- Six lessons learned at the Uptime Green Enterprise Computing Symposium
- Event: Uptime, IT heavyweights to tackle data center power crisis
- Dell's shiny green blade server
- Q&A: From 90 years old to LEED gold
- Audio: Four industry experts discuss the green datacenter
- Sustainability and the supply-chain
- Green tech vs. sustainable tech
- HP: Over 1B pounds recycled
- Power delivery, the smart way
- Free e-mail newsletter: Green IT
May 01, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Six lessons learned at the Uptime Green Enterprise Computing Symposium
"Green = efficiency = savings" was a recurring theme at this year's Uptime Institute Green Enterprise Computing Symposium in Orlando, Fla. It's a simple message, to be sure, but it gets right to the heart of the case for pursuing greener practices in the datacenter: Cutting waste does indeed mean that you're spending less money on purchases and upkeep; that you're making better use of what you've got; and that you're reducing your organization's environmental impact in the process.
Grasping that concept isn't too difficult. The real challenge, one shared by the 400-plus attendees at the symposium, remains figuring out how to get from inefficient Point A to efficient Point Green. If only there were a plug-and-play box you could install in the datacenter (The Green-o-matic 3000) to magically optimize cooling, boost server utilization to 99 percent, track down zombie machines, and reduce the facility's carbon footprint to zero. Alas, none of the vendors at the symposium announced anything like that, so attendees will instead have to rely on some of the lessons gleaned from the event.
1. Measure something. If you're an Olympic athlete striving to shave seconds from your time, a stopwatch is a critical tool. Otherwise, how will you know what your best time is and whether you've managed to beat it?
Same goes for an IT admin working to bring greater efficiency to the datacenter. In order to get a sense of how efficient (or inefficient) you are to begin with, as well as to gauge the impact of implementing different strategies, you need to measure, measure, measure.
That, of course, leads to a key question: What do I measure? Well, PUE or DCIE are good places to start. Those are metrics devised by The Green Grid, intended to give organizations a sense of how much energy being consumed in the datacenter is making it into IT equipment to do actual work, as opposed to the those watts being consumed for power conversion, cooling, and other non-productive tasks.
2. Make sure every machine running has a purpose. Plenty of companies have reaped green benefits of combing the datacenter for servers that are providing no obvious benefit yet remain plugged in, drawing valuable watts and space. Periodic walks through the datacenter can help track down those machines -- but some organizations are taking it a step further.
At some companies, someone in IT will periodically track down users or department heads and ask them to justify the servers and other IT equipment they use. Some organizations, such as Microsoft, take it a step further by charging departments on a very granular level for the IT resources they use. The company says this approach has resulted in users being more proactive in reducing consumption, since there's an obvious reward -- more money in their budget -- for doing so.
3. Grab the low-hanging facilities fruit. Forty percent of the cooling fans in a computer room are operating because of gross mismanagement or inadequate containment of cooling air, according to Uptime, and much of that waste can be addressed easily with some standard best practices. Among them: plugging holes, adjusting temperatures, and eliminating hot spots. (For more on beating the datacenter heat, cheap, go here.)
4. Get the C-level execs involved. Last week, I wrote about how getting end-users involved in your greening process is essential. The fact of the matter is, a company-wide green computing effort becomes a whole lot easier and potentially successful when you have buy-in from CXOs. The question is, how do you get the CEO or CFO to care whether your datacenter becomes greener?
For starters, demonstrating how "green = efficiency = savings" can help. Telling a CXO, "We can reduce our carbon footprint by 20 percent and our annual energy costs by $500,000 if we do this" makes for a compelling double-whammy argument, hitting on the bottom line benefits as well as the increasingly valuable CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts that are attracting more investors and customers.
Dashboards depicting energy usage and savings over time (see No. 1) can also help make your ongoing case. Being able to point to a chart and show a significant drop in power waste after installing a new CRAC system or implementing a virtualization project, for example, can pave the way for funding approval for future green efforts.
5. Put virtualization on the table. As with most technologies, there are caveats to virtualization: It's not for everyone, and it's certainly not easy to implement. That all said, though, virtualization was among the favored technologies discussed at the Uptime Symposium, because it can potentially jettison or reassign a huge chunk of your organization's hardware.
As reported by InfoWorld Site Editor Tom Kaneshige, "IBM started moving the workload of its 3,900 servers to 30 virtualized System z9 mainframes running Linux. Big Blue expects to cut energy consumption by 80 percent, or more than $2 million in energy costs. Meanwhile, NetApp consolidated 343 servers to 177 via virtualization and replaced 50 storage systems with 10 new ones."
[For more on the challenges and benefits of virtualization, see "Virtualization's dirty little secrets"]
6. Consider outsourcing. Ponder the potential benefits of offloading all or some of your energy-consuming IT needs to a third party. It's entirely possible that an outside provider can offer service less expensively and more efficiently than you can manage.
For example, instead of hosting your own e-mail servers, what if you turned to a service such as Gmail or a hosted version of Exchange? Instead of investing in more storage gear, how about looking at a service such as Amazon S3? You can keep climbing up the ladder here, going so far as to outsource nearly all of your datacenter needs to a third party.
These were but a sampling of lessons and themes from the Uptime Green Enterprise Computing Symposium. I aim to hone in on other topics such as AC vs. DC and "datacenters in boxes" in future posts.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 1, 2008 03:00 AM
April 02, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Event: Uptime, IT heavyweights to tackle data center power crisis
IT energy consumption is growing at such a rapid pace that we'll need another 30 power plants in the United States alone to meet demand.
That is one of the findings of a recent datacenter study by the Uptime Institute pointing to a power crisis looming on the horizon. The study revealed that "its largest datacenter members have gone from an annual energy consumption rate of 6 percent for the years 1999 to 2005, to 20 to 30 percent in each of the years 2006 and 2007."
[For more on the study, read Datacenters heading for a cash crunch.]
Running out of electricity can bring an organization's growth -- and even day-to-operations, to a grinding halt. Thus, it's no surprise that major IT leaders are uniting on various fronts to tackle the problem, developing new technologies and best practices for datacenter efficiency. It's not just to sell products; it's really a matter of self-preservation.
On that note, the Uptime Institute is hosting a symposium later this month, April 27 through 30, in Orlando, Fla. titled "Green Enterprise Computing." "The symposium will aim to tackle strategic and operational hurdles and develop industry benchmarks for improving energy efficiency in datacenters," according to Uptime.
Speakers from IT heavyweights such as Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Intel, Sun, APC, and VMWare will give presentations throughout the event.
More information about Uptime Institute Symposium 2008: Green Enterprise Computing is available on the Uptime Institute Web site.
Posted by Ted Samson on April 2, 2008 03:22 PM
January 24, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Dell's shiny green blade server
The PowerEdge M-series from Dell has it all, from a hyper-efficient power supply to superior cooling and power management
From a green-tech perspective, the most intriguing server I've ever known (from a distance) was the Gemini Green Series from Open Source Solutions (OSS). Highly efficient power supplies? Check. Efficient internal cooling? Check. Easily swappable components -- from motherboards to memory to power supplies -- to eliminate the need for ripping and replacing upgrades? Check.
Alas, OSS is no more, but its legacy won't be forgotten -- not by me, anyway. The fact that it's gone the way of rainbow suspenders is no reason to dismiss the beauty of its product design either. In fact, I see glimmers of the Gemini in Dell's newly announced PowerEdge M-Series chassis and blades. Dell designed the M-Series "from the ground up using Dell Energy Smart technologies, resulting in 30 industry patents," clearly with sustainability in mind.
