These days, everything is going green. First it was light bulbs, then cars, then IT and, surprise, last week, even Twitter avatars went green.

But data integration? Really? (Loraine skeptically raises eyebrow, ala Stephen Colbert.)

Yes, really. It's one of three free upcoming webinar topics I've found that may interest IT Business Edge readers.

Phillip Russom, senior manager of The Data Warehousing Institute, will explain how data integration can be more ecological – and perhaps more importantly for many of you – economical, in a webinar scheduled for Tuesday, June 23, at 12 p.m., EDT. That's tomorrow, for those of you reaching for a desk calendar.

It makes sense, when you think about the greening of data centers, which calls for reducing the number of software servers and replacing older servers with new, more energy-efficient models. Before you can do that, you've got to consolidate, migrate and virtualize the data through – guess what – integration tools and techniques, according to the webinar's promo.

Russom will discuss the business, technical and ecological drivers behind green data centers, why operational data integration is critical to green data centers and even staffing, funding and tooling issues. The event is free, though sponsored by SAS. As someone who's been 10 minutes late to virtual events due to technical guffaws, I strongly suggest pre-registration.

Maybe you're not ready to go green. Or maybe, now that you know about green integration, you need an implementation strategy. Conveniently enough, TDWI is offering a webinar next week on “Developing a Data Integration Strategy.” It's scheduled for June 30 – next Tuesday – again, at 12 p.m. EDT.

The presenter is Jonathan Geiger of Intelligent Solutions, who will discuss how to create an enterprise view of data. Not surprisingly, this is as much about the business meaning of data as it is about technical issues, so Geiger will discuss both. He'll also cover data integration roles and responsibilities. This free event is sponsored by IBM.

Finally, for those of you struggling more with SOA than data integration, the SOA research and advisory firm, ZapThink, is offering a free webinar this week on “Lightweight SOA in a Down Economy.” Analyst Jason Bloomberg will look at how an iterative, process-driven approach to SOA can help companies reduce costs while increasing agility. He'll also discuss moving ahead with SOA “on a super-tight budget” and lightweight SOA governance.

Brian Struble, a senior SOA consultant with the event's sponsor, Sensedia, will also speak.

The ZapThink webinar is scheduled for Thursday, June 25, at 1 p.m. ET. You can read more about it or simply pre-register.