Driven by rising electricity costs, green legislation and corporate social responsibility, green IT is increasingly on most IT professionals’ minds. Whatever the reasons, experts say that in the long run, having an energy-efficient datacentre helps the environment.
Server virtualization significantly improved data center efficiency, and now we're seeing virtualization move from servers to storage and network devices, so we're going to benefit from those energy efficiency gains as virtualization goes throughout the data
As data centers consume more energy to meet rising demand from customers (both businesses and consumers), efficiency is becoming a greater focus. The prospect of rising energy prices and more-stringent government regulations is also driving data center operators to reduce consumption (or at least the growth thereof). Although the industry has made great strides, work still remains to reduce the energy demands of cooling.
Menzies Aviation has updated its three internal datacentres with new servers, storage and cooling products rather than invest in cloud computing
Web host and data center operator Hetzner Online announced on Friday that it now offers colocation services at its Nuremberg and Falkenstein/Vogtland data centers in Germany.
Microsoft Corp. will invest an additional $348 million to expand its modular data center site in southern Virginia, the company said today. The company will build two additional facilities on its data center campus to increase capacity to serve its growing customer base.
Facebook has built a dedicated data center at its Prineville, Oregon campus that could house older photos in a separate "cold storage" system that dramatically slash the cost of storing and serving these files.
The Green Grid has claimed data centres can improve efficiency, and save money, by using the Eco-Mode of their uninterruptible power supply (UPS) and rely more on their utility grid. A data centre using 1MWatt of electric power can save around $100,000 a year, and increase its efficiency rating, by altering the settings of the UPS, which provides battery power when the utility grid cuts out, the Green Grid said in a detailed White Paper.
The opening of a new electrical substation in Prineville, Oregon will add 350 megawatts of capacity to the local power grid, clearing the way for additional data center development. The small town of 10,000 in rural central Oregon has emerged as a major data center hub, and is home to major data center campuses for Facebook and Apple.
The energy-saving UPS configuration known as "eco mode" has become a viable option to help increase energy efficiency and save costs in the data center, according to The Green Grid, which offers some caveats and tips on implemention.
Major projects from Google, Apple and Facebook put western North Carolina on the data center map. In Catawba County, economic development director Scott Millar is looking to build on those successes, and position the region for further wins.
As water conservation in the data center becomes more important, there are cooling technologies that are proven to reduce the consumption of water, as well as ways to seek alternative sources of water for data center cooling, writes Ron Voukun of Gray Construction.
You won’t hear Google complain about the Irish weather. Ireland’s wet damp climate is a key reason Google have settled their major headquarters outside the U.S. there.
Computer multinationals are finding that the chilly Irish climate helps with the cost of cooling their giant processor farms Just like their neighbours across the sea, the Irish enjoy nothing more than whingeing about the weather. But, according to internet giants such as Google, the people of Ireland should be grateful for their dank, damp, cold climate. The country's mist, rain and chilly air ...
Will submerged servers come to Facebook? The social network is the latest company to conduct tests in which servers are submerged in dielectric fluid.
UK provider Pulsant acquires Scottish colo specialist ScoLocate, CentriLogic expands into Hong Kong market, CoSentry facility earns Energy Star certification.
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) will soon begin cooling its servers with hot water. The DoD said this week that it will convert one of its data centers to use a liquid cooling system from Asetek Inc. The move could clear the way for broader use of liquid cooling in high-density server deployments at the DoD, which says it will carefully track the efficiency and cost savings from the project.
To support its iCloud and SIRI Voice recognition services, Apple (NYSE:AAPL) runs a data center in Maiden, NC, 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. That center is powered by 24 hydrogen fuel cells that produce 4.8 megawatts of power. Apple, which prides itself on the transparency of this project , has made it clear though the NC Renewable Energy Tracking System, that it will add 26 more fuel cells by January, upping its electricity production to 10 megawatts, enough to power 6,250 homes.
Bloom Energy is installing 50 Bloom boxes for Apple to produce 10 MW of electricity, raising the previous level from 4.8 MW. Since October 2012, Apple has been operating at the 4.8 MW level and expect the new 10 MW farm to be online and operating by January 2013.
Apple wants to double the generation capacity of its fuel-cell plant next to its massive data center in Maiden, North Carolina. The company has filed papers with the state’s utility regulators, notifying them of the plan to increase the size of the fuel-cell installation, which will bring its total capacity to 10MW, the Charlotte Observer reported.
A new filing with the North Carlina Utilities Commission reveals that Apple plans to double the number of fuel cells deployed at its Maiden data center, with a total energy output able to power about 6,250 homes. Apple's existing array of 24 hydrogen-based "Energy Servers" outputs 4.8 megawatts of power and is the largest private installation of its kind, however the company plans to add another 26 fuel cells to the project, upping its power yield to 10 megawatts by January, reports the Charlotte Observer.
The first phase of Apple's fuel cell project at the Maiden, NC data center began testing in October of 2012, and the company is already looking at doubling the capacity of the plant . The plant is fueled by filtered landfill gas (AKA "directed biogas"), a fuel that is considered a renewable energy resource by North Carolina's green energy regulations.
Apple plans to double the size of its Catawba County fuel cell project, the nations largest such venture not run by an electric utility, to 10 megawatts. Fifty fuel cells adjacent to its $1 billion data center in Maiden are expected to be operating by January, Apple said in papers filed with the N.C. Utilities Commission. They will be fueled by directed biogas, in which cleaned methane from a landfill is injected into a natural gas pipeline.