AT&T Joins Green Grid to Promote Data Center Energy Efficiency

AT&T Inc. announced its affiliate, AT&T Services Inc., has joined The Green Grid, the global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. AT&T also announced it will supply data center performance information to assist the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in developing a new ENERGY STAR rating for data center infrastructure.

Membership in The Green Grid and participation in the ENERGY STAR data center initiative underscore AT&T's commitment to minimize the environmental impact of its operations and to work collaboratively with industry organizations and suppliers to identify optimal solutions and best practices.

The Green Grid works to provide industry wide recommendations and best practices on metrics and technologies that will improve energy efficiency in data centers around the world. As a Contributor Member of The Green Grid, AT&T is taking an important role in cooperating with other leading companies to reduce energy consumption and related data center costs.

"The Green Grid is proud to welcome AT&T as a Contributor Member of the consortium," said Mark Monroe, a director of The Green Grid. "AT&T brings a breadth of knowledge and experience in the field of communications. The Green Grid is looking forward to collaborating with AT&T and leveraging its expertise to help further the organization's mission."

In an effort to improve energy efficiency in the data center industry, the EPA is developing an ENERGY STAR Data Center Infrastructure Rating. This new rating will help data center operators assess the energy performance of their buildings' infrastructure and identify buildings with the greatest opportunity for improvement, allowing them to capture the financial and environmental benefits of improved energy efficiency in their facilities. The initiative will ultimately enable data center facilities to earn ENERGY STAR certification for superior energy efficiency. To assist in the development of this rating, AT&T has committed to monitoring select company data centers and submit energy data to the EPA during the next 12 months.

"EPA is very pleased to have AT&T's support for the development of the ENERGY STAR rating for data center infrastructure," said Mike Zatz, manager of EPA's ENERGY STAR Commercial Buildings Program. "It is only with the active involvement of industry leaders like AT&T that EPA will be able to provide the data center industry with the information it needs to most effectively improve the energy efficiency of these critical facilities."

"Data center electricity use has been growing rapidly in recent years, roughly doubling from 2000 to 2005," said Jonathan Koomey, Ph.D., staff scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories and consulting professor, Stanford University. "There's significant potential for improving energy efficiency in those facilities, and many large companies are starting to make the institutional and technological changes needed to capture that efficiency. In this case, businesses can save money and reduce pollution at the same time."

WEIRD WEDNESDAY: A Low Tech Solution To A High Tech Problem

This story comes from Alex Papadimoulis of The Stalled Server Room. It was originally posted on 6/24/08.

According to Papadimoulis, one company was forced to move from its second floor space to another location on the first floor of the same building when its lease came up. The request seemed easy enough, aside from the slight disruption caused by the move. However, there was an unfortunate sticking point; the company would not have space (or the money, for that matter) to move its server room and all of the accompanying equipment from the existing second floor location.

So here's the weird part. Papadimoulis reports, to accommodate the new second floor tenant (who wouldn't want to deal with the inconvenience of interruptions from people traipsing through to work on the server room):

"building management and the company's executives came up with an alternative: wall off the server room door and build a new one. It seemed simple enough, but there was, however, just one small hitch. The only available wall to install a door was adjacent to the women's restroom. Inside the handicapped stall." (Pictured below.)

Here is a copy of the memo sent by the building management company as an explanation for the "creative" space planning resolution.

From: ---- --------
Sent: Monday, May 5, 2008 4:37 PM
To: Everyone
Subject: Server Room Access

Hi all.

As you all are aware, we have new tenants that have moved into the 2nd floor suites. The access to the server room is now via the women’s bathroom.

There will be a sign on the woman’s door that can be changed from OPEN to CLOSED and vice versa.

Should you need to enter the server room, please change the sign to CLOSED. Once you are done, please change it back to OPEN.

Once you enter the bathroom, you will be able to access the server room via the handicapped stall. Please close the stall door prior to entry, just in case someone doesn’t see that the bathroom is closed.

I know this isn’t ideal, but if we adhere to this protocol, I don’t think anyone will be disrupted.

Thanks! Let me know if you have any questions.

---- --------
Building Management


Questions? Gee, where do we start?

Many thanks to Jo Katz for submitting this story to FacilityBlog.

Earth Day Coverage: Study Indicates Lack of Standards is Slowing Green Data Center Initiatives

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. is reporting results from a new study of green data center trends that show significant changes since 2007. The findings are based on a survey of senior decision makers at leading North American corporations who are directly responsible for data center strategy, planning, and technology. Digital Realty Trust conducted a similar study in 2007, one of the first in-depth analyses of green trends in the data center industry.

“When we conducted our first green data center study last year, respondents expressed concern about the lack of industry standards for green data centers. The impact of that concern is very evident in this year’s survey. Companies are looking for leadership and clarity on how to define a green data center, how to design their green data center plans, and how to put them into action,” said Jim Smith, vice president of engineering at Digital Realty Trust. “In the past, the question may have been how to convince companies of the value of green data centers. The good news is that is no longer a problem. Companies are convinced. The challenge is that the data center industry needs to step up and show the way with clear standards.”

Key findings from the research study are provided below:

• 51% of companies have a green data center strategy, a decline since the 2007 study when 55% of companies answered the question affirmatively. This indicates that corporate adoption of green data center strategies has stalled or perhaps taken a step back since last year.
• 82% of companies say there is no clear industry standard for green data centers. This figure is up from 75% in 2007, indicating that there is more ambiguity than clarity in the industry. One area where there was broad agreement was in what elements an industry standard should comprise. The top two responses were: 94% agreed that a standard should outline how to achieve efficient power usage (i.e. maximizing energy delivered to IT equipment by the facility); and 83% agreed that a standard should also outline how to enhance HVAC systems to use energy more efficiently. 
• In the absence of green data center standards, companies site LEED certification as the best alternative. More than 60% of companies look to LEED general building standards as a model for their green data center initiatives. The Green Grid was also cited as a resource for green data center initiatives, indicating that the consortium is gaining visibility and momentum in the industry.
• Of the companies that do have a green data center strategy, 82% are taking a holistic approach that encompasses not only servers and other datacenter hardware, but also facility design and data center operations. This is nearly identical to the 2007 metric (81%), indicating that companies understand the value of taking a comprehensive approach that maximizes energy efficiency by addressing not just the equipment in the data center, but the facility itself.
• Only 18% of companies are planning to include carbon credits in their green data center plans, down from a figure of 25% in 2007. This indicates that companies are focusing on directly reducing their data center energy consumption rather than displacing it through carbon credits solutions.

Digital Realty Trust is also publishing results from a Europe-focused study of green data center trends. The European survey shows that green data center initiatives currently have greater momentum in the U.K., Germany, France, the Netherlands and Ireland. For example, 60% of European companies have green data center plans, more than 70% plan to make green upgrades to existing facilities, and a significant portion have already begun requiring their data center vendors to have a green strategy that meets their standards. The European study does, however, find that companies in those countries see a similar lack of industry standards, an issue that could slow momentum as it appears to have done in North America.