Sustainable IT | Ted Samson | November 2007

MORE ENTRIES

November 2007

November 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Emerson delivers free Energy Logic blueprint for building a power-efficient datacenter

the path to green efficiency How-to guides are downright handy for tackling daunting projects, such as deploying a new BPM (business process management) solution or building a birdhouse (one of those really fancy ones with indoor plumbing).

One of the most daunting tasks that companies face today is figuring out how to wring greater energy efficiency out of their datacenters. Certainly, many vendors are ready to step up and demonstrate where their respective products fit into the power-saving puzzle. But there's something to be said for a vendor-neutral blueprint to plan the overall task.

That all is a wordy lead-in to pointing you to a new report -- available as a free download -- released today by Emerson Network Power. It's titled "Energy Logic: Reducing Data Center Energy Consumption by Creating Savings that Cascade Across Systems," and it's an impressive piece of work, outlining ten interrelated technology strategies that comprise a holistic approach to improving datacenter energy efficiency by as much as 50 percent, according to the company. And as I noted, it's free.

For a little background, Emerson has coined the term "Energy Logic" in this report, a strategy which, according to the company, "centers on 'the cascade effect' by which one watt saved at the processor level can save an average total of 2.84 watts in energy consumption."

The report starts at the server component level, outlining the benefits of low-power processors. "Independent research studies show these lower-power processors deliver the same performance as higher power models," the report says. "In the 5,000-square-foot datacenter modeled for this paper, low-power processors create a 10 percent reduction in overall datacenter power consumption."

Next up: power supplies. The report notes that most power supplies found in servers are working at around 72 percent effiency -- yet "best-in-class power supplies are available today that deliver efficiency of 90 percent. Use of these power supplies reduces power draw within the data center by 124 kW or 11 percent of the 1127 kW total," the report says.

From there, the report suggests that datacenter operators look at power-management software. Despite the fact that processors have built-in power-management features, they end up disabled for fear of crippling response time. Yet "in idle mode, most servers consume between 70 and 85 percent of full operational power."

The Emerson Energy Logic report suggests that admins reconsider how they use power-management features. In the 5,000 square foot datacenter model, the report says that using power-management features can reduce peak power draw from 80 percent to 45 percent, saving "an additional 86 kW or eight percent of the unoptimized datacenter load."

Blade servers have a role to play in the energy-efficient datacenter, according to the Emerson report. "Blade servers consume about 10 percent less power than equivalent rack-mount servers because multiple servers share common power supplies, cooling fans and other components. ... More importantly, blades facilitate the move to a high-density data center architecture, which can significantly reduce energy consumption."

Moving on, Emerson's Energy Logic strategy highlights server virtualization. In the 5,000 square foot model, "assuming 25 percent of servers are virtualized with eight non-virtualized physical servers being replaced by one virtualized physical server, ... virtualization provides an incremental eight percent reduction in total datacenter power," according to the report.

No. 6 on Emerson's energy-efficiency menu for datacenters: best cooling practices. That includes "sealing gaps in floors, using blanking panels in open spaces in racks, and avoiding mixing of hot and cold air." This is low-hanging fruit that requires no additional technology investment but can result in a five percent efficiency boost, based, again, on the 5,000 square foot datacenter model.

415V AC power distribution is the next strategy component in Emerson's Energy Logic scheme. The short of it is, most UPS systems are rather inefficient, as they convert incoming power to DC and then back to AC within the UPS. "In most datacenters, the UPS provides power at 480V, which is then stepped down via a transformer, with accompanying losses, to 208V in the power distribution system," according to the report. "These stepdown losses can be eliminated by converting UPS output power to 415V." The result: "an incremental two percent reduction in facility energy use" in the 5,000 square foot model.

Cooling reappears in the report next, specifically variable capacity cooling. "Typically, CRAC [computer room air conditioners] fans run at a constant speed and deliver a constant volume of air flow. Converting these fans to variable frequency drive fans allows fan speed and power draw to be reduced as load decreases," the report says. Emerson specifically cites digital scroll compressors here, which "allow the capacity of room air conditioners to be matched exactly to room conditions without turning compressors on and off."

The payoff: "A 20 percent reduction in fan speed provides almost 50 percent savings in fan-power consumption."

Ninth in the Emerson Energy Logic lineup is, lo, another cooling strategy: high-density supplemental cooling. Datacenter operators are cramming more machines into their facility, and CRAC systems alone can't handle the extra heat. "Supplemental cooling units are mounted above or alongside equipment racks, and pull hot air directly from the hot aisle and deliver cold air to the cold aisle," the report explains. These units can reduce cooling costs by 30 percent, Emerson reports.

Last but not least, there's monitoring and optimization. With varying types of hardware spread out around the datacenter, cooling can prove inefficient. "Cooling control systems can monitor conditions across the datacenter and coordinate the activities of multiple units to prevent conflicts and increase teamwork," the report says. "In the model, an incremental saving of one percent is achieved as a result of system-level monitoring and control."

There's plenty more information to be gleaned from Emerson's 21-page Energy Logic report, along with helpful charts and diagrams to help datacenter operators as they venture toward a greener, more sustainable facility.

Did I mention the report is available as a free download? Get it right here.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the Sustainable IT blog, tracking trends toward greener, more energy-efficient IT. Subscribe to his free Green Tech newsletter here.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 29, 2007 10:02 AM

November 29, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Case study: Clean-energy plan proves too risky for 365 Main customers

how to kill a green IT project How much are you willing to pay to be green? It's a question percolating in the gray matter of many an individual, from the corner-office CEO to the average end-user. In some cases, investing in a green (or lean) initiative can result in long-term cost savings through lower energy bills. At other times, the ROI isn't monetary; the payoff is eco-friendliness.

Prompting this perhaps less-than-astute observation is a case study shared with me by two gentlemen from 365 Main, Miles Kelly, VP of corporate strategy and J.P. Balajadia, VP of operations. The short of it is, 365 Main, a datacenter developer and operator, attempted to pursue a very green project: a new datacenter in Newark, Calif. fueled entirely by natural-gas-powered generators. Although the company was ready to put down the substantial capital for the (relatively) clean energy source -- without charging a dime to would-be customers -- they found that said customers weren't willing to risk leasing space for fear of insufficient uptime.

Let me start with some background on 365 Main, though. The company has had both green and lean practices on its agenda since it was founded in 2002 and opened its first datacenter in San Francisco on 365 Main Street. (A cookie to whoever can figure out how the company came up with its name.)

"From a green perspective, we started looking at datacenter efficiency long before I would say the green trend started in the last couple of years," says Kelly.

For example, the company worked with California utility PG&E to perform an efficiency audit of the datacenter and implemented "low-hanging fruit" to cut energy waste, including lighting controls and precise temperature controls, based on where the hot and cold spots of the datacenter lie.

