Green Computing

Designing and building green data centers can have a significant impact on the environment and a company's bottom line. A green data center is a repository for the storage, management, and dissemination of data in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact. 

The green data center has moved from the theoretical to the realistic, with IT leaders being challenged to construct new data centers (or retrofit existing ones) with energy saving features, sustainable materials, and other environmental efficiencies in mind.

This tutorial will survey the wide variety of options and issues that the data center designer must keep in mind in these matters, as well as illustrate how government regulation and certification will be affecting the data centers of the future. Analysis will include the US Green Building Council LEED standard, as well as other regulatory standards that are driving green data center construction. 

Learning Objectives: 

This ECAR research bulletin analyzes how several IT offices, largely at Maryland colleges and universities, are responding to the challenges issued in the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) initiative. Since it is early in developing a response to ACUPCC commitments, the bulletin also examines what these institutions intend to do in the near future. ACUPCC was organized to galvanize the U.S. higher education community to understand and act on issues surrounding climate change and sustainability. In support of this study, the authors interviewed chief information officers at 18 Maryland higher education institutions whose presidents had signed the ACUPCC at the time of the study (twelve public four-year institutions and non-degree granting research centers in the USM, four private four-year institutions, and two community colleges), as well as a representative from the University of Pennsylvania.

The environment is the largest enterprise system of all, and one that is impacted by information technology. As "green" initiatives and sustainability become a greater part of our consciousness, "green computing" will receive increasing focus in higher education. This presentation will explore sustainability, energy use, and "reduce, reuse, and recycle" programs.

We must find ways to reduce our energy consumption, to provide power through alternative methods, and to deal with the electronics we produce, use, and discard: the “e-waste.” IT divisions in higher education can and should take a leadership role in improving the sustainability of their campuses by following environmentally friendly and responsible computing practices.

"As the drumbeat grows louder for colleges to commit to reducing their carbon footprints, all kinds of data are being generated, and all sorts of greening efforts are cited in reports and campus material."

Some simple fixes in the data center can add hard cash to an enterprise's bottom line.

This autumn, PC World will launch its first "green" PC, and surely herald a wave of such products to hit both home and business. Is this the signal that it is time to clear out the techno-junk and invest in a new generation of ecologically sound hardware? Even if there is a lot of "green washing" of products that would have come out anyway, it would seem that the environmental benefits are clear cut. Unfortunately, however, it is more complicated than that: most of the green promises on offer centre on energy usage, and this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to IT's ecological impact.