Category Archives: IT Technology

Google, the American multinational public corporation providing Internet search, cloud computing, advertising technologies, search engines and other services, has announced that it consumed 2,259,998 megawatt hours of electricity in 2010 and generated 1.46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. However, company officials note that by purchasing and generating renewable energy, as well as buying high-quality carbon offsets, it has brought its carbon output to zero.

This recent announcement breaks with Google's past which, until recently, has seen the company keep such figures secret. Although the company may be more forthcoming with information these days, major environmental watchdogs aren't impressed.

Along with Twitter and Amazon, Google received an 'F' for transparency in the recent Greenpeace ranking of cloud computing companies.

'Google only publicly acknowledges the existence of seven data centers globally,' Greenpeace said in a statement, 'though informed estimates place Google's fleet in the range of 20 to 30 data centers.'

Greenpeace does acknowledge, however, that Google is taking positive steps to improve the impact of its energy supply by making investments in and signing purchase agreements with companies offering renewable power.

The company's headquarters, located in Mountain View, California, for example, feature solar panels that produce 3 million kilowatt hours a year. Google has also taken nearly 2,000 cars off the road through its shuttle program and its on-site electric vehicle charging stations. It also has 4.5 million square feet of building space set to achieve LEED status.

Without such efficiency measures, Google says that its footprint would have been about twice as big last year.

Power Distribution

Server virtualization is on the rise as companies of all sizes continue to look for new ways to consolidate their physical servers to cuts costs, improve application management and streamline IT operations, according to a new report.

The report, outlining a recent virtualization survey, found that data centers are re-evaluating their protection strategies in search of a better way to protect, manage and recover data. Despite the ongoing economic downturn, the demand for server virtualization has remained strong and continues to grow each year. Overall, server virtualization has increased by 34 percent in the last year alone.

According to the survey, the top three factors driving server virtualization are:

' the need to cut costs through operational efficiency
' the reduction of capital expenditures
' the need for improved ease of management

As companies increasingly continue to adopt and expand server virtualization, the study finds that improving the backup and recovery process is a top initiative.

However, the survey did find that there is a dire need for improved disaster recovery. 43 percent of survey respondents said that they rely solely on backup copies for recovery, while 20 percent rely on hardware replication and 14 percent rely on software-based replication.

The remaining 16 percent reported having no data center disaster recovery plan for their virtual environment.

The typical data center is more than just a building that houses really expensive computer equipment.

Every year, businesses are forced to deal with increasing power demands and the need for greater performance and efficiency while, all the while, trying to reduce costs. With trends in virtualization and increased storage requirements, the message that most company officials are sending to their data center managers is that they must do more with less.

In order to keep pace, businesses usually consider one of three common paths:

' Retrofitting an existing data center location
' Creating new data center space on their own property
' Building a new data center facility on new property

None of these may be an option, however, for many companies due to cost. That's where wholesale data center providers come in.

Any business in need of data center space would be wise to consider the many viable and proven options that exist within the wholesale data center space.

For example, many of the wholesale data center providers already use many of the same energy-saving features innovated by Facebook, Yahoo! and Apple. Wholesalers can offer these technologies with significant cost-savings compared to the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) model.

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is a big deal in any data center model and many wholesale data center solutions now target ideal locations and resources to reduce PUE and operating expenses. The difference is that the wholesale data centers remove the up-front costs, time and risk associated with DIY models.

Of course, there are other advantages to the wholesale data center model too.

Many wholesale providers offer additional levels of configuration and customization to handle even the most complicated environments. Wholesale data centers are typically better suited to support the multi-faceted requirements and mixed technologies of most companies, including inconsistent utilization rates and varying redundancy or uptime levels.

Over the years, companies have had to absorb the cost and risk of building their own data centers because wholesale developers have not paid enough attention to their unique demands and have failed to keep up with the pace of innovation. As a result, many facilities waste energy and lose their economic value at a rapid pace.

As wholesale data centers have become more useful, however, they have proven that this will not always be the case.

Data Center Technology Blog

United States multinational conglomerate corporation and electrical giant General Electric (GE) recently announced two major IT initiatives. These include a planned new high-efficiency data centre and a plan to employ more in-house IT staff.

Going Green

The new data center, located in Louisville Kentucky, has received platinum certification in the Leadership in Environmental Energy and Design (LEED) building efficiency standard, through the use of high-density servers to reduce floor space by 50% compared to the facility it is replacing. GE has also introduced high-efficiency cooling systems allowing the company to cut energy consumption by 34 percent compared to other LEED-certified buildings.

The new GE data center is located in an existing facility and the company states that it sourced more than half of the building materials locally, making even the construction energy efficient.

The new facility was built to support the company's appliance and lighting division and is part of an initiative that includes a $1 billion investment in various 'manufacturing centers of excellence', that are expected to create 1,300 jobs by 2014.

Bringing IT Home

Earlier this month, the company, known for offshore outsourcing, confirmed that it would hire 1,100 IT workers in the United States. Recently, the company's president of business solutions said that the company was rethinking its longstanding practice of offshore outsourcing, noting that having in-house development resources will improve the company's ability to deliver more user-friendly applications.

The new IT workers will be located near Detroit, Michigan.

Data Center Technology