But the company wanted to take its green agenda a step further: looking at the energy consumption of a datacenter holistically and demonstrating quantifiably that it was possible to reduce both energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Thus, company leaders decided that in constructing its new datacenter in Newark, they would not only pursue LEED certification; they also investigated the viability of installing natural-gas fueled generators to fully power the datacenter, rather than relying on the local utility.

As Kelly and Balajadia tell it, they spent some three months figuring out how to make the co-gen plan work. By their assessment, the price tag for the generators would have been $25 million -- which they say they would get back through energy-cost savings over 20 years. From an environmental standpoint, it would result in the datacenter producing 78,500 tons of carbon emissions per year, rather than 99,000 were it powered by PG&E -- which is already a relatively clean energy producer. So the difference there is around 20,500 tons of carbon. And 365 Main wasn't going to charge customers a premium for the cleaner energy option.

The guys were excited by the potential here. However, the plan proved a tough sell for 365 Main's customers. Scratch that. An impossible sell. Companies were put off by the risk of downtime. By the company's calculations, the natural-gas-powered generators alone could deliver only a 94 percent guaranteed uptime. However, the backup energy source was the local utility, which is, of course, far more reliable.

"While the combined reliability of the co-gen primary/utility backup solution would be higher than 94 percent -- say 99.8 percent -- customers didn't like the co-gen option because it provided a less reliable primary energy source. Utility as primary is more reliable at 99 percent," says Kelly.

One might wonder why the company couldn't offer an on-site backup to the natural gas option to boost uptime. 365 Main considered that as well. "We cannot store a sufficient amount of natural gas on site to ride through a catastrophic seismic event," explains Balajadia. "It's likely that an earthquake large enough to take out the gas lines would also take out the power lines. That would mean less reliability between that type of building -- co-gen with electric utility back-up -- than one with utility primary and back-up diesel generators with on-site fuel storage."

Thus 365 Main abandoned its plan to harness alternative energy at the Newark facility, which opens next year. "For me, it's frustrating. Everyone talks about the beauty of the intersection between business needs and green. Here we are bringing a real option to the table with tangible benefits, and all of a sudden, we're back to using traditional energy sources," says Kelly.

Notably, building a datacenter facility powered entirely by alternative energy isn't an impossible feat. AISO.net runs entirely on solar power and has natural-gas-powered generators as backup. There's also a connection to the local power company, Southern California Edison, for emergencies. According to the company's founder Phil Nail, AISO.net offers 99.99 percent uptime.

Square footage and associated energy requirements, however, are a significant differentiating factor: AISO's entire facility measures around 2,000 square feet whereas 365 Main's Newark datacenter facility measure 136,410 square feet, 83,000 of which is raised floor. Going solar would have required a lot more land around the Newark facility, which wasn't an option.

Despite their disappointment, Kelly and Balajadia are taking it all in stride and chalking it up to a potential learning experience for 365 Main and other companies; hence their decision to share their tale. "If we were building this facility in New England, New York, or New Jersey where energy prices are even higher [than in California] and there are dirtier power plants, we may be able to make the argument that [co-gen] is the way to go, not only from an environmental perspective but also from a cost-savings perspective," says Balajadia.

The lesson in all this appears to be that, despite the interest in environmental stewardship espoused by so many companies, many of them aren't as eager to push the green envelope if there's even a minute risk to affecting the bottom line -- in this case, what appears to be a very slight chance of downtime. Or perhaps it's a case of needing even greater financial incentive to take the risk.

Whatever the case, it's heartening to see that companies such as 365 Main that are not only willing to push that envelope -- to risk $25 million and their reliability reputation -- in order to reduce carbon emissions in the name of eco-friendliness. Moreover, it's downright admirable and refreshing for them to share the story and its inherent lessons with the rest of the world. Here's hoping their efforts aren't in vain. I remain optimistic that they won't be.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld and author of the free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 29, 2007 03:00 AM

November 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Google to invest millions in seeding green energy

In a move with clear environmental and business benefits, Google has announced plans to pour tens of millions of dollars next year into research and development and related investments in renewable energy. The company also plans to invest hundreds of millions of greenbacks in breakthrough renewable energy projects that have a tangible financial ROI.

Dubbed RE < C (which presumably stands for "renewable energy costs less than coal-generated energy"), the initiative initially will focus on advanced solar thermal power, wind power technologies, enhanced geothermal systems and other potential breakthrough technologies.

"Our goal is to produce one gigawatt of renewable energy capacity that is cheaper than coal. We are optimistic this can be done in years, not decades," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products

Coal is used to supply 40 percent of the energy in the world, according to Google. Coal-spawned energy also results in the production of greenhouse-gas emissions. Renewable energy can reduce the amount of GHGs spewed out each year.

As part of the RE < C, Google will work with various organizations in the renewable energy field, including companies, R&D laboratories, and universities. Among them, there's eSolar, a Pasadena, Calif.-based company specializing in solar thermal power which replaces the fuel in a traditional power plant with heat produced from solar energy.

There's also Makani Power, located in Alameda, Calif. The company is developing high-altitude wind-energy extraction technologies aimed at harnessing the most powerful wind resources.

Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president of technology, cited by both the economic and environmental benefits of fostering renewable energy sources: "Cheap renewable energy is not only critical for the environment but also vital for economic development in many places where there is limited affordable energy of any kind."

Of course, "places in the world where affordable energy is sparse" aren't the only ones to benefit from emerging alternative-energy technologies. As with other companies that have power-hungry operations and are investing in renewable energy, Google's move ties in to its own long-term sustainability. Being able to reduce power bills and to generate its own electricity results in more resources to expand.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 28, 2007 09:06 AM

November 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP harnesses solar, wind power

Looking to reap financial savings and reduce its carbon footprint, HP today announced that it will use solar power for its forthcoming datacenter in San Diego and wind power for facilties in Ireland.

For the San Diego facility, HP has signed an agreement with SunPower that covers the installation of a 1-megawatt solar-electric power system and required maintenance of the system for the next 15 years. The solar installation won't belong to HP; rather, it will be financed and owned by a third-party financier. That means HP won't put down a dime in upfront capital costs. Moreover, under the terms of the agreement, HP has locked in a reduced, locked-in rate under the SunPower Access program.

HP estimates it will save approximately $750,000 in energy costs during the next 15 years. The company also will earn renewable energy credits as the installation will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 16 million pounds during the next 15 years.

The SunPower installation will include 5,000 solar panels atop five of the seven buildings. Notably, it will only provide just over 10 percent of HP's energy use at the San Diego facility.

Over in Ireland, HP has sign a contract with Airtricity, a renewable energy company developing and operating wind farms across Europe and North America. Through the agreement, Airtricity will supply renewable wind energy, generated by both onshore and offshore wind farms. to a number of HP's facilities in Ireland for fiscal year 2008.

Through the contract, HP will purchase more than 80 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy. The company predicts it will save around $40,000 over the year-long contract, and that it will reduce its carbon emissions by 40,000 tons.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 27, 2007 08:37 AM

November 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Green strategies for the little guys

SMBs can benefit from sustainable IT practices as much as enterprise companies. Here are six strategies.

