For the first time ever, Google has released information about its carbon footprint.
Last week, the company revealed that in 2010 it generated a total of 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. As The Guardian points out, those emissions are slightly higher than the country of Laos in south-east Asia and about equivalent to the UN’s operational footprint.
However, Google says its ultimate carbon impact is zero –because the company: (more…)
Data centers are notorious energy hogs. What's more, they emit enormous amounts of CO2. In fact, a McKinsey & Company report estimates that by 2020, the world’s data centers could surpass the airline industry as a greenhouse gas polluter. Clearly, any comprehensive sustainability plan needs to include green data center initiatives, and that’s why I find myself forever on the lookout for companies that are finding ways to operate facilities like these more efficiently. (See posts here and here, e.g.) Earlier this week, news from California-based Fortune Data Centers caught my eye.
Ah, the mantra of the ‘90s: Bigger. Better. Faster. Cheaper. More!
It was a mindset that permeated everything in business, right down to our data. Remember when it was no big deal if computers in your data center were running at half capacity, or less? Remember when the heat generated by patching in racks and racks of servers and storage devices was considered a mere nuisance, a simple problem solved with the installation of yet another air-conditioning device?