Playing it cool
Like the OSS Gemini (which was a 2U server, by the way), Dell's new PowerEdge blades employs 90-plus percent efficient power supplies, developed in-house. (For reasons I still can't fathom, the standard among server vendors still appears to be in the realm of 80 percent.)
Not only is Dell's power supply capable of hitting a higher energy-efficiency level; it does so more quickly than rival power supplies, according to Mike Roberts, senior product planning manager for the M-Series line. He says that most power supplies achieve their maximum level of energy efficiency only when the supply is running at 90 to 100 percent utilization -- which certainly isn't the norm. "We get to a really good efficiency level at relatively low threshold, 88 percent at only 20 percent utilization," he says.
Those seemingly small differences among power supplies can actually make a dramatic difference in terms of reducing a server's power and heat waste -- and the associated costs scale impressively the larger your datacenter.
Dell also claims to have developed an innovative internal cooling system, designed to adapt to the needs of both high-end and low-end configurations. In addition to its optimized fans (as well as their underlying algorithms), the system boasts a superior airflow design, according to Roberts; Dell has taken great pains to remove impedance throughout the chassis. "The easier the air flows, the less hard the fans have to work," says Roberts.
The chassis also has three distinct cooling zones, each cooled by its own fan bank. In lower-end configurations where the chassis isn't fully loaded with blades, "the fans on the side can run really slowly because they don't have to work hard to cool their zone," says Roberts.
There's also the swappability factor (a word you will not find in Webster's, by the way). In an ideal green-tech world (mine anyway), an IT admin would be able to swap in and out all major components in his or her servers, while they're on the rack, such that machines wouldn't need to head to the shop or, more likely, to the recycling bin if a substantial upgrade is needed. It doesn't look like the major hardware vendors of the world are ready to offer that level of hardware interoperability, but here, Dell has taken a step in that direction.
Specifically, the company has developed what it dubs FlexIO switch technology for easily upgrading the machine's network connectivity up to 10Gig without replacing the base switch. For the enclosure, customers can opt for an upgradeable Dell PowerConnect M6220 Layer 2/3 Ethernet blade switch, with 1Gb ports and optional bays that can support either 10GbE or stacking ports.
Further, customers have three Cisco Ethernet switch choices, including a switch with a variety of 1Gbps, 10 Gbps, and stackable ports. Also available: a Cisco Infiniband switch. Add to that the options for two Brocade 4Gbps Fibre Channels, as well as Fibre Channel and Ethernet Pass Through options.
Additionally, with an eye on the future, Dell has designed the M1000e enclosure not to be dependent on specific server processor/chip set architecture. Further, it will be able to accommodate double-wide blades down the road.
Secret software sauce
Dell's hardware choices alone don't result in a more energy-efficient machine. Like an increasing number of vendors, Dell is turning to server management software to rein in energy waste -- a promising development that stands to lower those power bills and extend the life of hardware.
In Dell's case, that software takes the form of its Version 5.3 of its OpenManage systems management suite, released last November. Dell touts the package -- which comes at no cost with the blade package -- as "easy-to-use yet powerful management tools that help reduce the cost and complexity of managing computing resources."
Among its features is dynamic power management, which enables admins to set high- and low-power thresholds to help ensure blades operate within their defined power envelope. The norm is for servers to consume the maximum recommended amount all the time, even if they're not usually being run at full bore. Moreover, the package offers real-time reporting for enclosure and blade power consumption, and the ability to prioritize blade slots for power to provide optimal control over power resources.
So, for example, if an admin were to allot 3,000 watts to a given chassis, the system would distribute power evenly among all the blades. However, if the chassis wasn't pulling enough power, for whatever reason, it could be set to prioritize which blades would be throttled down first.
Your benchmark or mine?
As Dell tells it, the various greenovations it's injected in these babies reap superior power efficiency (that is, performance per watt) over rival blade offerings from HP and IBM. According to a Dell-sponsored study by Principled Technologies, "the PowerEdge M-Series consumes up to 19 percent less power and achieves up to 25 percent better performance per watt than the HP BladeSystem c-Class. Compared to the IBM BladeCenter H, the M-Series consumes 12 percent less energy and achieves up to 28 percent better performance per watt."
Were you to apply a cost-per-kilowatt amount to those figures, as Dell has, you'd save $2,600 annually per year over HP's blade competitor and $1,500 per rack per year over IBM's.
I wouldn't discount Principled Technologies figures outright, just because the study was sponsored by Dell. It's entirely conceivable that, given the power-efficient measures Dell has taken, its blades consistently delivered better per-watt performance -- but only in that test, which used the SPECjbb2005 benchmark.
Problem is, that benchmark wasn't really developed to measure power efficiency. Organizations and analysts are still grappling as to what method is best for accomplishing that, as evidenced by a recent study comparing the power efficiency of AMD and Intel's respective quad-core chips.
The point is, benchmarks are slowly emerging, such as SPEC's recently announced SPECpower_ssj2008. However, that benchmark isn't suited for a blade environment. In short, work here remains to be done.
Hopefully the InfoWorld Test Center will have a chance to test Dell's claims against offerings from HP and IBM. Whatever the outcome of that test might be (again, if it happens), I still extend kudos to Dell for further raising the green bar more among hardware vendors.
One last thought: IBM and HP may claim that they're not worried about Dell's latest foray into the world of blades. In fact, a rep from one of those vendors sent me a rather dismissive note prior to the official Dell announcement: "We've been hearing rumors over here that Dell finally plans to announce their copycat blade on Monday. Odd that they'd choose a national holiday to announce, but that's another story ;-)."
Of course, when you go out of your way to eagerly point something out and declare you're not worried about it -- you're probably at least a leetle bit worried about it. Conceivably, Dell has surprised the competition with the level of innovation it's brought to the table here, enough to generate some concern.
Posted by Ted Samson on January 24, 2008 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)
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
October 15, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Sustainability and the supply-chain
Whether you love or loathe Wal-Mart, there's no denying the company has embraced business practices to make it one of the most powerful and influential corporations of our time.
Among those practices, the company is vigorously embracing sustainability, as outlined by Hu Yoshida, CTO of Hitachi Data Systems, in his blog. Yoshida recently attended the Wal-Mart Living Better Sustainability Summit. There, Yoshida writes, "sustainability was described by Wal-Mart to mean eliminating waste, improving quality, and driving innovation. Sustainability was presented as being about real business value and not about creating a PR image. This summit was a sincere effort to enlist the support of their suppliers."
As I wrote about not long ago, Wal-Mart is vigorously encouraging its suppliers to embrace leaner, more environmentally friendly practices. The company is relying heavily on its suppliers to embrace sustainability, Yoshida writes, to achieve its "environmental goals for 100 percent renewable energy, zero waste, and sustainable products. ... Even if they were able to achieve their targets it would only amount to addressing 8 percent of their goals. The other 92 percent has to be addressed by Wal-Mart working with their suppliers."
While I was aware that the supply chain played an important role in an organization's sustainable endeavors, those figures Yoshida cites really drive home just how critical that role is. Companies that are serious about becoming leaner and greener not only have to make changes internally; they'll clearly have to rethink how they interact with their trade partners.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 15, 2007 11:15 AM
October 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Green tech vs. sustainable tech
At the end of my recent video interview with Hitachi Data Systems CTO Hu Yoshida, he paid me what I thought was a nice compliment: He told me he liked the name of my blog (that is, Sustainable IT) because he appreciated the meaning. It gave me pause to reflect a bit on the whole notion of "green technology" vs. "sustainable technology."
