Articles from Heather Clancy

1. 14 Cloud Services Players Scrutinized For Green Credentials Explore zdnet.com (Sep 13 2011) Carbon Footprint , Emissions , Cloud Computing Only four companies, Akamai, Apple, eBay and Google, disclose global emissions information for the data centers driving their SaaS applications, cloud infrastructure and internet services. Akamai, Apple, eBay and Google stand alone among Internet services and social networking companies in their transparency about the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by their worldwide data centers, according to a new report published on the topic by independent market research firm Verdantix. The report, Carbon Strategy Benchmark: Internet Sector, scrutinizes 14 of the largest players in cloud services including three Chinese companies (Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent) plus Akamai, Amazon, Apple, eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Priceline, Salesforce and Yahoo! The Verdantix report is similar to one that it published earlier this year looking at the internal operational and environmental sustainability practices maintained by 14 top services firms that offer corporate sustainability and green IT services externally to other companies. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Apple   Amazon.com   Google

2. 3 PDUs that are smarter about power consumption Explore zdnet.com (Aug 22 2011) I’ve noticed a trend when it comes to next generation models of power distribution units (PDUs): more of them are focused on device-level power monitoring. That’s a great thing, if your IT organization is looking for ways to get more granular about the energy usage. So what’s out there? In the past couple of months, here are three of the products that have hit the market. I’m betting I’ll hear about more as soon as I publish this, but these are notable because of the companies behind them: two are major forces in power conditioning and distribution equipment (Eaton and APC by Schneider Electric), and one is an upstart that is completely focused on improving data center energy management (Racktivity). (Read Full Article)

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3. Verizon will be proving ground for energy efficiency, green power Explore zdnet.com (Aug 9 2011) Emissions , Servers Along with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the giant telco plans to publish a series of blueprints for energy efficiency across buildings, data centers and the smart grid. Telecommunications giant Verizon Communications has signed up with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to help build out a blueprint for green operations within the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. Although there really aren’t many details in this first-of-a-kind announcement, it will cover both energy-efficiency and the integration of green or renewable energy sources into ICT operations. The focus will specifically be on: Energy efficiency and energy management and Verizon buildings and facilities Data center energy efficiency and energy management Work to advance smart grid technologies in both residential and commercial settings Telecos are, after all, one of the most energy-intensive sectors in the world economy. The NREL suggests that the industry eats up 3 percent of the U.S ... (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   National Renewable Energy Laboratory   Nrel

4. CA: Green data center move saved $16M in energy, real estate Explore zdnet.com (May 5 2011) Monitoring , Carbon Footprint CA Technologies, is reporting an overall reduction of 30 percent in its corporate carbon footprint as part of its 2011 Sustainability Report, “What Moves Us.” CA, like many other leaders in the technology industry, has a vested interest in the green IT and corporate sustainability movements. Its CA ecoSoftware application is one of the many vying for a leadership position in the burgeoning areas of enterprise carbon and energy management software. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   CA

5. Gartner: 5 tips for cutting data center power consumption Explore zdnet.com (Nov 24 2010) Servers When market research and advisory firm Gartner decided to remove green data centers from its list of strategic imperatives for 2011, the decision was met with some gnashing of teeth. But, frankly, the decision didn’t really surprise me all that much because energy efficiency, space optimization, infrastructure consolidation, and proper disposal of outdated technologies have become mainstream — almost commonplace — for data center IT managers. In other words, energy efficiency is not a separate concern, it’s probably the primary concern after resiliency. The spirit of that decision makes itself felt in new Gartner commentary on data center design imperatives. According to Gartner, the trend toward higher density will be felt through 2012 — that’s density both in terms of the compute resources that are placed on the data center floor and the density of the power and cooling equipment supporting that equipment. The reason this is important is pretty ... (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Gartner

6. Share your best practice for green data centers Explore zdnet.com (Sep 9 2010) Cloud Computing Think you’ve got an especially good idea for how to design a truly green data center? The Green Data Center Alliance (GDCA) is encouraging you to share it. The alliance is seeking best practices as it develops a framework that provides specific guidelines and tips for power reduction. Derek Schwartz, executive director and founder of the vendor-neutral organization, says the intention isn’t to create a new measurement metric like the power usage effectiveness (PUE) specification, it is to help provide insight into specific steps that have worked in real world scenarios. “Our goal is to have field data that is validated,” Schwartz says. There are certainly many people who could contribute; formed in 2008, the GDCA has about 5,800 members. Best practices information will be published as the Data Center Energy Efficiency Framework (or DCEEF). (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   The New York Times

