Over and out.

Thanks Mary. Thanks John.

Thank you John and  everyone.

Have a great day!

Well, time's up. It has been a fun and productive chat about green IT. I thank you all for joining us, hope it has been worthwhile. Thank you, Mary, for making the time, and we all look forward to another ITSC chat next week, the next in our continuing series.

Yes--and then their customers incprporate those figures/facts into their own regulatory green commitments for  leverage with auditors!

I think some hosting companies now brag about their DCs as particularly eneregy-efficient and green, just as a marketing ploy. LEED and all that.

@John

There  is always a place for manual procedures

It is being considered as part of  internal SLAs

There's still some question as to whether delivering a document in paper is not more efficient than by computer/Net/screen, but perhaps that's a discussion for another time. 

It might interest you to know that more data centers in their cloud metrics are being evaluated by the business on energy usage.

@John

That is just too ugly to think about! :)

I wrote once about a Honeywell mainframe whose water system had algae growing in it. Epic fail.

@John

Yes. It's amazing how many people  forget about turning theri machines off!

NRG

@John

I remember that (mainframe heat distribution)

It doesn't surprise me, wither.

I walk by an office bldg. near my home where screeens are left on all night. I thought of sticking a note to their window!

@James

You're absolutely right.

Sometimes, it's  as easy  as telling people to turn off their PCs when they're away from them (or automating turn-off from central IT).

Jim, perhaps you rtemember when IBM was able to heat buildings with its mainframes. Water-cooled processors, etc.

Virtualization can lead to more work on a single piece of hardware and so, in theory, less energy for the same amount of work.

2John

Actually, there are recyclable  programs (and I think there even used to be tax credits!) for businesses junking their old computers.

I know the Bay  Area has been very active on this.

It's funny that with all the attention paid to new, energy saving technology, I've been reading more and more lately about lower-tech approaches that anyone can implement. For example, managers can take a closer look at equipment that is powered on but not being used. Also, today's equipment can run at higher ambient temperatures, so you can let the datacenter temp go up a bit, or you can use external air for much of the year.

An old computer is worth v. little, it seems, at least in terms of its usefulness as a running computer. It just fails to keep up with all those around it.

@Cas

Yes, the energy consumption is  much less.

The overall server (managing many virtual systems) can share resources between these systems that otherwise would be dedicated on a single  server-single system  deployment.

I wish computers tjhemselves were more recyclable. Never have such expensive "machines" been so disposable.

There are also low-tech  green strategies in the data center  and in business--like shredding paper, recycling, cycling tapes used for backup, etc.

I wonder, and I wrote about this recently, if the general move to make IT more efficient will really matter in the long-run. The more efficient we make it, the more people will feel free to use it. Would there ever come a time when one might think twice about searchign on Google, for instance, as one might thing twice about driving two states away for a vacation? Seems like a stretch, but who knows.

Mary, how does virtualization affect energy consumption? I am assuming the impact is less than physical servers.

For one, people want batteries to last longer

Yes, and I   understand there is even more research going on in the  area of batteries

I know that processors like ARM, designed for mobile-battery usage, are showing up in DCs, precisely as a way to save kilowatts.

Yes, Jim--the sheer power of the engines today creates  energy demands

Yes--there are already  big data applications out there that perform analytics and provide trends and  suggestions on energy use.

Good point, Jim, and welcome. Thanks for joinging the chat. We're green, today, and a bit lean, but so it goes.

Big data outsourcing makes sense not only from an energy standpoint--but from a standpoint of expertise (and the in-house lack of it)

I suppose there will be some gains by using big-data techniques to analyze energy usage in specific facilities or organizations, to identify useful patterns, etc. Load-balancing of electrical power might be helped for instance.

If you look at it from a compute cycle basis, the energy use would have been orders of magnitude higher even 10 years ago. The energy bills may be higher or at least comparable today because we're churning so many more cycles in a short time today both because of more powerful processors and consolidation.

@John

Well, another key to big data is big  storage--another energy consumer!

OUtsourcing makes sense in big-data, no question.

...and  I'm sure they are going to break those barriers with nano-technology, John.