The terms are, of course, related, and the former enjoys far more recognition and usage. It's pretty straightforward, after all: Green is understood to mean "environmentally friendly" and "energy efficient"; technology means "technology." So a server that uses 50 percent less energy than a rival machine while doing just as much work would be considered an example of green technology. A hybrid vehicle that delivers 40mpg, compared to an SUV that gives you 14mpg, is another example of green technology.
Then there's sustainable technology. The idea is to not just haphazardly buy the newest, greenest products out there and stick them in your server rooms and on your desktops in a frantic effort to become green. Rather, it reflects planning and investing in a technology infrastructure that will serve your company's needs today and tomorrow, while helping your company save money on wasted resources such as energy and paper; make the best possible use of existing datacenter space so as to postpone having to build a new one; and reduce its overall environmental impact, which is both socially responsible and potentially advantageous should the government start cracking down on carbon emissions and the like.
This approach to implementing green technology not only helps ensure the sustainability of your company for years to come. On a broader scale, reducing waste is good for the environment, something we all depend on, plus it stretches the natural resources we use in our day-to-day lives. If more companies were to invest in a sustainable infrastructure, for example, we'd reduce the strain on utilities that are sometimes forced to initiate business-crippling brownouts.
One fine example of a sustainable technology project is Sun's new datacenter in Santa Clara. Its modular design is built in anticipation of future growth and future technology.
An electronic document management system is, to me, another example of a sustainable IT investment. It not only reduces paper waste and frees up space from all those hard copies, but it can streamline business in general, boost efficiency, and help your company better embrace growth.
All that said, I'll no doubt continue to use the terms "green technology" and "sustainable technology" interchangably. Heck, my newsletter is called "Green Tech," a branding decision made by our marketing folks, which I can appreciate.
But I'm going to continue to beat the sustainability drum and reiterate the importance of not just investing in the right green-technology tools, but advocating and adopting changes within your organization to plan and implement a long-term strategy around both products and overall business practices and organizational culture.
I'll just end with an analogy: If you want to get healthy, you're not just going to eat carrots. Sure, they're healthy, but eating your veggies is just part of the healthy picture. Rather, you plan a balanced, sensible diet. You set goals. You exercise. You see a doctor regularly. You measure your progress. It's harder. It takes more planning. And it takes discipline, at least at first as you change your lifestyle. But with time, it becomes natural, and the long-term benefits are pretty obvious.
Posted by Ted Samson on October 8, 2007 12:50 PM
July 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Vendor aims to recycle another billion pounds of electronics and printer cartridges by 2010
The expression "What goes around comes around" is proving increasingly apt in the world of enterprise hardware as more companies discover the benefits of recycling retired PCs, servers, handhelds, and the like.
Indicative of the rising interest in hardware recycling, also known as IT asset recovery, HP has announced that its achieved its goal of recycling one billion pounds of hardware six months before the deadline it had set back in 2004. The company now seeks to recycle two billion pounds of gear and printer cartridges -- that is, another billion pounds -- by 2010.
"Environmental responsibility is good business," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and CEO, in a written statement. "We've reached the tipping point where the price and performance of IT are no longer compromised by being green, but are now enhanced by it."
Pat Tiernan, VP of corporate, social, and environmental responsibility at HP, called the two billion pound goal for 2010 "the most aggressive recycling goal in the industry. "We expect to achieve it in three and a half years by expanding our convenient re-use and recycling services worldwide."
HP currently operates its program in 40 countries around the globe.
"In 2006 alone, HP recycled 164 million pounds of products globally -- the equivalent weight of more than 600 jumbo airliners and a 16 percent increase over 2005," said Tiernan.
Vendors that engage in hardware recycling refurbish and resell systems when possible ha or else mine the products for materials that can be used elsewhere. According to HP, plastics and metals it has recovered have been used to make a range of new products, including auto body parts, clothes hangers, plastic toys, fence posts, serving trays, and roof tiles.
Posted by Ted Samson on July 17, 2007 09:23 AM
July 05, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Congress contemplates upgrading the nation's dumb electricity-delivery infrastructure to a smart grid
Electricity prices are costly, sure, but you know what else is expensive? Power outages. They cost U.S. business at least $50 billion a year, according to Electric Power Research Institute estimates, as computer screens go black, servers stop humming, conveyor belts stop moving, and workers step out for coffee. (By an odd coincidence, InfoWorld's San Francisco office is suffering a power outage as I write this article at my home office in Sacramento. I think I've discovered another benefit to telecommuting.)
It's rather heartening to see that elected officials have taken notice of the problems with the nation's energy-delivery systems, which have proven to be, at times, unreliable (rolling blackouts, anyone?) and unable to meet the nation's ever-increasing demand.
Part of the proposed energy bill from members of Congress calls for the possible development of a countrywide smart electric grid, a system that could result in overall more efficient and reliable electricity service here in the States.
Essentially, a smart grid is an intelligent electricity-delivery system, through which energy suppliers and consumers are all interconnected through a network. Smart meters are installed at homes and business to monitor energy consumption and transmit that information back to energy providers. Energy providers not only have the ability to track energy consumption -- but also to automatically throttle down energy consumption on a granular level when demand gets too high.
For example, participating users -- be they business or home owners -- might agree to have their building's air conditioning systems automatically turned down, or certain lights turned off, during peak hours when the grid is being heavily taxed. That reduces the strain on the grid, thus preventing rolling blackouts and costly downtime.
Preventing unplanned downtime for systems and employees is but one of the benefits of a smart grid. Smart meters are capable of measuring energy consumption all hours of the day, and utilities could set prices according to demand during a given time. Thus, those who wait until after peak hours to perform certain tasks -- be it a consumer turning on the dishwasher or a network admin setting systems to be woken up for patching -- could save some green.
"Letting customers choose to lower their bills by shifting usage reduces peak demand and helps avoid power shortages, transmission problems and the need to build new power plants," says Richard Mora, president and CEO of Landis+Gyr, a member of the Demand Response and Advanced Metering (DRAM) Coalition. "Just as important if not more so, by some customers reducing peak demands, it dampens the market power of sellers during peak periods and thus lowers prices for everyone."
Mora also notes that "the two-way communication ability that comes with smart meters and other demand-response technologies gives electricity providers another tool for optimizing their planning and operations and creating a truly smart grid.”
(There's an interview with Steve Widergren, administrator for the GridWise Architecture Council, right here in which he discusses in more detail how this might work for a business.)
A smart grid also can deliver energy more efficiently, according to a report by the Energy Future Coalition titled "Challenge and Opportunity: Charting a New Energy Future." [PDF] "Grid upgrades that increase the amount of power that can be moved through the transmission grid and that optimize those power flows will reduce waste and maximize use of the lowest-cost generation resources."
Again, that's good for consumers -- plus by reducing waste, it's also good for the environment.
Yet another benefit: Using the smart grid monitoring tools, providers could assess in real time how much electricity far-flung green power sources, such as wind farms and solar panels, are churning out at a given time.
