green IT

News

• Five ways to improve data center power efficiency you might not have thought of

  LAS VEGAS -- While few doubt the importance of maximizing the energy efficiency of their corporate data centers, executive vice president of data center technology for Las Vegas-based Switch, Mark Thiele's talk at Interop this week showcased just how much companies might still be missing. 

• Shell Oil targets hybrid cloud as fix for energy-saving, agile IT

  DALLAS - Two years ago, Shell Oil's IT subsidiary found itself in a somewhat ironic situation. It was facing staggering energy costs.

• National e-waste recycling scheme signs second provider

  The Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform (ANZRP) has become the second service provider to join the national e-waste recycling scheme, following DHL Supply Chain earlier this month.

• Monitoring the key to streamlining efficiencies?

  Effectively monitoring data centres – their systems, applications and servers – can not only help streamline process but also enable quicker responses to failures.

• NextDC reduces its carbon footprint with solar

  NextDC has moved to reduce the carbon footprint of its data centres through adopting photovoltaic technology to power its M1 data centre, based in Port Melbourne.

• Power profiles to help electronics go Green

  The energy usage of electronic devices could be reduced simply by changing and improving the way it is measured, a study from the Australian National University (ANU) has found.

• U.S. to use climate to help cool exascale systems

  In a picturesque spot overlooking San Francisco Bay, the U.S. Department of Energy's Berkeley Lab has begun building a new computing center that will one day house exascale systems.

• In Search of an Energy Yardstick

  Earlier this fall, Google made an announcement that in many ways foretells the future of data center efficiency metrics. The search giant not only disclosed its total power consumption and carbon emissions (mostly attributable to its data centers), but also released estimates of its per-user and per-search energy consumption. With this information -- and given that a billion Google searches occur per day -- it was possible to calculate that searches account for 12.5 million watts of the company's 260 million watt total.

• Green Room feature

  The old adage ‘you can’t improve what you can’t measure’ seems particularly apt when it comes to bringing data centres up to a point where their power consumption, and corresponding carbon emissions, can be properly reported back to the business.

• In pictures: Western Suburbs State Special School and Kroll Ontrack's tech recycling program

  Brisbane's Western Suburbs State Special School has partnered with technology security firm Kroll Ontrack to reduce the volume of materials produced by IT products.

• Aussies worry about recycling phones

  A majority of Australians are putting off recycling their mobile phones because they're concerned about protecting their personal data.

• Facebook-led foundation pushes for open data center tech

  Facebook and several of its high-tech partners are rethinking how companies can handle big data with low-cost computing centers.

• Test Aims to Disprove Data Center Dogma

  Since January, David Filas, a data center engineer at Trinity Health, has been running decommissioned servers, networking gear and storage systems in a simple generator shed on the grounds of the healthcare provider's headquarters in Novi, Mich.

• While we wait for cold fusion, let's update the ECPA

  Well, last week's Backspin on Rossi's E-Cat power generator was fun. Between that column and a blog posting I made on the topic over at Forbes, I've had more than 100 comments and an insane number of page views which all goes to show just what a hot topic alternative energy is.

• Green room: Carbon diem

  After months of speculation, details of the Federal Government’s carbon tax have finally emerged and now industry, consumers, politicians and lobby groups are in the thick of debating its costs and consequences.