Articles from zdnet.com

IBM solar array designed specifically for data centers

Explore zdnet.com (Nov 19 2011) Solar , Cloud Computing

Summary: Built for its software lab in India, the company eventually will make the technology available to clients seeking green data center power alternatives. Wanted to reiterate some news out of IBM’s India operation early in November: the company has designed a solar array for its data center in Bangalore specifically configured with the needs of servers and cooling infrastructure in mind. And, yes, the technology will eventually be available to IBM customers. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   IBM

Facebook: 'Open hardware' integral to green IT infrastructure

Explore zdnet.com (Oct 30 2011) Cloud Computing , Servers

Comment Mentions:   Amazon.com   Sun Microsystems   James Hamilton

Better power efficiency central to Moore's law

Explore zdnet.com (Sep 19 2011)

Comment Mentions:   Intel

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

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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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

11 Ways Your Peers Are Saving Power In The Data Center

Explore zdnet.com (Jun 1 2011)

I wasn’t able to make the recent UptimeInstitute Symposium in California, but I was just going through some of the data released during the conference that has specific relevance to green IT. The information that I’m about to post may seem sort of basic or obvious to your organization — if so, hurray for you and yours — but personally I think we can all stand a back-to-basics reset every once in a while. Keep in mind that this data is from Uptime’s survey of 525 data center owners and operators, 71 percent of them were based in North America. The two most represented industries were financial services firms and co-location operators. Many of the questions focused on operational stuff, but there was one in particular that caught my eye focused on “Energy savings: Implementing the easy stuff.” If it’s easy, you want to do it, right? Here ... (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Oracle   IBM

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

Does it matter what sort of electricity powers your data center?

Explore zdnet.com (Mar 9 2011) Cloud Computing

An announcement from self-avowed managed service and cloud hosting provider Datapipe, based in Jersey City, N.J., caught my eye this morning, mainly because of the rather bold claim that the company is making: It now uses renewable energy sources for all of its data centers based in the United States. That strategy has helped Datapipe become one of select number of IT companies nationwide that are part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Leadership Club. That designation is used to recognize companies that have gone above and beyond certain levels in terms of their renewable energy purchases. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory   Datapipe   Dell

Vermont data center pursues data center gold

Explore zdnet.com (Jan 6 2011) Construction

I read recently that there are now more than 1 billion square feet of buildings and facilities that are certified under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program. One of the toughest certifications to earn, as you might expect, is the designation for data centers. What does it take? Consider the example of Tech Vault, which is seeking a Gold-level certification for its facility in Burlington, Vermont. LEED Gold requires 60 or more points in the following areas of green design: sustainable site selection, water efficiency metrics, energy and atmosphere conditions, materials and resources used, and the indoor environmental quality. The LEED rating scale is 100 points, plus 10 possible bonus points for “innovation in design and regional priority.” (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Cisco   LEED

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

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

Fujitsu stakes claim in green IT services

Explore zdnet.com (Sep 1 2010) Carbon Footprint , Cloud Computing

After a successful test in Australia, Fujitsu is launching a portfolio of green IT services that it says will help the average enterprise reduce its carbon footprint and energy costs. Kartik Ravel, senior director for Fujitsu enterprise business services, while the new offerings absolutely will address data center efficiency, they are more focused on changing user electricity consumption habits related to desktop and peripheral technologies. “A kilowatt is a kilowatt, regardless of what device it comes from,” he says. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   The New York Times   Fujitsu

How does a new datacenter benefit the community?

Explore zdnet.com (Aug 30 2010)

There is no question that the datacenter construction business is booming, and that previously unheard of places are getting a serious investment in technology and building, but when I read the stories in the local papers about the investment being made in the communities getting the new structures, it’s almost always clear that there is a serious disconnect between the realities of the datacenter and the understanding of the popular press. (Read Full Article)

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Can you power down for a day? Intel, HP and Citrix make the case

Explore zdnet.com (Aug 24 2010)

Other than restarting my MacBook now and then for software updates, I don’t think I’ve turned it off since 2008. But while I may be on the green police’s most wanted list, it’s never too late to start good habits. (I’ll be starting mine this week.) Friday, Aug. 27 is the third annual Power IT Down Day. Last year 5,600 people pledged to turn off their computers, printers and monitors overnight, which saved more than 73,000 kilowatt-hours, which translated into $45,000, which was in turn donated to the Wounded Warrior Project. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   New York Times   The New York Times   Intel

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

Will HP's Butterfly have the desired Effect?