Enterprise companies with enormous power-draining datacenters aren't the only organizations out there feeling the pinch of soaring energy bills and struggling to keep the carbon footprints in check. SMBs are seeking strategies to lower electric bills and become better environmental stewards.

A recent survey of SMBs, conducted by IBM, found that small businesses are citing energy as the biggest cost increase over the past two years. Meanwhile, 58 percent of SMBs around the world have expressed concern about the environment and 44 percent have put environmental policies in place.

The survey found that SMBs are initially turning to IT solutions -- rather than, say, investing in solar power or relocating to green buildings -- to drive down those energy costs and reduce their impact on the environment. This certainly doesn't surprise me: I truly believe that IT has the power to make the world a greener place.

But what's a well-intentioned CEO of an SMB -- one that lacks the resources of its enterprise brethren -- to do to cut those energy bills? Well, there are several strategies.

1. Virtualize
Whether you have 1,000 servers or 100 servers, there are gains to be reaped from virtualization. For example, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General, as part of a much-needed IT upgrade, used virtualization to consolidate 130 outdated servers to 40 blade servers. Tech companies such as IBM and VMware are keenly aware of the fact that SMBs can reap the benefits of virtualization and are tailoring tools accordingly.

2. Manage PC power better
Every PC and monitor left on overnight can cost your company as much as $75 per year in energy bills, according to Energy Star. One alternative is to simply require employees to power down their computers and monitors each night before taking off. (Putting a system in sleep mode is, energy-wise, better than using a screensaver.) There are also products on the market designed to power systems off and on, depending on whether they're in use or if they require patching.

3. Invest in greener systems
When it comes time to refresh your employees' PCs, shop with care. First, opt for Energy Star-compliant systems. Second, consider deploying notebooks instead of standard desktops. According to HP, the former uses up to 90 percent less energy. Finally, when you purchase monitors, go with LCDs over CRTs. LCDs uses half to two-thirds the energy of CRTs, according to Energy Star, plus they produce less heat. In the datacenter or server room, shop around for energy-efficient machines, which server vendors are pushing. There's no Energy Star standard for such systems (yet), so you'll have to do a bit more research.

4. Take an all-in-one approach to printing
Rather than buying a separate fax machine, copier, and printer, consider an all-in-one systems, available from companies such as Lexmark, HP, Canon, Xerox, and others. Fewer machines means less energy waste, and that means lower power bills.

5. Reduce paper and ink waste
Printer ink and paper costs can add up quickly. Advocate e-mail over paper memos and faxes, and urge employees not to print or copy more than is absolutely necessary. Also, once a document has been printed and is no longer needed, the blank sides of the pages are still perfectly usable. Rather than tossing them into the recycling bin, have employees stack them beside the copier/fax/printer/MFP. They can pop in the sheets as appropriate.

6. Consider telecommuting
Depending on your operations, it may be entirely feasible to let employees work at home even once a week. (Laptops help make that all the more possible -- see No. 3.) Your employees will no doubt like the perk -- and for each day they work from home, you're not paying for their energy usage. As a bonus, sparing an employee from driving into work also spares the air from unfriendly GHGs.

As with any sustainable game plan, you ought not jump into anything willy-nilly. Plan your path carefully, taking time to measure your starting point and your progress.

Also, communicating the strategy to employees is a must. Solicit ideas, promote the benefits, and celebrate accomplishments.

In the short term, embracing one or more of these green strategies should result in lower costs for your SMB. But there's an added long-term benefit for fostering greener, more sustainable practices early on in the life of your business: You'll have a green-minded culture in place as your company expands, and sustainable strategies will play into your future growth. That's certainly a positive groundwork to lay: Green companies are more efficient and less wasteful -- and in turn, more profitable.

What advice would you give to SMBs seeking IT strategies to be greener? Post below, or drop me a line at ted_samson@infoworld.com.

Ted Samson is a senior analyst at InfoWorld, tracking trends toward greener, more energy-efficient IT. Subscribe to his free weekly Green Tech newsletter.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 15, 2007 03:00 AM

November 14, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Verizon recycling program fights domestic violence

November and December are busy months for me. There's Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Channukah, my parents' anniversary, my sister's birthday, my brother-in-law's birthday, my own birthday, and my dad's birthday. So I hope I can be forgiven for not realizing until today that tomorrow, Nov. 15, is America Recycles Day. (Spare a tree, please; don't send me a card.)

Yes, it's easy to be a bit cynical about the host of arbitrary "holidays" that clutter our calendars. (National Kazoo Day will be on Jan. 28; better start preparing.) But I can get behind America Recycles Day, especially when I learn about programs such as Verizon's HopeLine.

The way it works is, Verizon collects no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries, and accessories in any condition -- from any wireless service provider -- at its Communications Stores nationwide. Phones that can be refurbished are sold for reuse; those that can't are disposed of in an environmentally sound way. That part is good for the environment. Proceeds go toward providing wireless phones and cash grants to shelters and non-profit organizations that focus on domestic-violence prevention and awareness.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 14, 2007 10:13 AM

November 12, 2007 | Comments: (0)

HP lands green datacenter consultant EYP

Extending its reach into the ripening green-consulting space, HP today announced the acquisition of EYP Mission Critical Facilities, a consulting company specializing in strategic technology planning, design and operations support for large-scale datacenters.

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. HP's aim, however, is clear: to tap into the growing demand for more energy-efficient datacenters by bolstering its existing Data Center Services, and no doubt hawking more HP gear along the way.

"The datacenter is the foundation of IT for enterprises, an essential building block for driving business growth and adapting to changing business objectives," said John McCain, senior vice president and general manager of HP Services in a written statement. "Acquiring EYP Mission Critical Facilities boosts HP's ability to help customers transform their datacenters and build dynamic computing environments from the ground up."

EYP has developed a green reputation since its establishment in 2001 as a split-off from A/E giant Einhorn Yaffee Prescott. Headquartered in New York with 13 offices worldwide and technical staff of more than 350, the company's arsenal of tools includes a homegrown software package called EnerOpt, designed to assess and optimize energy consumption in the datacenter. Among its clients, the company claims 25 percent of the Fortune magazine's list of top EPA Green Partners. Moreover, the company designed the first LEED-rated datacenter for Fannie Mae in Urbana, Maryland, and is currently designing a datacenter for the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.

Like other big-name hardware companies, including IBM, Dell, and Sun, HP has been playing up the green credentials of its wares, such as its Smart Dynamic Cooling offering, power capping features in its Systems Insight Manager software, and its recently announced line of more energy-efficient ProLiant BL460c blades.

Moreover, the big boys of technology have also started adding more green-hued services to their portfolios. In August, IBM added carbon consulting to business consulting operation. Also in August, Sun unveiled an Eco Services Suite. BT is also on the list.