Big data, big energy, is my guess, though I would imagine that these apps don't use more energy per-server, or however you want to mention it. 

Big data will be "big" in its energy usage.

It processes data in parallel and does extensive number crunching.

I expect that many enterprises, as they add HPC for analtyics, will choose to outsource this to Universities and others offering cloud services.

Yes, better chips is a big savings, I am sure, in cpu and memory. There is a whole field of research, mostly theoretical, into how much energy is actually needed, down at the qwuantum level, to actually store a bit of data or perform an addition, for instance. What is the minimum level of energy needed before noise in the system overcomes the signal and your data is not discernible? Could you make a computer out of single atoms? And so forth.

@John

Yes--and the fact that FB has opened up the dialogue will invite many innovative ideas that they would probably never get  from just a single source

Mary, what's your take on the impact of big-data which is highly compute-intensive and spread out over large numbers (thousands) of inexpensive servers?

@John

One big difference maker in energy savings per compute cycle has  been the introduction of cooler chip tchology

It's interesting to see that Facebook has actually open-sourced the design of its DCs, inviting others to chip in ideas and refinements, especially in the area of energy.

@John

 Not to mention  the sighs of relief that utilities are expereincing, especially in peak  summer hours.

One told me that they could tell whenever a new data center was added by someone--because they could immediately see the data center spike

Though I suppose that many earlier computers were built with hardly any concern for energy usage, vs. now, when that's a primary consideration. A big gap[, in other words.

I wonder what the energy usage per compute cycle has done over time, how it may have dropped. I gather there has been a fairly steep ramp in this.

@John

Even SMBs with tiny data  centers notice a savings when they implement green strategies

Interesting.

Hi Cas,

There  are enterprises now that include a  cost offset for the  savings in energy, footprint they anticipate when they  go  to a SaaS  vednor

I wonder if it's only the v. largest datacenters that can get green or if smaller setups can do anything significant.

On the other hand, SaaS entails some use of long-distance Internet links, which have their own footprint.

Overall, this strategy of collaboration is further helping IT when it comes to the table  with new data center "green" proposals

I would guess, Cas, that because SaaS is run from expertly-managed DCs, there'd be some savings in energy - more sharing of servers and other infrastructure, etc. 

IT also has metrics that others are borrowing in theri "greening"  efforts

Right, I can see that IT would be instrumental in helping those who run other facilities keep track of their energy usage, etc. 

What is  interesting to the end busines is the consolidation of building footprints--and the use of cooling ,etc., for efficent energy use.

Many of  these practices have already been tested in the data  center,so they are thinking these can be adapted.

As the editr of a SaaS publication, I must ask does Software as a Service change the green IT dynamics for the better?

My guess is that IT has some handle energy usage by machines such as its own, but on the rest of the company's activities? 

Yes.

There  is also entire facilities mgmt software now available that IT implements and then supports for facilities managers 

IT in the datacenter makes sense, I just wonder how consoldiating servers, for instance, is of any use to someone in HR or accounting, say. 

I can imagine that IT has its own "green" goals and it would help other departments and the co. as a whole to monitor their carbon footprints and audit their energy usage, etc. 

Partly.

IT developed some great green practices  in the data center--and it is being  asked to show others how these practices can be used in general corporate facilities.

Hi Mary.

Yes, John.

How would IT help elsewhere? With collecting data and analyzing it?

Hi Cas

Hey Cas! Thanks for dropping in. You have your green cap on?

Yes, there is continued interest, John.

As you know, the ball got rolling several years ago.

IT has had some success.

Now it is being  asked to help with other areas ofthecompany.

Hello everyone.

Let's just chat and see how it goes ....

Well, let's get started. How important is "green" to IT managers right now? Are you seeing a good amount of interest? And true activity?

Nice to be here, John.

Thanks for  having me.

Hi Mary. Good to have you here.

I see you, John

Hello, test.

Join us here on Wednesday May 23 at 2PM ET (11AM Pacific) when we chat with data center expert Mary E. Shacklett, longtime IT manager and industry observer, about Green IT and how to get there.