Points for the grid
Smart-grid technology is already proving is worth. I recently spoke with JT Keating, the VP of marketing at Site Controls. The company offers an energy and facilities management solution called Site-Command. The platform remotely monitors, logs, and controls HVAC, lighting, outdoor signage, refrigeration, and other major in-store energy consumers. Admins have online, real-time access to the switches for all of these energy-users.
Additionally, the company offers a hosted service to monitor energy usage at its customers facilities. (Right now, the company targets large retail, restaurant, and convenience store chains.)
According to Keating, the company works with customers to establish practices for reducing energy consumption for times that local utilities are threatening to launch rolling brownouts because energy demand is too high -- a practice Keating likens to "performing surgery with an ax."
Depending on the customer, that might mean setting the AC a couple of degrees higher or turning off certain lights, practices that can add up and prevent the need for a planned blackout. According to the company, "Site Controls' intelligent load management capabilities reduced peak load by 38 percent during the emergency curtailment requested by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)" in 2006.
Utilities such as PG&E in California and Con Edison in New York already have smart meters in place at some of the customer's locations, which have proven successful in helping monitor energy consumption and promote conservation to stave off power outages.
Smart grid technology is out there, and as evidenced by the proposed energy bill, even our sometimes non-tech-savvy elected officials are now becoming aware of the potential benefits. Even if the overall bill ends up getting buried, I, for one, certainly hope that the Feds vigorously pursue legislation promoting smart grids. Like so many other green-technologies, it's good for business and it's good for the environment, something all politicians should be behind.
Posted by Ted Samson on July 5, 2007 12:03 AM
June 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Free e-mail newsletter: Green IT
I'm excited to announce that InfoWorld will be launching a Green IT newsletter this week, written by yours truly. It's scheduled to conveniently show up in subscribers' e-mailboxes Thursday -- and it's free.
In it, I'll recap some of the top green-tech news of the week, plus I'll welcome questions and comments from readers to generate future content.
To subscribe, head over to the InfoWorld Newsletter Subscription page, enter your e-mail address, and scroll down to Green IT. (It's listed under Wednesday delivery, as I write this, but trust me: It's coming out Thursdays.) Click Submit (way at the bottom), and you're done.
Posted by Ted Samson on June 6, 2007 09:15 AM
May 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Less power hungry than their PC peers, thin clients are garnering greater attention for their green advantages
Verizon CIO John Hinshaw confirmed a juicy green nugget of data in a recent interview: He said the wireless giant has reduced energy consumption by 30% since replacing PCs with Sun Ray thin clients in the company's call centers.
That will translate to a savings of $1 million per year for Verizon, once the company rolls out thin clients (or some "desktop-less" variants) in its remaining data centers.
"Power consumption is more of a hot topic in the U.S. than it has ever been," says Klaus Besier, president and CEO of thin-client vendor Neoware. "What we see with many more customers today is when they look at thin clients, they're taking more into account power consumption and [related] savings."
With their relatively lower energy requirements compared to PCs -- not to mention other eco-advantages like longer lifespan and smaller form factor with fewer parts -- thin clients are worthy of some serious consideration from companies.
Or perhaps I should say "reconsideration." Thin clients, after all, certainly aren't new, and advantages such as easier administration (fewer admin visits to users' desks) and improved security (data's stored remotely) are pretty well recognized. But thin clients continue to mature, as do the essential technologies that make them all the more viable. That includes virtualization (as InfoWorld Chief Technologist Tom Yager has noted), Wi-Fi, embedded OSes, and software as a service.
Thin, trim, and healthy
Combine all those technologies with the very real concerns over power shortages, high energy bills, and global climate change, and it's no surprise that IDC foresees steady 20%-plus year-over-year growth in the thin-client space, with shipments expected to reach 7.3 million in 2011.
"We're expecting positive growth for thin clients based on all the factors you've laid out [i.e. advances of virtualization and 10G, and growing concern about power consumption], as well as ongoing concerns about security and PC management costs," says Bob O'Donnell, program vice president for clients and displays at IDC.
Neoware asserts that companies can save as much as 90% on desktop-computing energy costs by swapping out PCs for thin clients -- depending on what models of hardware you're extracting or implementing, of course. But as an example, a desktop PC consumes as much as 280 watts of power in the amount of time that the high-end Neoware e140 burns up 48. So a company with 1,000 desktops would be spending about $62,000 yearly on power (based on the national KWH rate of $0.0849.), compared to around $10,500 for the clients, according to NeoWare. Savings: Around 50 grand a year per one thousand systems.
For the visually-oriented, here's a chart provided by thin-client vendor Wyse, comparing energy consumption of some of its thin-clients to various PC configurations:
Of course, when you install thin clients, you need servers in the server room to act as their brains. But those power savings are still significant, as noted in a recent report titled "Environmental comparison of PC and thin client equipment" by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. "Consumption is at least twice as low, sometimes three or four times lower than the consumption of corresponding PC systems. This applies even with the proportionate offsetting of the energy required by the server and the cooling power required for this," the report says.
Lower energy consumption is one of the clear eco- and monetary benefits. Another green-oriented cost advantage: the life-expectancy of a thin client, compared to a PC. "Thin clients don't need to be upgraded frequently. With thin clients, an OS release does not cause an upgrade to the client, only to the server -- resulting in far less e-waste, since the client can continue to be used longer," says Subodh Bapat, vice president and distinguished engineer for Sun's System Level Energy Strategy, which offers a range of Sun Ray thin clients. "Upgrade cycles of eight to 10 years are common in the thin-client world, as opposed to three to fours years for PCs, with corresponding benefits to the environment in terms of less e-waste."
Speaking of e-waste, Neoware's Besier adds that "Without moving parts, such as a fan or disk drive ... thin clients help companies meet their sustainability targets by eliminating much of the overhead associated with computing."
According to the Fraunhofer study, thin clients also hold a form-factor advntage over PCs, making them less expensive to ship: "They are only 35-40% of the weight of a PC and only take up 19-30% of the volume."
Not just about the green
Green issues aren't the only drivers for thin-client adoption. Jeff McNaught, chief marketing office at Wyse, opines that the new and improved Terminal Services features forthcoming in Windows Server 2008 (i.e. the platform formerly known as Longorn) will be a boon a Windows shops running thin clients.
In a simiar vein, Travid Brown, product manager for thin client solutions at HP, credits Windows XP Embedded for more acceptance of thin clients. "Microsoft has come a long way in developing XP Embedded It's the same binary as XP Pro ... and the thin-client experience now looks very much like the desktop experience. It's a lot better than it was a couple of years ago."
Another boon for thin clients: the shift toward 64-bit computing, by companies like Microsoft and Citrix, will spur adoption by sweetening the TCO pot. "Instead 125 users, you can have 250, 300 users on that server, just by changing the software. That has changed the cost equation," says McNaught
Moreover, McNaught says that company's in 2006 had been waiting to gauge VMware's success on the desktop virtualization front, given it success in the realm of server consolidation, and the results look promising. "You take the existing PC, suck all the data off a hard drive and onto the back-end, pop that PC off the desktop, drop a thin client, and the user continues working."
(Test Center Analyst Randall C. Kennedy was fairly impressed by the beta version of VMware Workstation 6.0 -- especially compared to the competition.)
There's also the advancements thin clients have undergone since the late 1990s when they were overhyped, notes Wyse's McNaught. "In those days, thin clients didn't do multimedia. Screen-draw capability was good, but not amazing," he says. "Companies like Wyse have been working on technology that will dramatically improve the user experience with multimedia, with voice over IP, with USB peripherals. Users can work in a multiscreen environment."