HP's acquisition of EYP is subject to certain closing conditions and is expected to be completed within HP's first fiscal quarter.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 12, 2007 11:28 AM

November 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

The greener -- and darker -- sides of MS's refurbisher program

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher (MAR) program through which companies that sell refurbished PCs can easily load licensed versions of Windows XP and necessary drivers onto their wares. You can read the details right here.

I've got mixed feelings about the MAR program. On the plus side, it may encourage more environmentally concerned, pennywise, and/or cautious-minded companies and home users to consider purchasing refurbished PCs. Let's break that down.

I say environmentally minded because every year, as recently reported by Leon Erlanger, the e-waste problem is big and growing. To paraphrase some of his report:

According to IDC, in 2006 alone, 30.7 million commercial PCs, or 70 percent of the total commercial installed base, were retired. Yet IDC estimates that only 33 percent of U.S. companies, mostly large enterprises, have made use of the asset disposal industry. In the European Union the number is closer to 40 percent. That's unfortunate, because the increasing number of retired PCs that end up in landfills results in more toxic pollution. PCs and monitors, especially old ones, contain a multitude of hazardous substances.

That's not good news. But what is good news is the fact that the market for refurbished systems is growing. Up to 28 million refurbished PCs will be sold this year, making up 10 percent of the global PC market, according to Microsoft said Hani Shakeel, senior product manager of the genuine Windows product marketing team.

I say that that refurbished PCs in general should appeal to the penny-wise because they simply cost less than new ones. It's entirely likely that two-year-old computers will suit the needs of the average home user or employees at an SMB, so if you go the refurbished route, you can save some cash.

Finally, there's the cautious-minded aspect to the MAR program, which I know is a controversial topic. Like it or not, if you want support from Microsoft, including access to necessary patches and updates, you need to be running a legitimately licensed version of Windows.

Through MAR, companies and end-users who buy systems from a participating reseller will know the machines are fully functional and ready to work out of the box, loaded with a version of XP that Microsoft will recognize and support. That provides some peace of mind -- and saves time that would be spent loading Windows onto the machines at the office. Those benefits could encourage more people to consider refurbished PCs as an alternative to new ones.

Now here's what might bother you about MAR, and it certainly gives me pause. Suppose a company sells 50 PCs to, say, TechTurn, one of the two refurbishers currently participating in MAR. The systems are in pristine condition, and all are running licensed versions of Windows XP Pro. However, the company's IT admin didn't keep the original OS CDs to demonstrate that each version of XP was legit, which is pretty common.

So TechTurn does a full wipe of the systems, down to the bare metal. Then, as a result, thanks to Microsoft's end-user license agreement, TechTurn has to pay for new Windows licenses for each one of those systems. Albeit, the licenses are discounted ones; still, that's an expense that presumably gets passed on to the buyer. So ultimately, Microsoft is reaping the benefits of selling a second Windows license for a PC that was already running one fair and square -- because the admin or user didn't save the original installation CDs. That part's not quite fair, now is it?

The thing is -- and this is me speculating -- Microsoft should have ways of probing systems to ensure they're running legitimate versions of XP. Why not supply refurbishers with the tools to do just that before wiping them? Systems that are could then be reloaded after they're wiped with the same licensed version of XP they ran pre-wipe. The refurbisher could even burn a copy of the necessary backup CD, for a neglible fee, and package it with the system.

What do you think about the MAR program?

Posted by Ted Samson on November 9, 2007 11:47 AM

November 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Big green event in the Big Apple -- and it's free

Concerns over rising energy costs as well as the state of the environment are spurring more organizations to develop sustainable game plans. While technology alone won't solve those problems -- planning and corporate culturals shifts are essential -- there are plenty of green-tech tools on the market to help.

That will be one of the topics discussed a free upcoming conference this month in New York City, verbosely called "The Positive Impact of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) on the Environment and Climate Change." UN-GAID (United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development) and AIT (Association for Information Technologies) Global are the organizers.

Among presentations at the conference, Green Grid Boardmember Bruce Shaw will be leading a panel discussion called "A Look at Technology's Role in Environmental Change." Experts will talk about technology improvements that make it easier to succeed in the "green revolution" and the role ICT will take.

Tutorials will illustrate cover topics such as how ICT can: expand environmental information; amplify environmental leadership and responsibility; redefine the efficient datacenter; reduce paper dependency (a topic near and dear to my heart); and more.

The conference is a two-day event, Nov. 27 and 28 at the United Nations HQ in NYC -- and like I said, it's free. That's a tough deal to beat.

For more information or to register, go to www.aitglobal.com .

Posted by Ted Samson on November 8, 2007 12:54 PM

November 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Taking the LEED on building green

Taking the LEED on building green Imagine, if you will, taking a 1917 Ford Model T, tearing out its old engine, and popping in a state-of-the-art, environmentally friendlier hybrid engine. The notion, while enticing from both technological and eco-friendly perspectives, would seem downright daft. While a 90-year-old automobile may well be beyond significant environmental, money-saving upgrades, a 90-year-old building in Chicago is not.

Digital Realty, which owns, acquires, and manages technology-related real estate worldwide, announced late last week that it's the first company to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for a datacenter facility. Adding to the achievement is the fact that the Chicago-based facility was originally constructed in 1917 as the R.R. Donnelly printing plant.

"This project shatters the myth that LEED certification can only be achieved within newer facilities," says Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty.

For those of you who don't have "LEED" tucked away in the acronym section of your memory bank, it's the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high-performance green buildings. The rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.

"LEED guidelines incorporate so many proven best practices for building engineering and construction," says Smith. "Following those best practices results in facilities that are very cost-effective from both a construction and operations point of view. Anything that makes datacenters more efficient is a good thing from a business point of view -- both for our Digital Realty Trust and for our customers."

Digital Realty's project is a built-to-suit datacenter for an undisclosed Fortune Global 500 company. The facility features 20,000 square feet of raised-floor space with 4,000 kW of available IT load, according to Digital Realty. Features of this particular project include sophisticated tools for measuring energy consumption ("Step one for energy-efficient operations is always to have a way to measure," says Smith), as well as equipment and a monitoring system that "ensures the air is clean, and helps us improve performance of the ventilation system and improve indoor air quality."

(For more from Smith about the project and LEED, check out this Q&A.)

LEED on!
LEED certification is by no means just about earning bragging rights for having a green-haloed building, either. Like so many sustainable technology efforts, a LEED endeavor results in significant long-term cost savings through waste reduction.

There are, of course, additional expenses incurred when pursuing a LEED-certified facility. The cost can vary greatly depending on several factors, including what level of certification an organization seeks to attain (from "certified" to Platinum), project characteristics, and many others.

In the case of Digital Realty's project, the costs were 4 percent higher, although the company did not disclose total expenses for the project. "The financial impact of the LEED process was an extra 4 percent in cost -- half of which was materials and tools, and the other half of which was administrative. Very efficient from a cost perspective, and it has an overwhelmingly positive net present value. Definitely worth the cost," says Smith.

