Green Computing Summit 2008: Going green is no longer optional

Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

If one message stood out among the others at last week's Green Computing Summit in Washington, DC, it was that going green is no longer just good for the bottom line; it's absolutely necessary. And it's not just the tree huggers who are saying so. Prominent business executives and top ranking federal officials are leading a green revolution that promises to radically change computer technology and the way it is managed. ...continue reading 'Green Computing Summit 2008: Going green is no longer optional'

Green gear: Laptop bags from the scrap heap

Agam Shah, IDG News Service

After hurting the environment by drinking coffee from plastic cups for many years, buying an eco-friendly laptop bag seems like a path to redemption. While searching, I came across bags made from coconuts, recycled movie posters, recycled Coke bottles and wine corks. There are even stylish bags made of recycled newsprint. ...continue reading 'Green gear: Laptop bags from the scrap heap'

Interview: Sun's Mark Monroe on virtualization strategies that work

By Ken Brill, The Uptime Institute

Both internally and externally with clients, Sun has been able to realize significant savings through virtualization. By sorting applications into 4 groups - mission critical, business critical, business operational, and business administrative - IT departments can identify the greatest virtualization opportunities with the lowest risk. "The target-rich environment is that business operational and business administrative [bucket]. Not only are they good candidates but there are tons of them laying around in the data centers and in the laboratories and on people's desks," says Mark Monroe, Director of Sustainable Computing at Sun. In this interview with The Uptime Institute's Ken Brill, Monroe discusses virtualization strategies that help organizations achieve consolidation goals, improve efficiencies of space, and lower energy consumption. Listen now

Interview: Microsoft's Mike Manos on scaling up Moore's Law to the data center

By Ken Brill, The Uptime Institute

Moore's Law says that the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every 18 months. But does Moore's Law work at the level of the whole system of a data center? Can the number of transistors (inside all the servers) double every 18 months at about the same cost, when the cost of the infrastructure (power and cooling) necessary to support those transistors is taken into account? In this interview, Microsoft's chief of data centers, Mike Manos, explains what Microsoft is doing in its new state-of-the-art data centers to scale up Moore's Law from the chip-level to the 500,000 sq. ft. data center level. If it can be done, then the economic productivity of enterprise computing can grow even as the carbon footprint is reduced. Listen now!

Ken Brill on green IT

"Green IT must focus on energy consumption of the data center as a first priority," says Ken Brill of The Uptime Institute. In fact, says Brill, the energy consumption in a data center is so overwhelming that for companies to reduce their carbon footprints in any meaningful way, they must address energy efficiency in the data center. Here, Brill discusses the four metrics of green IT and how greenness equates to bottom line profitability. Listen now!

Data center energy consumption exeeds EPA predictions

New research from the Uptime Institute shows data center energy consumption in the top third of sites researched grew 20% - 30% annually in 2006 and 2007, far exceeding the EPA's predicted 9% growth from 2006 to 2010. If data center power consumption continues to grow at the current rate, 10 new coal-fired or nuclear power plants will be needed by 2010 and 20 more (for a total of 30) by 2015. Here, Uptime Institute's Ken Brill discusses the broad-reaching impact of these findings. Listen now