A survey of 100 CIOs and data centre managers in the UK has shown that 53% of respondents do not know the environmental impact of their own data centres. The survey was conducted by researchers Vanson Bourne on behalf of data centre infrastructure management solutions provider nlyte Software.

The Green Grid, the IT industry’s leading voice for advancing energy efficiency in data centres and business computing ecosystems, has announced the creation of two new metrics designed to help improve the sustainability of data centre facilities by measuring the effectiveness of carbon and water use tied specifically to the IT energy infrastructure they contain.

Shell has selected AT&T and Cisco to assess the energy efficiency of the oil and gas giant’s IT infrastructure. The telecoms and networking companies will calculate the CO2 output of Shell’s IT operations and map energy use patterns.

2010 has been a pivotal year for “greening” data centres. The drive towards cloud computing and the flood of new digital information has caused mission critical facilities to undergo a true revolution.

As IT continues to get more dynamic, there is a renewed emphasis on reducing complexity, streamlining infrastructure and reducing energy costs. By managing efficient data centres, companies will gain tremendous top line and bottom line growth, which is the core goal of mission critical organizations in 2010 and will continue to be the major focus over the next decade.

Syracuse University was recently acknowledged for implementing a Green Data Center to drive an effective and efficient reduction in data centre power. The institution’s data centre has actually been called one of the world’s greenest computer centres and is the result of collaboration between SU, IBM and New York State.

Green House Data, the rocky mountain regions first 100% green data centre, has announced their plans to open another green data centre facility in 2011 that is focused on cloud hosting and colocation services. This new property will be in addition to their existing data centre located in Cheyenne, WY.

The Wired Real Estate Group has been tapped to lead the data centre real estate search in conformity with the sustainable practices of Green House.

Source: Pitch Engine

The US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is working with China to improve the energy efficiency of the country's data centres. The project is being run by Dale Sartor, head of the Building Technology's Applications Team, and Bo Shen of the China Energy Group.

The Berkeley Lab scientists will work with the China Institute of Electronics and the China Electronics Standardization Institute to "share best practices, case studies and other material" to help form standards and training programs for China's data centre industry.

Source: The WHIR