night should reduce the number of calls like “password expired”, “computer slow”, “memory error “etc. The typical first line issues that might be prevented through more regular rebooting of the infrastructure.
BLADE Network Technologies joins Climate Savers Computing Initiative
BLADE Network Technologies, Inc., the industry leader in network virtualization for servers and storage, announced that it has joined the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing computer power consumption by 50 percent by 2010.
As a pioneer of energy-efficient data center networking, BLADE is the only company in the networking industry recognized on AlwaysOn’s GoingGreen 100 list of the world’s foremost “green” companies. BLADE views organizations such as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative as key to the energy-efficient data center of the future.
“BLADE is committed to working with organizations such as the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, which is dedicated to improving the power efficiency and reducing the energy consumption of computers,” said Andre Luthard, Chief Green Officer, BLADE Network Technologies. “At a time when customers are seeking to embrace best practices for energy efficiency and economically sound environmental value in their data centers, Climate Savers Computing is helping to increase our industry’s eco-consciousness.”
Very cool, the more as an industry we talk about the issues and challenges, the more we can discuss and resolve them, to work together and illustrate what best practice steps, what technologies we can deploy to meet the business needs within the operational or environmental constraints.
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