Organizations are contributing to the greater good by making their datacenter best practices transparent
Whether for the sake of helping tackle the datacenter power crisis, chipping in to fight global warming, winning over new customers, or racking up bragging rights, recently companies have been readily opening their datacenters in recent months (at least figuratively) and giving the world -- including would-be competitors -- a peek at their special techniques for reaping greater energy efficiency.
Whatever the motivation, the practice is bound to be of use to organizations confounded by high energy bills, limited power for their datacenters, and perhaps directives from above to cut carbon emissions by a hefty chunk (without sacrificing service levels, most likely). The trend will certainly prove invaluable to the Feds as they work to hammer out energy efficiency standards for datacenters.
These collective open-door datacenter policies are already bearing some juicy fruit. Accenture recently compiled results from 17 datacenter case studies supplied by members of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG), part of the organization's Data Center Demonstration Project 2008.
In the report, titled "Data Center Energy Forecast Report," Accenture determined that there's hope for the IT industry as it struggles with energy shortages and environmental woes: Based on the successes of the various projects, Accenture supports the EPA's prediction from last year that datacenters can reduce electricity use by as much as 55 percent by 2011, with efficiency gains that could be realized using today’s technologies.
[For a list of the technologies and techniques recommended by the EPA, check out "50 ways to green your datacenter."]
This week, I'd like to share some of the interesting and effective practices as reported by the participating companies. Maybe you'll find inspiration among them to cut energy waste at your own organization -- and perhaps share your success story.
[For other sustainable IT success stories, check out the results from the InfoWorld Green 15.]