But green fever and technological evolution alone won't necessarily reduce some company's resistance to thin clients. Thin client vendors acknowledge that there wares won't dethrone the PC anytime soon.
For one thing, the machines are well-suited for plenty of basic applications, such as call centers or other roles where users are continually using the same few apps (e.g. productivity and e-mail). But high-end apps are better left on the desktop. "You would not have a CAD/CAM application running through a thin client," says Besier. "It doesn't even make sense to try to solve that problem. The market is not large enough."
Another reason thin clients haven't seem greater adoption, many vendors say, is that companies are set in their ways insofar as purchasing that which is familiar -- in this case, PCs, despite the fact that most desktops generally run at around 3% utilization. "Today's barriers are more of a cultural nature rather than a technical nature," says Sun's Bapat.
But Bapat predicts that "with the lower energy use, lower administration costs, better security, and less frequent capital expenditure outlays for upgrades, we will see more and more organizations making the move to thin-client computing."
Posted by Ted Samson on May 24, 2007 03:00 AM
May 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Big Blue's enviro guru explores garden of green opportunities
Political leaders and business leaders alike are scrutinizing causes of global climate change, as we saw in the recently released IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report. And they're devising solutions to the problem. And just as some countries are ahead of the game insofar as devising regulations to combat greenhouse gas emissions and reduce energy waste, so too are some tech companies out there.
Among them is IBM, which has had its eye on the green prize for years now. While social responsibility and environmental stewardship have played a role in its leadership, the business opportunities and potential cost savings have been there, too.
Edan Dionne, IBM's director of corporate environmental affairs, provided some very insightful answers, via e-mail, to my various questions about the IPCC report and concerns about global warming, as well as how they affect business -- and vice versa. Following is our e-interview.
InfoWorld: Why should companies care about the IPCC report, as well as the general growing concern about global warming and climate change?
Edan Dionne: Global climate change presents both challenges and opportunities to the business community. As there is strong scientific consensus that global warming is real and is significantly affected by emissions of greenhouse gases related to human activities, it has become clear that all sectors of society, the economy, and governments worldwide must participate in developing solutions to climate change.
Additionally, public awareness about the impacts of climate change is also swelling demand from employees, clients, investors, and other opinion leaders to know a company's stance on this issue and evaluate how "green" that company is.
Many companies, like IBM, have been taking actions to manage and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions for many years, while others have initiated actions more recently.
The IT industry has the opportunity to play several roles in addressing climate change. IBM has consistently improved the computing power delivered per unit of watt applied with each new generation of products. Over the last several years, IBM has brought its focus on innovation to improving the energy utilization of IT equipment.
While much progress has been made, there is still more work to do. IBM's announcement of "Project Big Green" details the next critical steps that IBM plans to take to improve the energy efficiency of its datacenters and its clients' operations.
Improving the energy utilization of IT equipment and datacenters is important because the application of IT to business and societal energy-efficiency challenges offers us the opportunity to transform the way that society uses energy.
For example, IT applications can manage power grids to reduce losses and enable distributed generation. IT can introduce congestion pricing schemes that reduce road traffic and encourage the use of carpooling and mass transit. IT enables businesses to improve manufacturing processes and supply chain efficiencies to reduce waste and energy usage. IT allows people to work remotely to reduce commuting requirements.
IW: What do companies need to do to address the problem? What's the drawback to putting it off, both from a business perspective as well as an environmental perspective? And what is IBM doing?
Dionne: Let me answer the last part first. IBM has focused on taking concrete actions to address climate change in its operations, products, and services, including: conserving energy (thus reducing direct and indirect emissions of greenhouse gases); increasing its use of renewable energy; reducing its direct emissions of greenhouse gases from manufacturing and facilities processes; designing energy-efficient products and developing solutions to help our clients reduce their energy use and improve efficiency; participating in voluntary climate protection programs with both government and nongovernmental organizations; and sharing best practices.
Other companies should do what IBM and some other leading companies have done -- assess their own potential impact on the environment; change the necessary policies, processes, and procedures; set benchmarks for achievement; establish a management system to monitor and report progress on those benchmarks; and take corrective action when needed.
It is important to take action today, because addressing the challenges of climate change is a long journey. It is not something that can be handled with one or two quick fixes. As mentioned above, all sectors of society, government, and the economy need to be involved and committed.
Collectively, we need to take available actions today -- like aggressive energy conservation and efficiency programs and diversification of our energy portfolio to increase the contribution of non-CO2 or low-CO2-emitting energy sources to our portfolio. And we need to encourage research and development efforts to develop the new technologies and innovations that we will need in the future to take the next steps beyond those available today.
IW: Should companies be worried about the cost required or the impact making changes will have on doing business? What about current and forthcoming regulations?
Dionne: As I mentioned earlier, climate change presents challenges and opportunities.
Companies need to assess the impact of a carbon-constrained world on their operations, determine the potential risks that carbon and other greenhouse gas constraints represent to those operations, and plan appropriate contingencies and actions. In many cases, the required actions like energy conservation, making logistics or manufacturing operations more efficient, and diversifying a company's energy portfolio will result in reduced operating costs, more efficient operations, and provide a competitive advantage.
However, a company must make investments to their facilities and operations to realize the savings. IBM estimates that, over the past eight years, annual savings from its focus on pollution prevention and design for the environment have exceeded environmental expenses by an average of two to one, so worrying about the cost required may not be necessary for all companies.
Policy, legislative, and regulatory discussions regarding climate change encompass a wide range of suggested measures including demand side management, energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, nuclear power, carbon capture and sequestration, alternative fuels for transportation, alternative transportation systems, pricing practices, and a host of other ideas.
Early, voluntary actions help companies develop an inventory of their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, develop experience in managing their operations with a focus on energy use and its effect on the company's emissions, and capture operational efficiencies that improve their bottom line. This early work helps position a company to manage effectively in a carbon-constrained world. It also allows them to analyze the potential impacts of climate change regulations from a position of experience and offer meaningful, substantive commentary on approaches to carbon management.
IW: What's the good news here? What are the benefits of reducing emissions, both from a business perspective and a global, environmental perspective?
Dionne: The good news is that responses to climate change offer opportunities along with the challenges. Companies will have to manage effectively in a carbon-constrained world, and there will be a variety of operational and financial impacts that companies will need to address.
At the same time, there are many opportunities to become more efficient, reduce spending, improve competitiveness, and introduce products and services to assist a company's clients in managing these same issues. These efforts can benefit the environment, enable and promote the global effort to address the challenges of climate change, and strengthen a company's business results.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 11, 2007 03:10 PM
May 10, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Plenty of ways to win through green initiatives
TV has the Emmys. The Internet has the Webbys. And California companies embracing sustainable, green technology and practices have the Flexys.
OK, so they're not called Flexys; they're called the Flex Your Power (FYP) awards, and FYP doles them out each year to organizations demonstrating leadership in energy efficiency, either through in-house initiatives or product innovation. The fifth annual award ceremony took place last weekend at Eco Live 2007, in San Francisco.
Although the awards have been around for five years, there was a striking difference, to me, anyway, between previous years' recipients and this year's: the number of IT companies that came away winners has risen. Winners included Adobe, Cisco, HP, Qualcomm, and Sun, while AMD was a runner-up.
