Energy efficiency and green technologies are concepts that are on the top of everyone's minds as of late and many organizations in the IT industry, particularly in the data center business, are working to develop energy efficiency metrics and best practices for the data center industry.

The Green Grid is one particular organization that seems to be making strides towards this goal through its strategic partnerships with hardware manufacturers, data center operators and government agencies, in an effort to engage the issue on all levels and create a solution that is not only efficient and cost-effective, but sustainable for the future.

The Green Grid says that its collaboration with the EPA will accelerate the adoption of best practices for energy efficiency in existing computer/server rooms throughout the agency. As an initial step The Green Grid and the EPA will identify an existing small EPA computer/server room as a target for an energy efficiency showcase and execute a public project demonstrating the feasibility, approach and benefits of optimization. The Green Grid will then share the results, best practices and real-world takeaways from this project with other governmental agencies, industry stakeholders and the private sector.

"The goal of the agreement between the EPA and The Green Grid is to build further collaboration between the private and public sectors and to set an example by improving energy efficiency in federal government computer facilities," says Roger Tipley, director of The Green Grid. "The Green Grid will play a key role in this project by providing a team of technical experts who will perform the assessment and direct strategies and techniques for maximizing energy efficiency."

The Green Grid says that it has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Storage Networking Industry Association (snia.org), which was formally announced by the SNIA last week. Considering SNIA's expertise in networked storage, The Green Grid says the partnership is designed to further best storage practices for achieving more efficient storage infrastructures, including more efficient storage networking technologies.

The SNIA is an organization dedicated to leading the storage industry in developing and promoting standards, technologies and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information.

According to the press release, the Green Grid's Memorandums of Understanding with the EPA and SNIA highlight the organization's continuing efforts and progress in working with government agencies and key industry players to define and promote the adoption of standards, processes, measurements and technologies for energy efficiency in the data center.