Virtualization Report | David Marshall » TAG: Green Technology

November 03, 2007 | Comments: (0)

IDC Report Says Green Technology Is More Than a Passing Fad

TAGS: Green Technology

Green technology is a growing concern that is significantly affecting the buying decisions that IT executives are making, both now and in the future. At least, that's one of the conclusions being drawn from a recent survey that was conducted by the analyst firm IDC.

In the survey, IDC asked executives at American businesses how green technology is impacting their buying decisions. 80% of the survey respondents said that 'Green IT' is growing in importance for their organization, and 43% said they consider a vendor's "greenness" when selecting their suppliers.

It is clear that companies are putting a heavy emphasis on "greenness"; one half of the survey respondents claim that "reducing their organization's environment impact" was important or very important to senior management. And 81% identify green products' ability to reduce operating costs as the most important reason for considering a supplier's greenness.

From energy efficiency to ease of recyclability, a product's greenness is becoming a more important economic component in the IT buying equation. "The spread of Green IT continues as organizations gain a better understanding of the benefits of going green," said Frank Gens, IDC's senior vice president of Research. "Once a distant afterthought, economic advantages, including reductions in operational costs, are driving Green IT adoption."

IDC's survey findings came from the analyst firm's Enterprise Panel members - an online community of IT and line-of-business professionals who influence the technology-related investment decisions of their organizations.

Posted by David Marshall on November 3, 2007 07:36 PM

August 26, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Green Grid Outlines 2007 Roadmap

TAGS: General News, Green Technology

The Green Grid, a nonprofit organization looking at datacenter power and efficiency, outlined its 2007 deliverables and technology roadmap.

The group, launched back in February, includes such notable technology companies such as AMD, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun and VMware. They plan to focus on data collection through the documentation of existing standards and the evaluation of metrics; data assessment through a market study of current efficiency practices; and technology proposals that outline The Green Grid's recommendations for the future of energy efficient data centers.

Specifically, as part of its technology roadmap, The Green Grid has announced the following deliverables:

Data Collection

• Data Center Standards and Metrics Inventory (Q3'07) – this study will document existing standards and metrics for energy efficiency, identify coverage gaps and make recommendations for future development.
  
• The Green Grid Metrics: Describing Data Center Power Efficiency (Q3'07) – this study will be an update to The Green Grid's existing study on data center efficiency metrics and will look at workload classification through a data center segmentation model.
  
• Operationalizing Energy-Efficiency Data Collection (Q4'07) – this study will identify the requirements for collecting and aggregating data center power consumption data.

Data Assessment

• Data Center Efficiency Baseline Market Study (Q3'07) – this study on the current state of the industry will allow The Green Grid to identify key factors driving companies to take action on data center power consumption and the challenges in doing so. Collecting and analyzing this data will help to provide companies with a baseline to compare their own initiatives, goals and performance.
  
• Operational Best Practices (Q4'07) – these studies will focus on right-sizing the data center and will outline best practices in the adoption of virtualization and consolidation technologies.
  
• Database for Data Center Performance (Q4'07) – The Green Grid will begin development work on a database focused on data center characteristics and performance schema.

Technology Proposals

• Initial Technology Roadmap (Q4'07) – this roadmap provides an initial assessment of existing and emerging technologies affecting data center efficiency and performance, taking into consideration both return on investment and risk to the end user.
  
• Power Distribution Options for the Data Center Study (Q3'07) – this study will look at the qualitative advantages and disadvantages of data center power distribution configurations.
  
• Cooling Options Study (Q4'07) – this study will focus on the qualitative advantages and disadvantages of data center cooling architectures.

Lawrence Lamers, director of the Green Grid said, "Despite the fact that power consumption is one of the most important issues facing IT today, there is a lack of guidelines and resources available for those looking to drive a change."

"The Green Grid is focused on building the foundation and launching the key technology deliverables required to improve data center energy efficiency - both for existing data centers and for the design and operation of future ones."

The problem is, no two datacenters are exactly alike. However, these reports should at least give datacenter administrators and owners enough information to help them figure out their energy efficiency and how to take steps to become more efficient. The road has to begin somewhere, and someone has to start marking the road for others to follow.

Posted by David Marshall on August 26, 2007 01:07 PM

August 24, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Server Vendors Driving Green Datacenters

TAGS: Green Technology, Podcast

The lack of space to expand a datacenter's footprint is a growing problem today for many organizations. Perhaps an even bigger problem being faced by these organizations is the rising power and cooling costs associated with today's datacenter designs. Server vendors such as Sun Microsystems and Hewlett Packard are making every effort to try and provide datacenters with green options to create a more efficient environment while at the same time giving these companies the opportunity to save money.   LISTEN!

Posted by David Marshall on August 24, 2007 05:14 PM

August 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)

SWsoft Virtuozzo Customers Gain from Going Green

TAGS: General News, Green Technology

With escalating electric power costs and increasing pressure to reduce energy consumption, SWsoft says a growing number of service providers and IT organizations worldwide are using the company's Virtuozzo virtualization software to reduce their use of electricity and to "go green." According to Gartner Research, energy costs could soon account for more than 50 percent of the total information technology budget for a typical data center. Need a better reason to go green?

Several SWsoft customers are realizing the green potential of virtualization with Virtuozzo in significant ways:

• ServInt Internet Services (www.servint.net), a leading hosting company based in the United States, estimates that their green efforts have produced a savings of as much as 85 percent in electricity usage for every hosted customer that transitions from a single physical server to a virtual server.
  
• Host Europe (www.hosteurope.de), a large hosting company based in Germany, estimates that their virtualized hosting customers use 63 percent less electric power.
  
• ikoula (www.ikoula.com), a hosting company based in France, estimates they can save as much as 60 percent on electricity by moving customers from dedicated to virtualized servers. The reduced power consumption also means delaying additional infrastructure investment to provide more power or space.

"Virtuozzo delivers the highest density available in a virtualization solution, enabling hundreds of virtual environments on a single physical server, and so it offers the greatest potential for energy savings," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft. "By using Virtuozzo to achieve their green computing goals, hosting providers can significantly reduce their energy usage while also realizing greater efficiency in their datacenter."

Posted by David Marshall on August 9, 2007 08:38 PM