There's also a more advanced commissioning process required for organizations seeking high-level LEED certification for a building project. Most buildings go through a fundamental commissioning process, a systematic process of ensuring that its complex array of systems is designed, installed, and tested to perform according to the design intent and the building owner's operational needs. Advanced commissioning entails a more time-intensive process, hitting higher bars on some testing metrics.

LEEDers of the pack
Digital Realty isn't the only high-tech company to champion a LEED-certified project of late. Companies such as Adobe and Qualcomm, for example, reaped recognition from Flex Your Power earlier this year for their respective LEED-certified projects. Moreover, they've both enjoyed significant savings from reduced energy waste.

Notably, and certainly not surprisingly, one of the common threads among these projects is the IT components, such as tools for monitoring and managing heat and lighting through a network. Once again, it demonstrates just how critical a role IT plays in helping organizations undergo green transformations.

Through its "Greening of Adobe" project, the company earned Platinum-level certification for three of its HQ buildings in San Jose, Calif. The company created and implemented a rather sophisticated, integrated building monitoring and control system, allowing staff to handle the controls for various building operating systems from a single UI. Lighting zones, for example, can be turned off and on with a single click of a mouse; HVAC temperatures can be adjusted with another click. Adobe reported that it managed to save some $1,182,000 -- and 9.2 million kWh -- from its efforts, representing 30 percent of total electricity use.

Similarly, Qualcomm's realized some impressive energy and cost savings with facility upgrades in its San Diego-based Building W Campus, a LEED Gold-certified building. Renovations included installing a photovoltaic system that supports 60 percent of campus lighting requirements and offsets demand during peak periods.

The company also added efficient faucets, flush valves, shower heads, plus an increase in cycles of chilled water circulation, saving 670,000 gallons of water annually. The campus has incorporated high-efficiency lighting fixtures, gas absorption chillers, boilers, and water heaters. All in all, the company reported to have garnered savings of 9.6 million kWh last year -- 30 percent of total electricity use.

Organizations that prefer not to undergo the entire LEED-certification process can still derive benefits from drawing on the system's benchmarks and best practices. HP, for example, says it's been implementing LEED criteria in its buildings whenever possible, as well as hiring LEED-certified architects. Yet the company doesn't currently have any formally LEED-certified facilities.

Nevertheless, the company reports that it recently converted two facilities in Austin, Texas, into datacenters that comply with the LEED standards. Benefits have included decreasing building energy use by 21 percent, compared to projected consumption without the improvements; installing heating and cooling systems that minimize our impact on ozone depletion and climate change; reducing water use for irrigation by 50 percent; and reducing building water usage by 20 percent.

For more about LEED certification, go to the U.S. Green Building Council's Web site.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 8, 2007 03:00 AM

November 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Q&A: From 90 years old to LEED gold

There's a tendency in our society to simply throw out the old and replace it with something shiny and new. Sometimes, that might be necessary; often, though, the old still has value, and chucking it results in costly and unnecessary waste. An older server, for example, could still function as a test machine for patches. Or a 90-year-old building could be transformed into an energy-efficient, eco-friendly datacenter.

Skeptics may scoff at the notion, but not Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty Trust. Smith took the lead in transforming 20,000 square feet of a facility built in 1917 into the world's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold-certified datacenter.

Judging by previous interactions I've had with Smith, I can safely say that this project wasn't simply a "green-washing" publicity stunt. Smith approaches sustainable IT from a very practical, business-oriented standpoint: boosting efficiency and reducing waste results in long-term cost savings. Embracing LEED benchmarks, as companies such as Adobe, Qualcomm, and HP have done, helps to lay down the foundation for reaping those benefits.

Following is a Q&A between Smith and me about the datacenter renovation project.

Ted Samson: I see the building was built in 1917. Did the company recently acquire it and do a full renovation before starting to use it, as opposed to using it, then deciding to do the LEED renovation?

Jim Smith: We've owned the 350 East Cermak building in Chicago for more than two years and LEED Gold certified a new datacenter within the building as a project for a customer. We did not have to do any major renovations to get the LEED certifications, but it was nonetheless an intensive process. Not simple, but we did it and are proud of how it turned out.

The LEED Gold certification is not for the entire building. 350 East Cermak is a huge building -- more than a million square feet in total -- and this specific certification is for about 40,000 square feet, which is still a large space but not the entire building. We have another project in the works that will be an entire floor and we're excited about that.

TS: What was the thinking in upgrading an existing, old building as opposed to finding a more modern building or starting from scratch?

JS: A few factors went into the decision to use an existing building. One is that the customer really liked the 350 Cermak facility because it is such an ideal spot, right in the Loop and at the exchange. Another important factor for us is that the LEED certification encourages reuse of existing structures, which is very energy-efficient when you look at how much energy is used in materials and construction for new buildings.

There are some misconceptions that LEED certification only makes sense for new buildings, but this project showed us that the process definitely works for existing buildings. Even huge, old, historic structures like this one in Chicago.

One key takeaway from this project for the datacenter industry as a whole is that energy-efficiency initiatives should not just be limited to new construction. You can do great projects in existing buildings and get amazing results.

TS: Could you please give me a couple of "before and after" examples as to what changes you made to the facility to help it earn its Gold certification? I'm particularly interested in anything that improves energy efficiency, that was solved with IT tools, or that affects the datacenter performance.

JS: One important thing we used are sophisticated energy-measurement tools.... These are not expensive, but they provide critical data that let you understand what is happening in the datacenter. Every datacenter should have this, particularly since it is such a small investment and provides such valuable information. Step one for energy-efficient operations is always to have a way to measure.

Another important thing ... is commissioning -- both fundamental commissioning and advanced commissioning.... It was an important step in the process for this LEED Gold datacenter. The commissioning process is very meaningful because it verifies the design basis and makes you test the systems for efficiency. You learn a lot during this process and can apply that knowledge right upfront to make adjustments that ensure you are maximizing your energy savings.

We [also] installed tools to monitor outside air at the facility. The equipment and monitoring system makes sure the air is clean, and helps us improve performance of the ventilation system and improve indoor air quality.

TS: How much did the project cost?

JS: The financial impact of the LEED process was an extra 4 percent in cost -- half of which was materials and tools, and the other half of which was administrative. Very efficient from a cost perspective, and it has an overwhelmingly positive net present value. Definitely worth the cost.

One important thing that I would highlight is this: There is some skepticism out there about how relevant LEED certification is to datacenters and about how significant the benefits are. I would argue that is does have a lot of value and should be strongly considered as one of number of tools that companies can use to make their datacenters more efficient. It's not the end-all-be-all, but it does provide a way of focusing the engineering and design and construction and operations teams -- with a process that builds good habits and keeps them focused on objectives that do achieve energy efficiency.

Anyone who has ever been involved in a datacenter project knows the value in having a process that keeps those teams focused and organized in this way. That alone makes this process valuable, even before you factor in the energy-efficiency gains.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 8, 2007 03:00 AM

November 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Govs pledge to buy greener hardware for state governments

If you're a hardware vendor and "energy efficiency" isn't high on your product-feature list, you're risking losing some valuable customers -- perhaps as many as 50, with names such as Kansas and Minnesota.

