Seeing Green by Paula Bernier

Views and Opinions on Green IT (Nov 8 2009) Carbon Footprint , Emissions

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   Hello. This is my first blog on this site, so I’d like to start with a quick introduction. As you can see, my name is Paula Bernier and I’m an 18-year reporting veteran of the communications space. 

   I’m exciting to have been invited to blog for Green Data Center News given all the interest and important developments related to improving energy efficiency and lessening environmental impacts at the data center as well as the broader pushes on these fronts across the network, the nation and many parts of the world. 

   The Environmental Protection Agency put a spotlight on data centers as energy hogs with its comments in 2007 that energy use at data centers doubled between 2000 and 2006 and are poised to double again by 2011. U.S. data centers, according to the EPA, consumed 1.5 percent of the nation’s electricity in 2006 and their appetite is only growing as more devices, applications, businesses and users come online.

   Meanwhile, Nokia Siemens Networks, reports that in mature markets up to 10 percent of a service provider’s network operations costs are for energy and in emerging markets it can be as high as 15 percent to 30 percent.

   Because data centers and networks in general have become a significant drain on the planet’s energy resources, regulators, business leaders, technologists and others have been discussing and working to make improvements on this front. There’s been focus on everything from how to lower data centers’ environmental impacts and improve their energy efficiency by carefully considering where data centers are located, what energy sources are used, how to architect the centers for the most efficient heating and cooling, and how to design and use the servers and other gear within data centers and other key network nodes.

   In addition to company-specific efforts, there are some broader initiatives on this front. For example, the EPA and an industry group called The Green Grid are working to define industry standards around optimizing energy efficiency at data centers. Here’s a link to a data center case study just released by the partners: http://thegreengrid.org/en/Global/Content/white-papers/Assessment-of-EPA-Mid-Tier-Data-Center-At-Potomac-Yard

   At the same time, of course, the Obama administration has been pushing for improvements in energy efficiency through its smart grid initiatives. That saw the federal government last month announce $3.4 billion in stimulus funds for smart grid efforts.

    To date, much of the attention around the federal government’s smart grid effort has been on install smart meters at customer locations so customers and energy companies have a better idea of individual consumption and can take steps to control and manage it better. But Mark Brownstein, an energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, reportedly said these efforts are just the first steps toward transforming the country’s entire energy system.

   Still, for all the lip service and forward movement we’ve seen to do on energy efficiency and eco-friendliness relative to communications and the electrical grid, we’ve still a ways to go. I saw that a study from Emerson Network Power indicates nearly three-fourths of companies lack a strategy for reducing data center energy consumption, although most understand it is a major concern. 

   I hope in this blog space to provide you with data, news, analysis and anecdotes that help inform your decisions around data centers and networking so your company can cut costs, drive revenue and help the environment, so we can all realize the payback.

   
   

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