The shift toward more IT companies in the FYP winners' circle shouldn't be too surprising, though. As noted by Wally McGuire, the director at FYP, tech companies require a large amount of energy, and power costs in this industry are incredibly high -- and getting higher. Thus, the ability to use power efficiently, so as to ensure uptime and reduce bills, is central to their success. The California power crisis of 2001 was also a wake-up call for plenty of organizations, McGuire noted.
So IT companies are inventing new ways to deal more effectively with energy costs and usage -- not just in the datacenter but with consolidation, virtualization, and the like. Rather, many of these companies undertook an abundance of facility upgrades, including overhauls to increase the efficiency of heating and cooling, as well as lighting and water usage.
Let's start with Adobe. Last year, as part of its "Greening of Adobe" project, the company earned Platinum-level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification for three of its HQ buildings in San Jose. 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. Now that's slick.
Adobe reports that it managed to save some $1,182,000 -- and 9,200,000 kWh -- from its efforts, representing 30 percent of total electricity use.
According to Randy Knox, Adobe's senior director of Global Facilities Services, the infamous California brownouts of 2001 indeed helped to spur the 64 projects that comprise the "Greening of Adobe." "During the California energy crisis, the governor asked large electricity users to reduce energy consumption by 10 percent. From the start, Adobe was determined to go further," he says. "To date, Adobe has successfully reduced electricity usage by 35 percent, natural gas by 41 percent, domestic water by 22 percent, landscape irrigation by 76 percent, and diversion of solid waste through composting and recycling by nearly 90 percent."
Like Adobe, Qualcomm's realized some impressive energy and cost savings with facility upgrades, in this case to its San Diego-based Building W Campus, an LEED Gold candidate building. (Qualcomm also earned an FYP award last year.) Renovations included installing a photovoltaic (solar power) system that supports 60 percent of campus lighting requirements and offsets demand during peak periods.
It 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 reports to have reaped savings of 9,668,000 kWh last year - 30 percent of total electricity use.
According to Alan Ball, Qualcomm director of business services for the company's real estate and facilities department, the company's efforts prove downright inspiring to the company's employees. "We find that employees are proud of our initiatives to reduce energy usage. In fact, we offer facilities tours to interested employees, and some have gone on to install solar power systems on their own homes,” he says.
Also on the list of winners: Cisco. The networking giant completed quite a few upgrades to its San Jose campus, projects which it says will cut electricity usage by more than 14,000,000 kWh and gas consumption by 100,000 therms. Combined, Cisco's 2006 projects will cut GHG emissions by more than 40 million pounds. That translates to more than $1,500,000 in cost savings.
Cisco has made major upgrades at its San Jose campus, including installing VFD (variable frequency drive) chillers in numerous buildings and upgrading its HVAC controls.
The company also launched an employee education program to encourage energy conservation and a campus-wide recycling program, which the company says saves an estimated 35,000,000 kWh when compared to the energy required for landfill disposal and new product manufacturing.
On the innovative products and services side, HP secured an FYP trophy by producing the first business systems on the market that are configurable to meet the Energy Star 4.0 standards. (For reasons I don't entirely grasp, HP is making a point of not saying that the systems are compliant with the standard, since said standard isn't official yet.) Nevertheless, according to the company, these can save as much as 52 percent of power use over traditional machines when properly configured.
HP was also the first company to enable all business PCs with S3 power management to automatically switch machines to standby during times of inactivity. "For every twelve desktop computers that have the energy-savings mode enabled, that's like taking a car off the road for a year," according to John Frey, HP's manager of corporate environmental strategies.
Finally, Sun came away with an innovative products and services award, apparently for its energy-efficient Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers, with CoolThreads technology, released back in 2005, as well as for its Open Work program, through which nearly half of Sun's 40,000 employees work from home whenever possible to avoid commuting. The company provides consulting services, instructing other organizations on how to implement flexible work programs.
For more information about the Flex Your Power awards, go to www.fypower.org/feature/awards/.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 10, 2007 12:43 PM
May 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
OSS injects greenery into highly modular Gemini servers
Wouldn't it be nice to live in a truly plug-and-play world, where, for example, you could quickly and easily pull out the old gas-guzzling engine in your otherwise-functional automobile and swap in a hybrid engine you bought off the shelf at the local auto-parts store -- and maybe a hydrogen engine (or whatever replaces hybrid) down the road? Think of the cost and time savings, as well as the environmental benefits, of that modular model.
The automotive industry isn't there, but there's a hardware company delivering that level of flexible modularity to the server market: Open Source Systems, which today is announcing the Green Series of its 2U Gemini Server line. And in a day and age where data-center managers are keen on finding ways to make the most out of their rack space as they grow, while reducing soaring energy and cooling bills, I think this line's design holds a lot of promise.
So what makes the Gemini Green Series green? For starters, the company has added a high-efficiency power supply that runs at 93 percent efficiency. As a result, the company says the machines use between 30 and 50 percent less power than typical servers and emit up to 50 percent less heat. Chew on that for a moment: It can represent a dramatic reduction in your energy and cooling bills --and it also means you can add more servers to your data center if your problem wasn't lack of space but rather insufficient cooling.
Speaking of cooling, OSS strives to make the most of the system's 2U form factor, which houses two motherboards. The company says it's able to cool the two boards with four large 80mm fluid-bearing fans, which consume far less power (and make less noise) than the smaller five-plus wind-tunnel fans used in 1Us.
Because the system has two discrete servers, it's possible to simultaneously use an Intel processor and an AMD processors from the same chassis. That means you can choose the hardware platform that's best suited to run your services.
For example, a small company could run its Web server on an Intel processor and its database server on AMD, from one machine, and divide the duties of the 12 drives as needed. (The company notes that other 2U servers have only eight drives.)
But the real beauty in the OSS system, again, lies in its approach to modularity. "Because of its unique modular design, users can swap out major components as needs change or as technology advances so it is a truly future-proof solution," said Eren Niazi, chief executive officer and founder of Open Source Systems.
Not only can the system's major components -- the motherboard, the disk drives, power supplies, and memory -- be swapped out; they can be swapped while the system is still on the rack. The system's twelve hot-swappable disk drives can support SATA, SCSI or SAS. Mix and match as needed.
And, in a couple of years when a new crop of faster motherboards emerge with superior features that are better suited for your needs, you can easily cold-swap your existing ATX or E-ATX board simply by ejecting it via a rear-loading tray and popping in a new one. (Loosening a screw is required in this process.)
That strikes me as such an elegantly simple, straightforward, and sensible approach. From a business perspective, you're saving time and money by not having to replace the entire machine, or investing the man-hours and dollars in doing it manually.
And from an environmental standpoint, you're prolonging the lifecycle of the other perfectly good parts that you might otherwise end up shipping back to your hardware vendor for recycling when you need a system upgrade. "It's great for the environment. You're able to reuse these metal chasses without buying new servers every five year," said Niazi.
Of course, seeing is believing, and I'm looking forward to having one of the Test Center analysts give one of these babies a spin to see if they're really as good as they appear on paper. Stay tuned.
The 2U Gemini Server Green Series systems start at $10,000, but can reach $105,000, according to Niazi, depending on the tailored configuration. For more information, check out the OSS Web site at www.opensourcesystems.com.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 7, 2007 03:00 AM
May 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Sun's eco VP talks greening the data center and JavaOne
Just in time for next week's JavaOne show, Sun Vice President of Eco-Responsibility Dave Douglas arrived in San Francisco yesterday afternoon. His first stop: the InfoWorld office to chat with me about his first year-plus in his green role; data-center issues confronting IT admins -- and solutions; and dealing with carbon emissions. You can watch the video right here.
