1. Articles from zdnetasia.com

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    1. Google begins construction of Hong Kong data center

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Dec 8 2011) Power and Cooling

      Google begins construction of Hong Kong data center Google has kicked off the construction of its first Asian data center in Hong Kong which is expected be up and running in early-2013. In a statement released Thursday, the Internet giant said it will be investing US$300 million--which includes the cost of land, construction and technical equipment--to build the facility in Kowloon, Hong Kong, on a 2.7 hectare site. Once completed, users in Asia can expect "faster and more reliable" access to Google's online tools and services, said Simon Chang, Google's head of Asia-Pacific hardware operations. Even with Hong Kong's warm weather, Chang said the "innovative design" of the facility will make it one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly in Asia. "One way we'll achieve region-leading efficiency [in Hong Kong] is by custom designing each element to operate at optimal efficiency," he said. Beside custom designs, he noted that the Hong ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Intel   Google

    2. Pro-biz, green incentives give S'pore datacenter edge

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Nov 3 2011) Cloud Computing

      Pro-biz, green incentives give S'pore datacenter edge Google, for one, announced on Sep. 28 that it was putting together its blueprint for a data center in Singapore after acquiring 2.45 hectares of land. The Web giant said the new facility would provide its users in the country and from the region speedier and more reliable access to its services. "More people are coming online every day in Asia than in any part of the world, so locating data centers here is an important next stage of Google's investment in the region," said Google. Softlayer Technologies, a cloud computing and managed hosting service provider, also announced the launch of its Singapore data center that same month. According to Todd Mitchell, vice president of strategic planning for Softlayer, the company spent a "considerable amount of time" in the region exploring different datacenter sites and weighing up several important factors for its first international expansion out of the ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Amazon.com   Gartner   Google

    3. Component-level rightsizing to reduce datacenter power, costs

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Sep 16 2011) Cloud Computing , Servers

      Component-level rightsizing to reduce datacenter power, costs Web 2.0 companies such as Facebook and Google are leading the charge toward more innovative datacenter designs, with a focus on optimizing existing hardware components to deliver better performance while cutting down cost and power. This, industry observers note, is something other enterprises would do well to look into. Avneesh Saxena, group vice president of IDC Asia-Pacific, said the top three objectives for managers of datacenter facilities today are "lowering cost, building scale and improving returns on investment (ROI)". Considering that the earth's power resource is "finite" and will only go up, he added that power costs will increasingly dominate datacenter priorities going forward. Currently, data centers contribute to 1 percent of the world's electricity consumption and this could very well jump to as high as 3 to 4 percent in the near future, Saxena said during his keynote at the inaugural Asia-Pacific Datacenter Leadership Council conference ... (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Intel   Google   Oracle

    4. Benefits of server power supply efficiency

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Jun 23 2011) Servers

      Benefits of server power supply efficiency There are compelling reasons for organizations to consider redundant PSUs in mission critical servers, but understanding the potential energy efficiency tradeoff is ... power supplies is given off as heat. Data center operators spend a lot of time and ... (Read Full Article)

    5. Adopt 'right balance' for green clouds

      Explore zdnetasia.com (May 23 2011) Carbon Footprint , Fossil Fuel , Solar , Wind , Cloud Computing

      Adopt 'right balance' for green clouds Cloud computing service providers should look into having a "right balance" approach in giving their data centers a green makeover by redesigning it to include eco-friendly energy sources and educating employees on the benefits of reducing their carbon footprint, an analyst urged. Philip Carter, associate vice president of green IT and sustainability at IDC Asia-Pacific's practice group, said that there are several aspects toward moving a green cloud computing service. Internally, these aspects include designing the data center to utilize renewable energy sources, implement ongoing monitoring of the energy efficiency such as the PUE (power usage effectiveness) ratio, and ensuring organizational alignment in which employees are aware and educated on the company's green initiatives and technologies, he explained in his e-mail. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Apple   Greenpeace   Google

    6. Cloud changing face of data centers

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Apr 18 2011) Cloud Computing

      Cloud changing face of data centers Cloud computing is one of the forces shaping data centers over the next five years, note market observers who also share their vision of next-generation data centers. In a statement released last month, Gartner highlighted cloud computing as one of the four factors that will change datacenter space requirements in the next five years. "Datacenter managers are beginning to consider the possibility of shifting nonessential workloads to a cloud provider, freeing up much-needed floor space, power and cooling, which can then be focused on more-critical production workloads, and extending the useful life of the data center," said the research firm. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Gartner   Hewlett Packard   Facebook