Explore zdnet.com (Jul 28 2010)

The “butterfly effect” is a term drawn from science fiction time travel stories that refers to how a seemingly minor change can have major repercussions down the line. With the introduction of their new modular datacenters and their “butterfly” shape, it looks like HP is hoping to change the way future datacenters are designed. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   Hewlett-Packard Co.

As IBM preps mainframe launch, war of words with Oracle's Sun, HP heats up

Explore zdnet.com (Jul 19 2010)

IBM this week plans to launch its latest System z mainframe, expected to be the hub of Big Blue’s system of systems plan for the data center. On a conference call with analysts following the company’s second quarter report, IBM CFO Mark Loughridge said: System z revenue declined 24 percent year to year. This week IBM will announce the next generation of System z, the fastest and most scalable enterprise server in the industry. This server provides 40 percent more performance on a mix of workloads than the equivalent z10. Some workloads can achieve greater performance improvements such as Linux which has 60 percent better performance and 35 percent lower cost. This announcement is the foundation for IBM’s first System of Systems, which provides the capability to manage 10 times the virtual machines of VMWare by extending mainframe governance to our other industry leading technologies. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   New York Times   The New York Times   Sun Microsystems

Is there money in being 'green'?

Explore zdnet.com (Jun 25 2010) Fossil Fuel , Solar , Servers

Steve May is going to test whether "green" marketing clicks with customers in the faceless Web-hosting business. May is the founder and CEO of Solar Data Centers, a Raleigh, N.C.-based company that bills itself as one of the first hosting outfits powered entirely by renewable energy. The company currently purchases its energy from a third party that uses only renewable resources, and by the end of next year it plans to open a small data center powered entirely by electricity generated from its own solar panels. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   United Kingdom   Department of Energy   IBM

Modius helps manage data center energy usage in context of uptime

Explore zdnet.com (Jun 14 2010) Monitoring , Cloud Computing

Chances are you are way sick of me writing about tools that help you measure the various energy metrics of your data center, because you probably have way too many separate management tools to deal with already. But you MAY be interested in a company, Modius, that apparently has created an ecosystem of monitoring and measurement tools that helps you balance the most important metric of your data center — uptime — with the way that it consumes electricity. “You need to be able to see the interrelationships,” says Craig Compiano, CEO of Modius. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   The New York Times

Need ideas for Green IT initiatives? Forrester shares a few

Explore zdnet.com (Jun 8 2010)

Comment Mentions:   Forrester Research

Power play: Green efficiency means more to CFOs than green IT

Explore zdnet.com (May 20 2010)

Just spent three informative days at the Uptime Institute’s Symposium 2010 and am sorting through all the notes I took. I don’t think it will surprise you to hear that one of the dominant, recurring themes in the sessions and keynotes was the ongoing disconnect between the need for IT teams to throttle power consumption and the very real fact that most of them don’t actually control the electricity budget. So, when you (they) propose conservation or energy efficiency ideas, these ideas sometimes fall on deaf ears. It’s the old accountability thing. Deal with it. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   The New York Times   Uptime Institute

Green IT initiative saves $2000 daily in electricity bill for Capitol Hill

Explore zdnet.com (May 18 2010)

There are two really big reasons you should care about the greening of the U.S. House of Representatives, and of the branch offices associated with Capitol Hill. For one, the IT operations are SO BIG that there are bound to be things that you can learn from their IT team’s experiences. The second, maybe more important reason from your person standpoint, is that when Congress saves money, American taxpayers save money. The more administrative costs that can be cut out of running the government, the more likely it is that the money can go to real programs. (Read Full Article)

Comment Mentions:   The New York Times