Dave's been the VP of eco-responsibility at Sun for just over a year now, and judging by our conversation, he has a pretty full plate. No surprise there: Reining in energy waste entails far more than reminding employees to shut off the lights before going home at night.
Rather, Dave appears to be involved in multiple areas of Sun's business, from product development to internal IT operations. (It sounds rather like the chief sustainability officer position I wrote about a while back.) That's a lot to keep a watchful green eye on, but as he tells it, plenty of folks at Sun believe in the benefits of being environmentally conscientious, so it doesn't sound like he has to struggle with a corporate culture that's resistant to making necessary changes toward sustainability.
As an example of Sun's commitment to sustainability and waste reduction, Dave talked to me about how the company has made the annual JavaOne show a little greener this year.
For example, Sun saved 4.63 tons of paper by going with virtual direct mail campaigns, online surveys and feedback forms for the show. It also stepped up the use of recycling, and plus Dave noted that site for the show, the Moscone Center, has a 60,000 square foot photovoltaic array on the roof (designed to generate energy savings of 4.8 million kWh annually).
The company has made "green" purchasing decisions to keep food-trash compostable. Also, as swag, the company is handing out organic t-shirts, and notepads made from recycled paper and printed with soy ink. Read more about it here.
OK, so that alone isn't going to, say, reduce global warming, but it's a nice example of relatively little things companies can don't cost much (or perhaps even save money) and that are good for the environment. And Dave said that next year, the conference will be even greener. I'm curious to see how. Maybe it will take place in Second Life?
Like any other high-level techie in the IT industry, Dave is keenly attuned to the data center crisis companies are facing, and he shared some of the strategies he's been looking at, including consolidation and virtualization.
One certainly inventive solution that Sun has devised to help companies deal with the lack of data center real estate is Project Blackbox, a project Dave was involved in developing, and he's clearly excited about it. For those who aren't the know, Project Blackbox is a portable data center that can be located just about anywhere, designed to support 10,000 simultaneous desktops without requiring an administrator. (It was also one of InfoWorld's 12 "crackpot technologies that could transform the enterprise.")
Carbon emissions are gathering more attention in the IT realm, and they're certainly on Dave's radar: He's written about the topic at some length on his blog. Tracking emissions is pretty important, as we're seeing increasingly strict regulations emerging.
We're also seeing some companies, such as Dell and Yahoo, embracing the notion of carbon offsets and neutrality. On that subject, Dave diplomatically said that Sun is looking at internal ways to reduce its carbon footprint as best it can -- in ways that are directly beneficial to business -- before exploring something like offsets. In addition to watching the video clip, you can check out Dave's comments on the topic here in his blog.
There was one question I'd meant to ask Dave, but we were running a little short on time (and frankly, I forgot): Earlier this year, Sun joined a bunch of other companies in calling on the federal government to help" achieve sizable, sensible long-term reductions of greenhouse gas emissions" from 60 to 90% reductions below 1990 levels by 2050. Why the wide range of 60 to 90%? Why 1990 levels as the baseline? And why wait until 2050? In other words, is this a sufficiently ambitious goal? I'll have to ask him next time I see him, I suppose.
One last thing: If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend (perhaps in town for JavaOne), you might want to check out Eco LIVE 2007 on Saturday, May 5. Dave will be one of the speakers, talking the challenges of reducing energy and resource consumption within IT. Robert Kennedy Jr. will be delivering the keynote. The event takes place at the Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 8th Street in S.F., and after the keynote, entrance is free.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 4, 2007 03:46 PM
May 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Datacenter outsourcing yields green opportunities
Datacenter space is in high demand these days, and like energy prices, that demand appears to be headed nowhere but up. In fact, Digital Realty Trust, a San Francisco-based REIT, estimates that demand for datacenter space will continue to rise by as much as 15% annually over the next five years.
While that's bad news for companies struggling to maintain sufficient infrastructure to keep up with seemingly insatiable demands for computing power and storage, it's been quite a boon for companies that offer datacenter hosting services. According to Tier1 Research, that industry enjoyed 35% growth last year, raking in $15 billion in annual revenue.
Indeed, more companies -- including larger, publicly traded corporations -- are turning to third-parties for collocation and hosting services, and the appeal is evident: Beyond the recognized traditional benefits of outsourcing, it gives companies a means of keeping up with growth, without having to invest time and money in new or upgraded facilities. But having had an interesting conversation with Bob Stephens, senior director of data center operations at NaviSite -- which manages 125,000 square feet of hosted data center space across 14 facilities worldwide -- I believe that outsourced model can provide companies with a potentially greener way to do business, in part thanks to the magic of economies of scale.
"I can deliver these services more efficiently than you can do them in-house," Stephens says. "We're adding value for our customers, both in terms of being environmentally friendly as well as from a business standpoint," he said.
As datacenters have grown hotter thanks to technology such as high-density blades, air-conditioning costs have gone up. And many a datacenter lack efficient cooling, because when they were designed, architects weren't thinking about racks running at 30kw.
It might be difficult for the average datacenter manager to justify the ROI on building a state-of-the-art, highly efficient HVAC system. However, a company like NaviSite is able to cut waste, and save money, through its advanced cooling system, according to Stephens. "We're talking about picking up 15 and 20% efficiency in the amount of power it takes to cool the data center," he said.
One of NaviSite's tricks is a proprietary monitoring system that, according to Stephens, works on a very granular level. Temperature probes monitor and manage the air that goes into and flows of out of server. Through sophisticated algorithms, the system adjusts the varying speed of the fans to optimal levels.
Not all of NaviSite's techniques are necessarily cutting-edge, though. The practice of employing raised floors with vented tiles to directly flow cool air into the hardware as been around for a while now, but it's still effective: The approach means the chilled air need only be around 72 degrees instead of 55. "You can see small incremental percentages can make a big difference scaled over large quantities," he said.
To further reduce those pesky heating costs, Stephens is also investigating ice storage cooling systems, provided by companies such as Calmac and Cyrogel. These systems essentially use power at night, when it's less expensive, to create large quantities of ice, then store it in non-corrodible tanks. The frozen H20 is used the next day to cool the building.
Like other companies, such as Ecos Consulting, NaviSite is also increasing energy efficiency through the usage of DC power, which he says results in another 15% reduction in power usage.
NaviSite also is investigating replacing its traditional battery UPS systems with flywheels, which works by rotating a rotor to a very high speed to store up energy, which can be transformed into electricity. The benefit is, you can save money in the long run by not having to replace thousands of batteries every two or three years.
A flywheel UPS, from companies such as Pentadyne and Liebert, may not deliver the 20 to 30 minutes of backup power that a battery UPS can during a power outage, a fact that might give some customers pause. But, he argues, "You don't need to buy hundred of thousands of dollars worth of batteries."
While there are benefits to be had through the hosted data-center model, any sort of outsourcing relationship needs to be approached with care. In a recent report titled "Data Center Power and Cooling Scenario: Options for the Road Ahead," Gartner stresses that simply going with an outsourcer to address power and cooling concerns isn't a prudent move. Rather, an "organization must go through the process of benchmarking its delivery quality and cost of service provision and make the necessary optimization changes before handing over to a third party."