The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced a partnership between the NGA chair's Securing a Clean Energy Future (SCEF) initiative and the Climate Savers Computing Initiative (CSCI) to spur deployment of more energy-efficient computers and servers in state offices and agencies.

Two governors, NGA Chair Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, have committed to the partnership thus far, and they will work to encourage their 48 peers to follow suit.

The move would certainly have eco-friendly benefits. Moreover, it would result fewer wasted tax dollars. Underutilized hardware can spell costly waste. For example, powering down PCs that aren't in use can result in as much as $45 in energy savings per system and $30 per monitor, per year, according to Energy Star.

"The average desktop PC currently wastes half of the power it receives," said Gov. Pawlenty in a written statement. "Having states increase the energy efficiency of their computing equipment will save consumers and taxpayers money, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change."

Under the terms of the agreement, these states have committed to reducing energy consumption from a majority of their computing equipment by:

- pledging to purchase high-efficiency computer equipment that meets or exceeds federal Energy Star ratings;

- optimizing existing computer systems by educating employees about more efficient and effective computer power-management strategies, such as better using hibernation and sleep modes;

- and ensuring in subsequent years states purchase computing equipment with increasing levels of efficiency.

Beyond preserving precious tax dollars, the initiative could spur citizens and merchants to embrace more sustainable practices themselves, observes Bill Weihl, co-chairman of the CSCI board of directors and Google's green energy czar. "[Their] actions will provide leadership for residents and local businesses looking to implement effective emission reduction policies," he said in a written statement.

CSCI, an initiative started by Google and Intel, brings together manufacturers, businesses, organizations and individuals to significantly increase the energy efficiency of computers and servers. The group is led by representatives from nine board of director companies, including Dell; Electronic Data Systems; HP; Intel; and Microsoft.

For more information about the SCEF Initiative, go to nga.org/ci. For more information about CSCI, visit climatesaverscomputing.org.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 7, 2007 10:24 AM

November 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Audio: Four industry experts discuss the green datacenter

At InfoWorld's Virtualization Executive Forum in New York last September, I had the pleasure of leading a panel discussion about the green datacenter with four industry experts. Although I lacked equipment to record the event, Microsoft's Lewis Curtis came prepared. He's graciously made the audio file available on his blog.

Be forewarned: It's 45 minutes long, but the participants dispensed plenty of keen observations and useful nuggets of information.

The participants included: Robert Aldrich, senior manager of datacenter solutions at Cisco; the aforementioned Curtis, Microsoft's strategic infrastructure architecture advisor and environmental evangelist; Kevin Leahy, director of IT optimization business and unit and virtualization offerings at IBM; and Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty Trust.

On a related note, InfoWorld's next Virtualization Executive Forum takes place on Feb. 4, 2008 in San Francisco. In addition to sessions covering various aspects of virtualization implementation, there will be a presentation on the green datacenter. Details to come.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 7, 2007 08:00 AM

November 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IBM aims at trimming electric bills with Active Energy Manager

Management tools aimed at reining in datacenter energy waste -- and associated high costs -- continue to hit the market. The latest example comes from IBM in a software package called Systems Director Active Energy Manager (AEM).

Products such as AEM, as well as HP's Systems Insight Manager and Cassatt's Active Response, share similar features such as power capping. This function enables admins to reduce the amount of energy a given server consumes. The rationale is, servers -- particularly underutilized machines -- generally don't require as much juice as recommended out of the box. Thus, they end up using more electricity and generating more heat than necessary.

In addition to the power-capping capabilities, AEM lets admins monitor energy-usage trends to help in planning new workloads throughout the datacenter. That's of particular use to admins grappling with tight power budgets.

"Active Energy Manager gives clients a way to understand exactly how much power is being used in their data centers and where it is being consumed," said Rich Lechner, IBM's vice president for IT optimization, in a written statement. "Along with being able to cap the energy that powers these systems, this information can help save significant energy and cooling costs and create a greener datacenter environment."

Originally introduced in 2005 at PowerExecutive, AEM manages power usage across supported servers through functions such as power capping and a power-savings mode, which IBM says can potentially save datacenter operators as much as 30 percent of system power demand.

The power capping lets users set a maximum power level per system; power-savings mode lets users manage power usage as work activity shifts across various demands. This mode is enabled via an on/off switch, which can be scheduled during times of low utilization, IBM says. On supported machines, the function can be automated based on processor utilization. In addition, alerts and messages can be sent to higher-level systems management applications to automate the process.

In addition, AEM includes power-trending and thermal-trending features to monitor and report system energy usage as well as inlet and exhaust air temperatures for individual systems. "The offering allows finite and localized temperature adjustments within the IT shop to further reduce energy costs for cooling," according to IBM.

IBM says that AEM exploits iPDUs (intelligent power distribution units) to support older servers and low- and mid-range storage devices. By plugging these systems into a supported iPDU or a smart power strip, AEM collects power information and presents it in a centralized place, according to the company.

Originally developed for IBM's x86 System x hardware, AEM supports additional IBM's Power Systems and System Storage platforms. Big Blue plans to extend support to IBM System z mainframes. In addition, the company says "some hardware from other manufacturers is supported."

AEM also provides energy management data used by Tivoli enterprise solutions such as IBM Tivoli Monitoring and IBM Tivoli Usage and Accounting Manager.

IBM Systems Director Active Energy Manager will be available for download beginning Dec. 7. Pricing will start at less than $100 per system and include both Power Savings Mode and Power Capping. iPDU capabilities, power trending, and thermal trending are free AEM features.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 6, 2007 02:44 PM

November 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Catalog Choice spares businesses and users from paper waste

E-mail spam is an irritant, but today's filters seem pretty adept at filing those unwanted messages in the junk mail folder. To me, junk mail of the tree-pulp variety is far worse. It doesn't match spam for sheer quantity or often distasteful content (mine doesn't, anyway). But it does represent a huge waste of resources if you consider the expense required to print and ship something to a home or office that's going to end up heading directly into the recycling bin.

Of course, as the recipient, I'm not footing the bill; I'm just briefly inconvenienced as I sort through my mail. But I'd think a merchant would want to know that I have absolutely no desire to receive its periodic catalogs so said merchant could save some money by no longer sendnig them to me.

Thus, I was pleased to learn from a co-worker about a Web site called Catalog Choice, a sponsored project of the Ecology Center. It's free service is straight-forward: Head over to the site and set up an account. Sort through the database of merchants who send you catalogs you don't want. Enter the exact name and address to which the catalog is shipped. Voila. You should stop receiving those catalogs within 10 weeks, according to the site.

