- Chapter 3: Collaboration Is Key for Green IT
- IT Technology Vendors
- Data Center Design and Build Businesses
- Collaboration of Building Energy Management and IT Energy Management
- Energy Utilities
- Governments
- Collaboration Within Your Own Company
- Universities Collaborate
- The Green Grid Collaboration Agreements
- Collaboration and Carbon Trading
- IT Vendors and Collaboration
- Al Gore and Green Collaboration
- Chapter Summary and Conclusions
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
The Green Grid Collaboration Agreements
The Green Grid (mentioned at the beginning of this chapter and at the end of Chapter 2) represents an excellent example of organizations collaborating for energy efficiency. The Green Grid is a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. In 2008, The Green Grid announced Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA). The Green Grid’s agreement with the EPA will first promote energy efficiency in EPA computer facilities and then broadly share results to impact change within both other governmental agencies and the private sector. The alliance with SNIA, formally announced by SNIA in mid-2008, is designed to further networked storage best practices for energy efficiency.
The Green Grid’s MOU 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.
The Green Grid’s collaboration with the EPA will accelerate the adoption of best practices for energy efficiency in existing computer and server rooms throughout the EPA. As an initial step, The Green Grid and the EPA will identify an existing small EPA computer or server room as a target for an energy-efficiency showcase and execute a public project demonstrating the feasibility, approach, and benefits of optimization. The results, best practices, and real-world takeaways from this project will be shared with other governmental agencies, industry stakeholders, and the private sector. As announced by The Green Grid, this “...agreement between the EPA and The Green Grid will build further collaboration between the private and public sectors, and to set an example by improving energy efficiency in federal government computer facilities. 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.”
SNIA also announced a formal alliance with The Green Grid. The Green Grid will work with SNIA and its Green Storage Initiative to develop and promote standards, measurement methods, processes, and technologies to improve data center energy efficiencies. SNIA will use its expertise in networked storage and membership (more than 400 member companies and 7,000 individual members) to work with The Green Grid on best storage practices for achieving more-efficient storage infrastructures, including more-efficient storage networking technologies.
SNIA strongly believes that addressing the challenges associated with energy efficiency and green computing will require collaboration across all IT areas, including the storage industry. SNIA believes that The Green Grid is a key industry organization for improving energy efficiency within data centers and business computing ecosystems. Through its Green Storage Initiative—dedicated to applying the technical and educational expertise of the storage industry to develop and find more energy-efficient solutions in the data center—SNIA is committed to work with The Green Grid to develop best practices and education for the industry.