    7. Enterprise demand for green data centers will drive supply

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Mar 31 2011)

      Instead of purchasing "standard boxes" for their data centers, companies should insist on eco-friendly equipment normally custom-built for market players purchasing in bulk, say industry expert. Compare your salary Use the IT salary benchmark wizard and know the average salary differences between different job functions. Join activeTechPros. http://www.activetechpros.com (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Intel   Microsoft Corp

    8. Carrots and sticks to help drive green IT in Asia

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Nov 24 2010)

      Carrots and sticks to help drive green IT in Asia A carrot-and-stick approach would help drive higher awareness and implementation of green datacenter technologies in Asia, said an executive from IT ops management solutions firm Raritan. He argued that companies in the region are lagging behind their Western counterparts in taking steps toward green efficiency and measurements. Chris McPherson, president, Japan, and vice president, Asia Pacific, sales and marketing at Raritan, told ZDNet Asia that Asian companies are not yet seeing the full importance of implementing green technologies--even though they have the expertise and knowledge--because of their rapid growth and business targets. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Frost

    9. Virtualization: The key to a green data center?

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Aug 4 2010) Emissions , Cloud Computing , Networking , Servers

      Virtualization: The key to a green data center? "Global electricity prices increased 56 percent between 2002 and 2006," which has generated the desire to create more efficient data centers, said Chris Mandahl, director of domestic sales at Emerson Network Power. However, before rushing to virtualize every server, VMWare's Ed Lenta advised administrators to ensure the move would not disrupt their mission-critical systems. "There is no point going from sprawl to consolidated--from many to few--unless the services we can offer on virtualized infrastructure are as good or better than those offered on sprawled infrastructure," said Lenta. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Cisco   Interactive Data Corporation

    10. S'pore to spur risk-averse data centers to go green

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Jun 21 2010)

      S'pore to spur risk-averse data centers to go green SINGAPORE--The government is putting in place new efforts to help risk-averse data centers in the island-state become more green, according to local officials. Among other initiatives under the national green data center strategy, the country is working on creating an isolated environment for businesses to testbed energy-efficient measures for their data centers, said Ling Keok Tong, deputy director of technology and planning group at Singapore's ICT regulator, Infocomm Development Authority (IDA). He added that the country's new Green Data Centre Standard is also on track to be published by the end of 2010. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Facebook   Interactive Data Corporation

    11. Green data centers face software blues

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Jun 11 2010) Cloud Computing , Servers

      Green data centers face software blues Gartner Research Vice President John R. Phelps, for one, thinks the challenge of setting up a green data center needs to be seen holistically. It is too simplistic to say that just solving one aspect will resolve the power usage problem in data center environments, he said. He went on to acknowledge in his e-mail to ZDNet Asia that "it is correct to say a large amount of software is not written with efficiency of the central processing unit (CPU) in mind". Developers, though, are slowing coming around to understand that other programs will be running on one server and that it can make a difference for power usage to make programs "more efficient and have less looping", said Phelps. (Read Full Article)

      Mentions:   Interactive Data Corporation

    12. IT essential for businesses' green success

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Sep 16 2009) Carbon Footprint , Emissions

      IT essential for businesses' green success perspective Life is tough for IT management. Not only does it have to juggle the conflicting demands of 'business as usual' but many managers are now expected to add a layer of environmental concern to their workload. Except, of course, it's not expressed this way. If it were, it would get scant attention. No, it's expressed in business terms: "We must slash our energy bills." "We must comply with new regulations." "Our customers must see us as a good company to do business with." The primary way in which IT can help improve an organization's environmental performance is by saving energy. This saves the company money and may allow it do to things it otherwise could not--for instance, extend that data center because now it has the necessary power. (Read Full Article)

    13. Poll: More APAC firms looking green

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Jun 9 2009) Emissions , Servers

      Poll: More APAC firms looking green However, Alvin Ow, Symantec's technical and systems engineering senior director for Asia-Pacific and Japan, said companies were using a wide range of green IT strategies. These included more complex measures, such as reconfiguring data center hardware ... (Read Full Article)

    14. China behind in green efforts

      Explore zdnetasia.com (Apr 30 2009) Carbon Footprint

      Freda Tong, senior research analyst of IDC's China vertical industry research and consulting, said: "In order to drive enterprises to implement green IT, the government must play a part by setting up regulatory mandates. ... (Read Full Article)