That includes doing your due diligence in researching your would-be partners; exercising great restraint in putting your most business-critical IT services and data in the hands of a third party; ensuring the provider meets all your security, bandwidth, and support needs; and devising an air-tight SLA.
Also bear in mind that as demand for these types of services grow, hosting providers have been raising their rates accordingly, Data Center Knowledge reports.
Still, I do like the hosted datacenter model. Being able to share resources in an efficient and eco-friendly manner while cutting costs is a potentially winning proposition, and it's what sustainability is all about.
Posted by Ted Samson on May 3, 2007 03:00 AM
April 25, 2007 | Comments: (0)
AMD seeds Dell's 'Plant a Tree for Me' program
Dell has found its first corporate partner for its "Plant a Tree for Me" program: cash-strapped AMD.
AMD, which just recently announced a $611 million first-quarter loss and could soon be facing long-term debt of up to $5.4 billion, has scraped together a $16,000 donation "on behalf of the company's 16,000 worldwide employees" for Dell's tree-planting program, intended to offset the carbon produced by the electronics it sells.
When launched in January, Dell presented its "Plant a Tree for Me" program as a way for its customers to offset the carbon impact of their notebook computer use for an extra $2 and desktop system use for an extra $6. Last month, Dell expanded the program to include an extended portfolio of IT products, plus U.S.-based consumers and businesses could donate to the program without making any product purchases. Dell even goes so far as to let you donate $99 to offset your own carbon usage.
I hate to say it (kind of), but I can't help but draw a rather cynical conclusion when looking at this announcement.
First, consider the sum AMD is pouring into the program. While $16,000 surely can buy plenty of saplings, it strikes me as a rather token donation coming from a Fortune 500 company. A dollar per employee doesn't come close to the $99 per-person carbon cost calculated by Dell.
Second, consider AMD's relationship with Dell. After years of being an Intel-only hardware maker, Dell finally opened its arms to AMD, releasing notebooks, desktops, and servers running AMD processors last year. Having buy-in from one of the world's top PC maker was a huge and significant win for AMD.
Third, consider Dell's "Plant a Tree for Me" program. Although it's a very well-meaning endeavor, there are probably better ways for companies to invest money toward reducing carbon emissions and conserving energy: making energy-efficient power supplies standard on PCs, or investing in alternative-energy research, or installing solar panels on the roof of your datacenter, or developing more sustainable, eco-friendly business practices. That's why carbon-offsetting programs like Dell's "Plant a Tree for Me" garner some criticism: they're viewed in some circles as a way of sidestepping the responsibility of reducing and cleaning up one's carbon footprint.
Also notable: A new study by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Carnegie Institution, and Université Montpellier II confirms that although planting more trees in tropical rainforests could help slow global warming, new forests in mid- to high-latitude locations could actually create a net warming. Thus, the benefits of reforesting are arguably inconclusive anyway.
Now, to Dell and AMD's credit, both companies do seem to have a firm commitment to sustainability. Dell, in fact, has become the green poster child among IT hardware makers for such initiatives as offering free product recycling worldwide, regardless of product purchase.
AMD, meanwhile, has worked to reduce energy consumption, make its wares more efficient, cut back on hazardous waste, and has taken plenty of other direct measures to boost its sustainability and reduce its eco-impact.
In other words, both companies have been taking on the challenge of cutting carbon emissions in very direct ways, but now Dell has come along with this offset program, the benefits of which aren't as concrete.
Yet when presented with the option to donate to the cause, what could AMD do but donate to Dell's green pet project? You'd likely do the same if your manager wandered into your cubicell and asked you to sponsor his son's walk-a-thon to fight diaper rash. Even if you'd already given money and volunteered time for more arguably worthy causes -- and you were a little strapped for money -- you'd still reach into your pocket and fork over a few bucks.
That's my admittedly cynical view. What do you think of Dell's "Plant a Tree for Me" program?
Posted by Ted Samson on April 25, 2007 10:31 AM
April 19, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Yahoo's carbon-neutrality is a smart investment
Yahoo has raised the green bar substantially amongst IT companies, announcing ambitious plans to become carbon-neutral by the end of this year.
What that means, basically, is the company is measuring its environmental impact, reducing that impact where it can, and, for what remains, investing in projects that reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) in amounts equal to what it's still emitting, according to the company's announcement.
"We measured our carbon footprint and discovered that Yahoo going carbon neutral is equivalent to shutting off the electricity in all San Francisco homes for a month. Or, pulling nearly 25,000 cars off the road for a year," writes Chief Yahoo David Filo in the Yodel Anecdotal blog.
Yahoo isn't alone among major IT players in making a public display of its goals to cut energy usage and reduce GHG emissions. IBM recently announced plans to cut its greenhouse emissions 7% by 2012, while HP said it would cuts its total energy consumption by 20% by 2010.
But what Yahoo is doing is a little different, as I interpret it, and frankly, I think it's a great move.
Essentially, the company first is going to do all it can to cut energy costs within, something that any organization with huge datacenters needs to do anyway, given the power crunch and soaring energy bills companies are facing. Putting a dent in its energy bills -- and doing it sooner, rather than later, thanks to its self-imposed 2007 deadline -- may just help Yahoo reduce those operating expenses that resulted in a sub-par quarter.
After the company has made internal adjustments to reduce its carbon footprint, it says it's going to invest in projects around the world that cut emissions by the same amount that it's emitting.
But here's the important bit: Yahoo doesn't appear to be poised to simply throw money at feel-good, green-hued pigs in pokes, such as organic soybean farms in Malaysia run by vegans, or free-range, guinea-pig-powered server farms (patent pending). Rather, Yahoo has set some pretty strict criteria as to where its dollars will go, and expects to see actual returns on its investment.
The criteria Yahoo is using are:
Measurable results: We want to see real, measurable, direct emissions reductions.
Verification: We'll put potential projects through a third-party verification process to ensure they're actually delivering their expected environmental benefits.
Additionality: We want our investment to fund a project beyond business as usual. In other words, we wouldn't invest in a program that would occur anyway without our support. Some offset projects have been recently criticized because they merely provided additional revenue without environmental improvements.
High quality: We want to invest in projects that are wise investments with strong environmental returns but which also help other businesses and consumers build faith in this new and emerging market.
The Purple Gene: We want to do this in a way that's innovative and authentic.
And that's what I like so much about Yahoo's plan. Essentially, it's implementing a short-term strategy to cut costs and energy usage, which are both good for its bottom line and for the environment, and it has devised a long-term strategy for investing in the future of clean, sustainable technology -- an industry that companies like Yahoo will ultimiately profit from, and one that is bound to boom in a big way.
Yahoo's Filo has started a thread on Yahoo Answers, asking for suggestions from the public as to what it might to do reduce its carbon footprint. It makes for some interesting reading, really: Some people commend the company for its plans while others scoff that the company is wasting its time and money buying into the "global warming hoax."
What do you think of Yahoo's move?
Posted by Ted Samson on April 19, 2007 12:18 PM
April 18, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Reading assignment: "The Power of Green"
In between Reality Checks, perhaps, my colleague Ephraim Schwartz pointed me to a rather excellent article on NYTimes.com titled "The Power of Green." Written by Thomas L. Friedman, the article argues that in order for America to regain its global stature, it needs to assume environmental leadership.
Friedman eloquently touches on several arguments for his case. Among them, there's the irony of our country funneling millions of dollars into the war on terror, while at the same putting millions of dollars into the hands of certain regimes in the Middle East, through oil re