If you're a merchant looking to reduce the number of unwanted catalogs you send out, you can contact the folks at Catalog Choiceand they'll set up a merchant account for you. You can choose to have your catalog opt-outs sent regularly via XML or CSV files.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 6, 2007 12:44 PM

November 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Cassatt unveils Active Reponse suite for cutting datacenter energy waste

Company says app-aware, platform-agnostic software intelligently powers servers off and on as needed

With backing from big-name IT companies such as Sun, Citrix, and Red Hat, Cassatt today unveiled its Active Response 5.0 software suite, capable of actively powering servers on and off as needed and pooling physical and virtual server resources to reduce datacenter energy waste by as much as 50 percent, according to the company.

Combining Cassatt Active Power Management and utility computing technologies based on Cassatt Collage, Active Response is designed to rein in the amount of power wasted by servers that often sit idle for long periods until they are needed. Those include machines in development and test centers, scale-out production environments, failover, and disaster recovery sites.

Specifically, Active Response employs a policy engine that, according to Cassatt, powers servers up and down on an as-needed basis, "[taking] into account server priorities and needs, server interrelationships, application dependencies and relationships, and individual server power consumption."

The software also takes into account variables such as peak and off-peak power schedules, time of day, and emergencies such as "demand curtailment" mandates from power companies to reduce electrical consumption.

Admins also can set policies to ensure server resources are available to meet service level agreements for application delivery.

The company says the system is application aware, knowing when and how apps must be shut down and brought back up. Further, it's aware of application interdependencies shared across multiple servers, Cassatt reports.

The company says the suite will run on any platform and works with any virtual or physical server , (including blade servers). Changes to existing hardware and software configs aren't necessary, either.

All told, there will be four editions of the Active Reponse suite: Standard, Premium, Data Center, and Enterprise. Especially interesting to me is the Enterprise Edition, slated for release in next year. The company says it will enable an organization to share and optimize its resources across multiple data centers in different geographies.

"Pooling your IT resources and then using software to intelligently and actively control them can create a real shift in the economics of running a datacenter," said Michelle Bailey, research vice president for IDC, in a written statement. "With products like Cassatt Active Response, customers can start to see the type of energy efficiency, application availability, and datacenter responsiveness that previously were only possible by having much higher levels of infrastructure and operations investment."

Cassatt, launched in 2003 and based in San Jose, Calif., has announced a fairly impressive array of supporters for its technology, including Sun, Citrix, Red Hat, and BearingPoint.

"We view green initiatives that promise to reduce energy with minimal resources as a win-win for everyone, and as a platform with the potential to transform the data center," said Frederic Veron, managing director, financial services infrastructure solutions at BearingPoint, in a written statement. "We are very pleased to be working with Cassatt on Active Power Management solutions that will enable our clients' data centers to intelligently power up or down in synch with business cycles and demand."

Cassatt Active Response 5.0 will ultimately be available in four editions. Standard Edition, out on Nov. 16, starts at $200 per managed machine. The Premium Edition, available today, starts at $1,250 per managed machine. The Data Center Edition, also available today, starts at $2,500 per managed machine. Finally, the Enterprise Edition will be available in the second half of 2008.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 5, 2007 12:45 PM

November 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Xerox and GreenPrint ink deal to cut print waste

The datacenter, server room, and the desktop aren't the only places to cut tech-related waste at your organization. The printing station is a prime location to reap some eco-friendly, cost-cutting benefits, considering that organizations waste around $90 per year, per user, in ink and paper expenses on unnecessary printing.

To that end, Xerox has teamed up with GreenPrint, a provider of software that lets users easily tweak documents in a print preview mode to remove superfluous graphics, text, or entire pages. The company's GreenPrint Enterprise software is available as a free download for customers who purchase one of Xerox's Phaser 8560 or 8860 solid ink color printers.

This looks to be a pretty potent waste-reducing combination. I've tried out GreenPrint, and it certainly has potential to save paper and ink.

Meanwhile, solid ink color printers, according to Xerox, "greatly reduce the waste associated with disposable toner and ink consumables by using solid sticks of non-toxic ink instead of toner or inkjet cartridges." They produce 90 percent less waste than a typical color laser printer, the company says. Solid ink printers also do not produce ozone, which has environmental and health benefits.

"We see bundling our software with Xerox solid ink printers as an ideal fit in a lot of ways," said GreenPrint CEO Hayden Hamilton in a written statement. "The solid ink printers have been designed to eliminate the waste associated with toner cartridges, bringing annual waste related to packaging and cartridges down from 157 pounds to 5 pounds per printer. With the inclusion of GreenPrint, their solid ink users can eliminate unnecessary printed pages, reducing the waste and cost associated with printing by an additional 15 to 20 percent across the board."

The bundling of the Phaser 8560 or 8860 and GreenPrint Enterprise is available now.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 2, 2007 12:21 PM

November 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IBM enters the energy efficient credit game

Big Blue today is launching the IBM Efficiency Certificates initiative, a program through which companies can earn certified energy efficiency credits (EECs) for reducing power consumption in the datacenter. Also known as white tags, EECs can serve as proof to investors of a company's energy-saving efforts -- or as a source of income when sold on the burgeoning white-tag market.

As part of the initiative, IBM has partnered with Neuwing Energy, a verifier of energy efficiency projects and marketer of EECs. Neuwing will first determine the initial energy draw from an IBM client's existing datacenter or IT equipment identified for consolidation using industry-accepted energy estimates. IBM will then work with the client to implement energy-saving projects, such as server consolidation through virtualization. After the project is complete, Neuwing will perform a second review of the energy draw and calculate the efficiency improvement in terms of megawatt hours saved. In turn, IBM will issue energy efficiency certificates representing those savings.

It's clear how Neuwing and IBM would respectively benefit from this initiative: The client company pays Neuwing for the assessment and certification. IBM profits by providing consulting services and equipment to the customers to achieve energy savings. But what's the value to a company in amassing EECs?

According to Rich Lechner, IBM's vice president of IT optimization, there are two primary benefits. First, more investors and shareholders are looking to companies to reduce their environmental impact. Saving energy has that very outcome. Thus, certificate bearers can show off their credits as proof of their efforts. As an added bonus, these kinds of credits could appeal to the financial sensibilities of investors, because they represent cost savings.

Second, Lechner says there's a growing market. Connecticut implemented a white tag standard this year; Nevada and Pennsylvania have adopted legislation requiring white tags as part of a mandated state portfolio standard. There are also markets in Europe. White-tag buyers include electric utilities mandated to cap power consumption, as well as organizations unable to meet established greenhouse gas emission goals.

"Since the recent emergence of energy efficiency certificates as a market, we have seen market volume quickly grow into the millions of megawatt-hours and expect the energy efficiency market to surpass the renewable energy certificates market in a couple of years," said Matthew Rosenblum, executive vice president and CFO of Neuwing.

In a way, saved megawatt hours is a rival metric to carbon emissions. Many companies are working to measure their carbon footprints and report improvements from year to year. Moreover, they're purchasing carbon offsets to compensate for their own CO2 emissions. But Lechner argues that measuring megawatt hours is "less fuzzy" than measuring CO2s. That is, it's relatively easy to take a piece of IT equipment and measure at the wall how many watts it consumes. The same can't be said for carbon and other GHGs.

