Grow a Greener Data Center Excerpt

The book chapter discusses the bottom-line benefits of building out "green" data centers, as well as incentive programs and brand enhancement that come along with keeping the environment in mind.


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From InformIT | Jan 4, 2010

Conventional data centers can have a huge impact upon the environment, using massive amounts of energy and water, emitting pollutants, and discarding huge quantities of machine waste. Their insatiable demand for energy and often inefficient designs make data centers expensive to operate and prime targets for future environmental regulation.

Fortunately, it's now possible to design a data center that consumes fewer resources, costs less money to run, has a longer usable lifespan, and can even highlight a company's social responsibility. "Grow a Greener Data Center" shows how.

Author Douglas Alger makes the business case for greening data centers and presents technologies, design strategies, and operational approaches to help any company improve the energy efficiency and "eco-friendliness" of their IT hosting environments. He provides multiple strategies for "greening" each phase of a new data center project -- selecting a site, designing and building the facility, and choosing hardware -- as well as tips for retrofitting an existing server environment.

Alger explores IT and facilities technology areas as well as broader green building practices, including building material selection, electrical system design, use of alternative energy, cooling system design, cabling media choices, fire suppression options, water conservation practices, landscaping strategies, recycling programs, e-waste management, and more.

This excerpt of the book's entire first chapter entitled, "Going Green in the Data Center." This chapter defines green, discusses the drivers for companies to build greener data centers, and presents the benefits a business can see from environmentally friendlier server environments. The chapter also outlines incentive programs that reward green efforts and recaps environmental activities that several major companies pursue today.

The attached Zip file includes:

  • Intro Page.doc
  • Cover Sheet and Terms.pdf
  • Grow a Greener Data Center Excerpt.pdf
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