2Sustain

Green data centers continue to get plenty of press because, let’s face it, they’re energy hogs. What’s more, they emit massive amounts of CO2. Implementing energy efficiencies at your data center will not only save your company money, it will help you achieve your environmental goals, as well. (For excellent examples, see posts about recent initiatives at UPS and Sun.) But, what if you’re only in the development stage, planning to construct a data center later this year? Are there certain guidelines you should follow to limit its environmental impact?

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I’m starting to notice a little shift in the tide. For awhile now, it has been relatively easy to find information about the importance of adopting sustainability initiatives. For instance, we all know that you can find blog post after blog post (including many here) urging you to start moving your company toward climate mitigation strategies and even broader CSR goals. But, now, something somewhat different is starting to emerge. More and more, I’m seeing articles that go a step beyond “why” companies should be sustainable. I’m noticing that people are beginning to talk more about how companies can start implementing sustainability initiatives, as well.

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An IDC survey of  IT decision-makers across the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region found that three-quarters are investing in green application technologies, particularly the power management, automation, and virtualization software needed to green data centers.

Results of IDC’s Asia/Pacific Green Poll suggest that green IT is gaining strong momentum across the region, driven primarily by cost savings, and then CSR and compliance.

"As businesses in APEJ continue to grow, power consumption in energy hungry datacenters also increases,” says Adren Lim, Market Analyst of IDC’s Asia/Pacific Software Research in a press release. “Green IT technologies has become even more appealing as businesses look towards energy efficient solutions to reduce power consumption and to alleviate the costs."

I’ve posted before about the movement to green data centers, efforts that are typically a combination of best practices, energy efficiencies, and innovation. But, this latest research shows that green IT software is beginning to play an increasingly vital role in virtualizing, monitoring, measuring, and automating data center sustainability. (For a fascinating example of data center innovation, read this article about an IBM project that can cut a data center’s energy consumption in half by cooling computers with water and then reuse this dissipated energy to heat nearby homes.)

Feeling like you would like to delve more deeply into the subject? Then, check out the latest issue of Microsoft’s “Architecture Journal". This edition is devoted to green computing and has several articles focused on optimizing data center efficiencies.