Sustainable Technology

Power7 processor implements Modes to lower frequency and Nap to stop power consumption, driving processor efficiency specs. …

… “Power Saver Mode or Dynamic Power Saver Mode: These modes can halve processor frequency to reduce energy use, or modulate voltage and frequency to optimize processor and system energy use; Processor Core Nap: A low power mode in which the hardware stops processor core execution by locking most of the circuits inside the core in the absence of workload. ” …

Via IBM: POWER7 Systems First in Class to Meet ENERGY STAR

Allstate Insurance achieves LEED Gold for its new data center in Rochelle, Illinois. The datacenter deploys efficient hardware, virtualization techniques, effective cooling systems, white roofing, natural lighting, and a native landscape design to achieve its sustainable facility design. …

… “The Allstate facility, which opened in 2009, is one of the few mission-critical data centers in America to receive the Gold designation from USGBC. It’s a key component of a larger strategy to reduce the number of Allstate data centers to two by the end of 2010 and to increase power efficiency and computing capacity. ” …

Via Allstate Insurance Company: LEED Building Certification

DC power switch could offer energy savings for data center owners. …

… “moving from the traditional alternating-current (AC) approach to powering the data center to a direct-current (DC) model can yield tremendous benefits, both in reduced heat (and thus reduced cooling needs) and, concomitantly, reduced power usage. ” …

Via Data Center Journal: AC or DC?

Sentilla energy manager software targets power tracking of metered and unmetered data center equipment. …

… “Sentilla Energy Manager is a non-invasive, software-only solution that provides a comprehensive view of energy use of the entire data center, from the switchgear down to each asset-such as servers, storage and networking devices. Sentilla’s solution bridges the IT and facilities gap, providing the world’s first consolidated view of where, when and why energy is used.

By using Version 3.0 of this innovative software, which scales to support the largest data center environments in real-time, Sentilla’s customers can now track, predict and manage energy use of every single piece of equipment in the data center, including those that are unmetered. As a result of having greater planning and management of energy consumption, data center managers can not only improve performance and efficiency, but also reduce downtime and better plan for expansion or consolidation.

By leveraging energy management as a key component of IT software portfolios-treating energy as an IT asset-data centers can deliver exceptional performance at minimal cost and without disruption. ” …

http://bit.ly/cqwtI6

Google’s Bill Weihl shares his perspective on sustainable computing. …

… “That is in fact one of the big levers for getting people to reduce how much they use, is to find ways to make it more visible. ” …

Via iStockAnalyst: Google green energy czar

Corus360 completes their LEED Gold certified data center in Georgia this week. The datacenter will operate at higher energy efficiency than comparable facilities. …

… “The new data center rounds out the company’s vision for a LEED Gold certified building and IT managed services facility. Through environmentally responsible designs and operations, Corus360 projects a 27 percent reduction in energy consumption, enabling cost and energy savings in server, storage, cooling and power distribution. ” …

Via Business Wire: Corus360 DataCenter

Symantec deploys a portfolio of green IT projects to create a tangible impact on its energy consumption, power costs, and carbon footprint. …

… “decommissioning of hardware from a major data center closure reduced Symantec’s overall device power utilization from approximately 500 kilowatt hours (kWh) to 168 kWh … ” …

Via Environmental Leader: Green IT Efforts

Data center power reduction can be addressed through a multi-pronged strategy that targets demand-reduction, higher utilization of reduced capacity, and smarter data center layout. …

… “Half the power consumption in the data centre is actually from IT equipment, said Zaheer, but customers running data centres can cut this consumption by reducing redundant data, physical resources and hotspots, and by increasing disk utilization. ” …

Via IT World Canada: Green IT

IBM recognizes its internal innovation projects for their environmental impact. A number of the solutions are focused on the green data center. …

… “Systems Director Active Energy Management — a software solution that helps data center operators monitor and automatically manage energy use, allowing greater control over power consumption. The technology can reduce system administration and energy costs in a typical data center by nearly 30 percent. ” …

Via IBM: Top Environmental Solutions, 2009

Cisco, EMC, and VMWare partner to accelerate the implementation of virtualization solutions for data centers, which will result in lower costs and power usage. …

… “The coalition has been created to accelerate customers’ ability to increase business agility through greater IT infrastructure flexibility, and lower IT, energy and real estate costs through pervasive data center virtualization and a transition to private cloud infrastructures. ” …

Via Cisco: Pervasive Data Center Virtualization

When it comes to efficient and sustainable information technology, the Department of Energy must eat its own dog food and commit to action. An audit of its facilities shows that it is not in compliance with its own guidance. …

… “The Department had not fully reduced energy consumed by its desktop and laptop computers through implementation of power management settings such as shutting down monitors, enabling computer standby, and placing a computer into hibernation when not in use. Although the Code of Federal Regulations and Executive Order 13423 – Strengthening Federal Environment, Energy, and Transportation Management – require Federal agencies to enable power management features on computers and monitors, we found that none of the seven sites reviewed had ensured that these settings were in place. ” …

Via Department of Energy: Department of Energy Efforts to Manage Information Technology Resources in an Energy-Efficient and Environmentally Responsible Manner (PDF)