The Green Grid Draws New Guidelines
The Green Grid Issues New Guides We’ve discussed The Green Grid before. They’re the “consortium of information technology companies and professionals seeking to improve energy efficiency in data centers around the globe.”
There isn’t really a voice of authority just yet in the green IT issue, which tends to be a problem among companies touting their “green” services, or more importantly among the customers attempting to discern the value of one “green” claim in comparison to another.
The Green Grid may not quite have it’s eye on that voice-of-authority position, but it is certainly setting itself up at the center of some consensus-based thinking about the environmental considerations of hardware and data center building.
And while involvement in the organization is a paid-for privilege, the products of that thinking aren’t always kept under lock and key.
Last week, The Green Grid posted three new white papers on its site, available for free download to anyone who wants to look at them. Their rather lengthy and descriptive titles are as follows:
“The Green Grid Data Center Power Efficiency Metrics: PUE and DciE”
“Existing Metrics, Guidelines and Programs Affecting Data Center and IT Energy Efficiency”
“Qualitative Analysis of Power Distribution Configurations for Data Centers”
And they can all be downloaded from this page.
There isn’t a ton of freely available hard-numbers analysis or nuts-and-bolts instruction on measuring or improving data center efficiency out there. And that alone should make the white papers worth perusing.
Whether the standards and metrics that the green grid proposes here are destined for widespread recognition and adoption isn’t a sure thing. But metrics and practices such as these have a built-in value that exists independent of any official adoption or endorsement.
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with We... (Read full bio)
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