Iceland

About Iceland

Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland (Ísland or Lýðveldið Ísland; ˈliðvɛltɪθ ˈistlant) is a country in northern Europe, comprising the island of Iceland and its outlying islets in the North Atlantic Ocean between the rest of Europe and Greenland. It is the least populous of the Nordic countries and the second smallest; it has a population of about 313,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík.

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Located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is volcanically and geologically active on a large scale; this defines the landscape in various ways. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterized by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many big glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Warmed by the Gulf Stream, Iceland has a temperate climate relative to its latitude and provides a habitable environment and nature.

The settlement of Iceland began in 874 when, according to Landnámabók, the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island. Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter. Over the next centuries, people of Nordic and Gaelic origin settled in Iceland. Until the twentieth century, the Icelandic population relied on fisheries and agriculture, and was from 1262 to 1944 a part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. In the twentieth century, Iceland's economy and welfare system developed quickly.

As of 2007, Iceland is the most developed country in the world according to the Human Development Index and one of the most egalitarian, according to the calculation provided by the Gini coefficient.. Based upon a mixed economy where service, finance, fishing and various industries are the main sectors, it is also the fourth most productive country per capita. Icelanders have a rich culture and heritage, and the country is a candidate for a non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council. Iceland is a member of the UN, NATO, EFTA, EEA and OECD, but not of the European Union.

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Quotes about Iceland

1. “ With energy costs fluctuating and going up more than down, and data centers consuming a tremendous amount of energy there is a real need in the market for a green innovation solution that reduces energy and drives down overall cost. Data centers have historically required large, expensive chilling systems to keep all of the equipment at a regulated temperature. Now more than ever, companies are scrambling to find ways to reduce dependencies on the status quo and become more energy efficient all around. Iceland is the perfect environment for 100 per cent free cooling, 365 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is -0.5°C (30°F) in January and 10°C (50°F) in July. Iceland is very much its own cooling system, standing by to draw the heat right out the computer servers. ”

   Tate Cantrell in Iceland: Refrigerating a green data centre

2. “ We are green with no premium … We can actually save them money by putting their servers in Iceland. ”

   Jeff Monroe in Verne Global pledges greener cloud: No cost premium attached

3. “ We are finding those points on the Earth that are optimized for server operation—Iceland hits on all those points. ”

   Jeff Monroe in Iceland: New Hot Spot for Data Centers?

1. Mentioned In 53 Articles

2. How Green Is your IT? By Peter Judge

   Explore Article Views and Opinions on Green IT (Feb 22 2010)

   ...sing cleaner energy, by and large does not save money. There are exceptions to this, for instance Iceland, where our hosts here, Verne Global are building a data center, which they say will get power for a... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global   Peter Judge

3. Data Center 100211

   Explore Article Views and Opinions on Green IT (Feb 15 2010) Construction , Carbon Footprint

   ... it contains. So far we've heard that data centers in colder countries like Ireland, Finland or Iceland can be run with less expensive cooling. But how far could this be taken? It sounds like a UK think ... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Peter Judge   Iceland   Doug Mohney

4. Data centres find Iceland hospitable

   Explore Article computerworlduk.com (Feb 15 2010) Construction , Power and Cooling

   ...ich plans to build efficient data centres throughout the world, is in the middle of construction in Iceland and will be able to serve customers by year end. A new front is being opened in the race to provi... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Europe   Verne Global

5. Verne Global Aims to Put Iceland on the Data Center Map

   Explore Article tmcnet.com (Feb 11 2010) Geothermal

   Most people would probably have a tough time finding Iceland on a map. Yet entrepreneur Jeff Monroe is trying to get businesses to locate their data center oper... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global

6. HP Unveils Huge Data Center Cooled By Wind

   Explore Article InformationWeek (Feb 11 2010)

   ...new-wave data centers we wrote about recently—including an ice-cooled former NATO command center in Iceland and a new tourist attraction at Disney World—is Hewlett-Packard's 360,000-square-foot UK facili... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Hewlett Packard   Nato

7. My Talk with Iceland's Clean Energy King

   Explore Article Login (Feb 10 2010)

   ...a renewable energy powerhouse. And last week at the RETECH 2010 Expo in Washington, the head of Iceland's National Energy Authority (Orkustofnun) gave me a lesson in clean power progress. A Lesson... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland

8. Carbon Dioxide, Cap and Trade, and the Data Center

   Explore Article Relocate (Feb 2 2010) Cap and Trade , Carbon Tax , Emissions , Fossil Fuel , Geothermal

   ...bon dioxide emissions), UK companies’ outsourcing of data centers is not surprising. Places such as Iceland, with its cold climate and abundant geothermal energy, offer attractive alternatives that can be bo... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland

9. The Price Of Power

   Explore Article Forbes.com (Jan 28 2010)

   ...cents. The cost in China is roughly 10 cents per kilowatt hour, according to Xinhua News Agency. In Iceland it is about 4 cents per kilowatt hour, said Tate Cantrell, Verne Global's CTO. But in many of t... (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global   Tate Cantrell

10. Iceland Leads Environmental Index as U.S. Falls

    Explore Article The New York Times (Jan 27 2010) Power and Cooling

    ...sity researchers, the United States ranked 39th, and China 105th. The top performer this year is Iceland, which gets virtually all of its power from renewable sources — hydropower and geothermal energy. I... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Norway   United Nations

11. Q&A: Verne Global on Iceland Data Center

    Explore Article Web Host Industry Review (Jan 25 2010) Construction , Power and Cooling , Emissions , Cloud Computing

    With its low-cost and environmentally-friendly power resources, Iceland has been seeing growing demand for data center activity in recent years. Earlier this month, whole... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Europe   Verne Global

12. Tieto Begins Constructing $25M Finland Data Center

    Explore Article Web Host Industry Review (Jan 25 2010) Construction , Cloud Computing

    ...P Strengthens and Unifies Security Product Portfolio News: Q&A;: Lisa Rhodes of Verne Global on Iceland Data Center News: Nick Tidd Promoted to President of D-Link North America News: Tieto Begins Constr... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Europe   Verne Global

13. Iceland Gets Major Data Center Project

    Explore Article Data Center Knowledge (Jan 18 2010) Construction , Power and Cooling , Carbon Footprint , Geothermal

    After years of marketing itself as an ideal destination for green data centers, Iceland is about to see the completion of its first major new data center project. Verne Holdings has lined... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global   Jeff Monroe

14. The Wellcome Trust Signs Definitive Agreement to Invest in Verne Global

    Explore Article Yahoo! Finance (Jan 18 2010) Power and Cooling , Carbon Footprint

    ...will fully fund the completion of the first phase of Verne Global’s wholesale data center campus in Iceland. With this investment, the Wellcome Trust, a medical research charitable foundation based in London... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Verne Global   Jeff Monroe

15. Warming Up To Iceland

    Explore Article Forbes.com (Jan 11 2010) Power and Cooling , Carbon Footprint , Geothermal

    ...t up with Tate Cantrell, chief technology officer at Verne Global--a data center developer based in Iceland and Washington, D.C., to talk about the shifts and what's driving them. Moving data centers out... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Europe   Verne Global

16. How Terremark keeps its colo and data centers green

    Explore Article TELEPHONY Online (Jan 10 2010) Wind , Servers

    ...urces because we need to be near where the fiber is. We've been in talks with a delegation from Iceland. They wanted to launch a data center market up there because they can free-cool 365 days a year. Ho... (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   Iceland   Google   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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