The Green Data Center: Taking the First Steps Toward Green IT? Part I

by Ian Osborne

Grid Computing Now! is a UK-based knowledge-transfer network aimed at championing the adoption of grid computing technologies to IT leaders in UK public and private sectors. Since its establishment in 2005, the project has witnessed the gradual absorption of key technologies and principles into mainstream computing capabilities and flagship implementations of distributed computing infrastructures in the world's leading IT users: Google, Amazon.com, and eBay, as well as leading organizations in the financial, pharmaceutical, engineering, and oil and gas sectors. While the root cause for this adoption of grid has been the need for large-scale computing capabilities for their businesses, a new imperative is emerging: green IT. In this context, this term alludes to the notion of more energy-efficient computing capabilities, leading to reduced carbon emissions and energy costs. In this first Executive Update of a two-part series, I survey the developments underway in the UK and European Commission (EC), including discussion of the regulatory activities being considered, as well as some early case studies of successful adoption within the data center. In Part II, some principles and recommendations are made and a strategy for implementation is discussed.

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The Green Data Center: Taking the First Steps Toward Green IT? Part I1 February 2008