7. Stream's latest green data center: Deep in the heart of Texas Explore zdnet.com (Aug 10 2010) Cloud Computing OK, so I’m in San Antonio and the first set of notes that I grabbed this morning when trying to figure out what to write about were about this city, I guess that tells me something. In any event, you might not think of Texas as the most friendly place for a data center — it was 102 degrees Fahrenheit when I arrived here last night, which doesn’t seem all that great when it comes to keeping IT equipment cool. But according to Stream Data Centers, San Antonio in particular is making a bid to become known for this segment of the IT industry. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   The New York Times

8. HP ties data center power decisions to business value impact Explore ZDNet Technology News (Mar 24 2010) Here's something that I haven't thought about all the much, but is bound to become a more important consideration over time: If you want to outsource your data center to a third party to save some power, especially if that somebody is a services company that has both a product and services arm, be prepared to be told what equipment you can use. I started thinking about this during a recent chat with Ed Kettler, a Hewlett-Packard fellow and green IT strategist with HP Enterprise Services, about their ongoing data center power optimization work -- especially the recent work the company's team has done in Wynyard in the United Kingdom, and Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Here's my original post on that work,... (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Google   United Kingdom   Hewlett Packard

9. Take one step at a time when planning data center energy efficiency agenda Explore ZDNet Technology News (Feb 1 2010) Servers Riddle me this: What’s the easiest thing you can do to improve energy efficiency in your data center? Answer: Turn up the heat. That’s the opinion of John Bennett, worldwide lead for data center transformation solutions with IT giant Hewlett-Packard. That comes through actions such as rationalizing hot and cold aisle placement, optimizing airflow, investing in thermal zone mapping and simply letting the thermostat run a little higher. “Anyone walking into a data center should break a sweat, not have to wear a jacket,” Bennett says. (Read Full Article)

   Comment Mentions:   Hewlett Packard

10. DOE to IT industry: We'll help you get more energy-efficient, if it costs us Explore ZDNet Technology News (Jan 20 2010) Solar , Wind , Servers Together, enterprise computing giant Hewlett-Packard and power efficiency specialist Eaton have snagged a $7.4 million grant from the Department of Energy to help fund research focused on improving energy efficiency in IT products. The pair’s joint proposal actually received the third-largest grant out of the $47 million in total being focused on companies in the IT and communications sectors. The projects are focused on three areas: Equipment and Software - Changing core components of a data or telecommunications center in order to optimize energy use Power Supply Chain - Developing technologies to minimize energy waste as power moves from one system to another Cooling - More effective methods for reducing heat (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Hewlett Packard   Department of Energy   Hewlett-Packard Co.

11. Verne Global pledges greener cloud: No cost premium attached Explore ZDNet Technology News (Nov 16 2009) Power and Cooling , Cloud Computing Here’s a prediction for 2010: You’re going to hear more and more about how green your business can make its cloud computing infrastructure strategy by choosing one data center over another. Consider the example of Verne Global, which is building what it calls the first carbon-neutral data center campus, which is located on the former Naval Air Station Keflavik in Iceland. Verne Global CEO Jeff Monroe says advances made in virtualization, remote management and high-speed bandwidth around the global — all of which are critical for the adoption of cloud computing infrastructure — have made his company’s new Iceland facility possible. Cloud computing infrastructure in turn makes it possible for businesses to escape the “server-hugging mentality” that once required facilities be within a close drive of a company’s headquarters. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global   Jeff Monroe

12. New Samsung site offers up data for evaluating SSD energy efficiency Explore ZDNet Technology News (Nov 11 2009) Servers Wondering exactly how switching to solid state drives (SSDs) could affect power usage or energy efficiency in the data center? Samsung, which of course has a vested interest in all this, has assembled a site full of specific information that will help organizations assess whether investing in SSDs makes sense for them. For example, the company claims that some SSDs can operate 48 times faster than hard drives and YET they do so while using 75 percent less power. Switching to DDR3 memory can also have an impact, Samsung says: Just one server using DDR3 can handle the work of nine older servers, saving up to 82 percent of the power. Taken together, DDR3 and SSDs could help businesses meet the new EPA Energy Star specification for servers, which promised a 30 percent improvement in energy efficiency. (Read Full Article)