IBM Efficiency Certificates will first be available in the United States and expand to Europe in 2008.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 1, 2007 09:01 PM

November 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Dell tailors Inspiron desktop for green

Even before Energy Star 4.0 went into effect, we saw business-oriented workstations available from vendors including Dell and HP. Now Dell has unveiled a line of ES 4.0-compliant systems for home users: greened-up versions of the Inspiron 531, apparently with enough oomph to run Vista.

"We are committed to providing consumers a choice that helps protect the environment without sacrificing the performance needed to maintain a rich, high-definition digital experience," said Karen Plotkin, director of consumer desktop marketing, in a written statement. "Consumers using this energy-efficient Inspiron 531 can reduce their carbon footprint while also reducing their electric bills."

The Inspiron 531s are powered by 80-percent efficient power supply, as required by ES 4.0. Additionally, Dell has configured the machines to enter a low-power sleep state after 15 minutes of inactivity. (Powering down systems that aren't in use can, indeed, shave money off your energy bill.)

Moreover, the company is touting the fact that the system "includes a forest-friendly paperless owner's manual," which, I, as an advocate of paper-waste reduction, do appreciate. I do wonder if it means more calls to the Dell support people from non-tech-savvy users who can't manage to get to the paperless manual to begin with.

The entry-level configuration of the Inspiron 531 comes with Vista Home Basic and includes an AMD Sempron 3600+ processor, a 1GB2 Dual Channel3 DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs; a 160GB4 SATA drive (7200RPM), as well as a CDRW/DVD combination drive and NVIDIA integrated graphics.

On the other end of the spectrum, there's a configuration running the AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+ with 2GB2 Dual Channel3 DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs; and a 500GB4 SATA 3Gbps drive (7200RPM). This one, which has Vista Home Premium installed, is listed at $1,184.

More information is available here.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 1, 2007 12:50 PM

November 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Memories of green

In the world of computer hardware, no component garners more attention than the CPU. Hardware enthusiasts wait with bated breath for the next processor to shatter the existing speed barriers. That's hardly a surprise, either. The CPU boasts all sorts of sexy adjectives: Fast. Powerful. And let's not forget hot. After all, it consumes the highest percentage of power among all the components.

Of course, those other parts, while perhaps not as wow-inducing, play critical roles, and they, too, add a few digits to your monthly power bill. Consider memory. According to Burton Group, while the CPU consumes 35 percent of the energy used by a server, memory burns 15 percent. That figure is high enough to warrant some attention, argues Kevin Kilbuck, senior marketing manager at Micron, given that every watt is becoming increasingly precious in the datacenter. "Server customers, and to a higher degree, datacenter operators have no idea how much memory is a contributor [to energy usage], and that is something they can control," he says.

By "control," he means that memory is far easier to add or swap in than, say, a more energy-efficient power supply or processor. Moreover, it's well documented that more memory yields better application performance. In tests by VeriTest, Web server performance, both data throughput and number of HTTP requests per second, increased by 73.27 percent when upgrading the amount of RAM from 512MB to 2GB and increased more than ninefold when upgrading from 512MB to 4GB.

In an effort to sweeten the deal, as it were, for companies to invest in more memory, memory vendors are stepping up with more efficient wares. Among them is Micron, which earlier this year announced its Aspen line of power-efficient memory components. They include a 1.5V DDR2 FBDIMM, as well as 1Gb-based, DDR2 RCC (reduced chip count) modules.

The RCC modules, according to Micron, deliver the same level of performance and capacity as those built with legacy 512Mb devices, but with half the number of components. This adjustment, Micron says, reduces the memory's overall energy consumption by 40 percent.

The other half of the Aspen equation is the 1.5V DDR2 FBDIMM, which uses a lower voltage than the 1.8V DDR2 technology commonly found in servers. That adjustment results in a 20 percent energy-consumption improvement. The move from 1.8V to 1.5V also has the happy benefit of reducing the heat that servers produce, which means lower cooling requirements.

By Micron's calculations, its Aspen line yields total energy savings of 60 percent, which at first blush might not seem all too impressive, considering memory represents, again, around 15 percent of the power drain in a server. But therein lays the magic of economies of scale. A datacenter with 1,680 servers, each running 8GB of memory, could save $56,000 in a year. One running oh, say a million servers (the rumored number of servers in Google's total server farm) would see savings of $33.5 million per year. The company has a calculator on its Web site for estimating how much it costs to power 1.8V modules compared to 1.5V.

DDR 2.5?
If you're a true memory enthusiast, the 1.5V figure might look familiar: It's the voltage of the next-generation DDR3 SDRAM. In fact, we're already seeing DDR3 memory components for desktops, so one might wonder why Micron would bother with creating a lower-voltage DDR2 model instead of focusing on its younger brother-to-be. The reasoning, Kilbuck says, is that we won't see server platforms supporting DDR3 -- which is not backward-compatible with DDR2 -- for at least a couple more years. Thus in the interim, server vendors can offer lower-power datacenter hardware from which customers can enjoy the reduced strain on their monetary and power budgets.

If there's a drawback to Micron's Aspen line, it's that customers can't necessarily swap out a 1.8V DDR2 module, pop in the 1.5V version, and enjoy the savings. The server's voltage levels need to be adjusted to take advantage of the 0.3V difference, and many existing machines out there aren't capable of that.

Even if voltage compatibility weren't an issue, there's the difficulty of IT staff going from machine to machine to swap in new memory. "There are some that can and some that can't. Even the ones that can, there's the question of 'Does it make sense to throw away what I have?'" says Kilbuck. "You do get payback in terms of the electric savings. It's like, you're not going to get rid of your car and get a hybrid, but you might say, 'Oh yeah, gas mileage,' and get one the next time you buy a car."

In other words, keep an eye open for servers to come out in the not-too-distant future running Aspen. Micron says it has server vendors lined up but, for now, won't specify which ones.

Thanks for the memory
Yet even if your existing servers can't take advantage of lower-voltage memory today, it's still possible to reap performance benefits by adding more 1.8V memory to your machines. "You're probably going to have bigger impact on performance by adding memory than any upgrade you could do," he says. "There's open sockets that just aren't being used. Just plug the memory module."

Datacenter operators certainly are searching for ways to wring more work out of their racks through techniques such as virtualization. There, memory becomes all the more important.

There's another potential boon for Micron and any other memory manufacturers working to boost energy efficiency of their memory wares: forthcoming Energy Star standards for servers. It's tough to predict when we'll ever see those, or what they'll look like, given just how diverse the world of servers is. Still, when it comes to building an Energy Star-compliant system, every watt counts.

Posted by Ted Samson on November 1, 2007 03:00 AM

Technology White Papers

InfoWorld Technology Marketplace

» Technology White Papers Library

Technology White Papers by Topic

Technology White Papers E-mail Alert