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13. HP: How about your own personal smart grid for your data center? Explore ZDNet Technology News (Nov 5 2009) Power and Cooling , Carbon Footprint As part of its new HP Converged Infrastructure Architecture, Hewlett-Packard is touting a real-time energy-efficiency policy that it calls the HP Data Center Smart Grid. Essentially, the philosophy combines the features of several different HP energy management products, including HP Environmental Edge, which I wrote about separately just yesterday, as well as HP Insight Control. Taken together, these and other products in the company’s data center portfolio will let you collect, monitor and communicate power and cooling metrics across your infrastructure in real time. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Hewlett Packard

14. Cisco IT pro publishes techniques on "growing" a green data center new book on Explore ZDNet Technology News (Aug 15 2009) Construction There’s a new book out this month from Cisco IT architect Douglas Alger called “Grow a Green Data Center.” (The book is published by Cisco Press, which is a technology imprint of Pearson Education.) The author says the book is a compilation of best practices and techniques for optimizing the energy efficiency of servers, network equipment, storage and physical infrastructure - tips and processes that he wishes he had at his own fingertips when faced with some of his own projects. “I pretty much wrote the book I wanted on my own bookshelf,” Alger says. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Cisco

15. Juniper offers up white paper on energy efficiency for networks Explore ZDNet Technology News (Aug 10 2009) Networking The efforts of Cisco and IBM to extend the energy efficiency debate out of the data center and out into the network have been highly publicized, but I’ve made a pledge to myself to actively explore what other networking equipemnt providers are doing in this area. (Note to any networking vendor reading this post: you are more than welcome to reach out with a legitimate energy-efficiency measure but spare me the greenwashing, please.) I was poking around on the Juniper Networks site for potential topics, when I stumbled upon this white paper, “Energy Efficiency for the Network Equipment: Two Steps Beyond Greenwashing.” This rather scientific discussion of the topic suggests methods by which businesses can test the relative energy performance of comparable systems. (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Cisco   IBM

16. Lofty aspirations for power efficiency: Power Loft seeks silver certification for new data center Explore ZDNet Technology News (Aug 3 2009) Construction , Servers Colocation data center Power Loft began dreaming about greener data centers several years ago, long before it became vogue to do so. Now, in partnership with Hewlett-Packard’s EYP Mission Critical Facilities, the company has designed a 200,000-square-foot facility in Prince William County, Va., that can deliver between 120 watts and 300 watts per square foot with a PUE ranging from a low of 1.20 to a high of 1.48. The two-story design accommodates approximately 33 percent more racks than facilities of a similar real estate footprint, and the first tenant was signed for the new facility in mid-July, says Jim Coakley, president and CEO of Power Loft: “HP wasn’t afraid of pushing me to try something different.” (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Hewlett Packard   LEED

17. Some like it cool: Hp/eds fellow shares data center best practices Explore ZDNet Technology News (Jun 18 2009) Cloud Computing , Servers I spoke last week with Ed Kettler, a fellow for Hewlett-Packard who comes to the company via HP's acquisition of systems integrator EDS. Kettler has been involved with two major data center overhauls that EDS undertook before it became part of HP, including the retrofit of a facility in Wynyard, United Kingdom, that sucks up 40 percent less energy than a typical data center of comparable size. According to an EDS positioning paper about green IT, about 70 percent of potential energy being sent to a data center is lost during the transmission. THEN, about half of the remaining 30 percent is devoted to items such as lighting, uninterruptible power supplies and cooling systems. That means a whole lot of... (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   United Kingdom   The Green Grid   Hewlett Packard

18. Down to business: Forrester reports more companies looking to IT services firms for help on green IT strategy Explore ZDNet Technology News (May 22 2009) Most businesses are still going it alone when it comes to figuring out their green IT projects, but Forrester Research reports that an increasing number of companies are turning to a professional services provider for help. Many of the usual suspects in the enterprise IT services business are morphing in response, including Accenture, Capgemini, Cisco Systems, Dell, Deloitte, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun, Tata and Wipro. Approximately 10 percent of the companies surveyed by Forrester's green IT analysts in October 2008 were engaged with an outside company, compared with 6 percent the previous year. Approximately 30 percent of the surveyed companies were considering a project with an outside consultant, compared with just 18 percent in the year-earlier survey. The base for October... (Read Full Article)

    Comment Mentions:   Cisco   IBM

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