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BNY Mellon Data Center Gets Energy Star
August 17th, 2010 : Colleen MillerThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Energy Star label to BNY Mellon’s Northpointe Data Center, located near Pittsburgh. BNY Mellon (BK) is a global financial services firm, handling asset management and securities.
Northpointe, a 71,000-square-foot data center built in 2006, is one of just three facilities to have earned the recently-implemented Energy Star for Data Centers. The others are a NetApp data center in North Carolina and a Consonus facility in Utah.
Team-Wide Focus on Efficiency
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A team of professionals from BNY Mellon, Jones Lang LaSalle, H.F. Lenz and Mechanical Operations Company, Inc., worked collectively on the energy efficiency features of the Northpointe data center, while reducing operating costs and cutting greenhouse gas emissions from electrical usage at the facility. The team focused on utility improvements and systems to keep the data center’s power and cooling systems in sync with the workload. -
Survey: Data Center Expansion Continues
August 16th, 2010 : Rich MillerThe nation’s leading users of data center space continue to increase their use of mission-critical facilities, as nearly two-thirds are in active expansion mode, according to a survey of Data Center Knowledge readers.
The results underscore the continued need for new data center space, but reflect some changes in how companies are procuring new facilities. The data also found mixed adoption of cloud computing services, suggesting that large users of data center space are moving cautiously in introducing cloud services.
63 Percent in Expansion Mode
Sixty three percent of Data Center Knowledge readers say they are either in the midst of data center expansion projects or have just completed a new facility. The majority (59 percent) continue to build and manage their data centers in-house, but 41 percent are now using a wholesale data center provider or other third-party company for their expansion.Those findings support anecdotal accounts that a growing number of major data center users are seeking to preserve capital by making more use of third-party providers, a trend that has boosted the fortunes of wholesale data center providers that lease turn-key “plug-and-play” space.
Wholesale Deals May Limit Cost Overruns
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In addition to offering savings on construction costs, DCK readers reported that using a wholesale provider limited cost cost overruns. About 20 percent of projects did not complete on time or came in over budget, but in-house data center projects were twice as likely to have cost over runs between $1 million and $10 million, as opposed to projects that involved a wholesale provider. -
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Report: ‘Green’ Efficiency Market to Hit $41B
August 6th, 2010 : Rich MillerCompanies don’t decide to “go green” with their IT operations because it’s fashionable. For data center operators, energy efficiency is a business imperative. That’s why reducing the energy use and carbon output of these facilities has been a visible priority for the industry for several years. If you’ve attended a data center conference or been pitched by a vendor in the past two years, you’ve repeatedly heard the “green data center” refrain.
A new report released this week by Pike Research has put some numbers to this trend. Pike, which specializes in “clean tech” research, says investment in greener data centers will experience rapid growth over the next five years, increasing from $7.5 billion in global revenue to $41.4 billion by 2015, representing 28 percent of the total data center market.
Pike projects that spending on power and cooling solutions represent the biggest chunk of the green data center market opportunity, representing 46 percent of revenue over the next five years. Energy efficient IT equipment will be the second largest category with 41 percent of the market, while monitoring and management will follow with 14 percent of total revenue.
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TelecityGroup Achieves Carbon Trust Standard
July 29th, 2010 : Colleen MillerTelecityGroup, a European data center provider headquartered in the United Kingdom, has become the first provider to achieve the Carbon Trust Standard for its UK operations. The company also earned an ISO 14001 certification for environmental management.
The Carbon Trust Standard is a carbon award that requires organizations to measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions across their own operations. By improving its carbon efficiency from January 2007 through to December 2009 across the company’s UK operations and subsidiaries, TelecityGroup achieved the Carbon Trusts Standard. The company has committed to delivering ongoing year-on-year improvements.
“As the services we provide are at the heart of the digital economy, it is crucial that we continue to strive for environmental best practice and ensure our energy usage is as efficient as possible,” said Michael Tobin, CEO of TelecityGroup. “To achieve ISO 14001 accreditation across our entire portfolio of data centers in Europe, and be the first specialist data center services company to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard across our UK operations, shows both our continued environmental leadership and the combination of investment and proactive management we have taken to measure and significantly reduce our carbon emissions.”
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Green Grid Provides PUE Measurement Guidance
July 19th, 2010 : John RathOn Thursday the Green Grid released consolidated recommendations for measuring and reporting the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) metric in dedicated data center facilities. “Driving industry alignment of PUE through consistent measurement and reporting processes represents a significant step in improving data center energy efficiency,” said Dan Azevedo, Symantec representative and board member of The Green Grid.
A group of leading U.S. organizations released a task force report titled Recommendations for Measuring and Reporting Overall Data Center Efficiency – Version 1 – Measuring PUE at Dedicated Data Centers. The recommendations for measuring and reporting PUE put forth by the group are aimed at use of multiple energy sources (electric, natural gas, water, etc.).
The report affirms the PUE metric as the industry’s preferred data center infrastructure efficiency metric by The Green Grid in collaboration with 7×24 Exchange, ASHRAE, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, U.S. Department of Energy Save Energy Now Program, U.S. Enviornmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR Program, United States Green Building Council, and the Uptime Institute.
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NetApp First to Receive Energy Star for Data Centers
July 16th, 2010 : John RathNetApp (NTAP) announced that its dynamic data center located at the NetApp technology center in Research Triangle Park (RTP) has become the first facility to earn the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Energy Star for Data Centers rating. The facility was announced in 2007 and completed in 2009.
EPA’s Energy Star energy performance scale helps organizations assess how efficiently their data centers use energy relative to similar data centers nationwide. A data center that scores a 75 or higher on EPA’s 1–100 scale is eligible for the Energy Star. The RTP data center achieved a near perfect mark by scoring a 99.
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The Renewable Energy Challenge
July 13th, 2010 : Rich Miller
In coming years, the data center industry will face growing pressure to find workable ways to integrate renewable energy sources into projects. The demand is being driven by two trends: the growth of corporate social responsibility programs that focus on carbon neutrality, and the potential for federal legislation in the U.S. that will place caps on carbon emissions.But most renewable energy sources come with a premium price tag and have problems reaching the scale required to successfully support the power requirements of an entire data center.
In Special Report: Data Centers and Renewable Energy, we look at the challenges of implementing renewable energy solutions in data centers, and also highlight early adopters who have implemented on-site renewable solutions.
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Green DC Alliance Funding to Boost Best Practices
June 30th, 2010 : Colleen MillerThe Green Data Center Alliance (GDCA) received a grant that will underwrite the creation of guidelines for data centers to significantly lower their energy consumption. The $500,000 in funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) will bring together both data center owners and power utilities.
The alliance will use the grant funding to create a system of best practices for data center operators, rate selected data centers against standard metrics, provide options for participating centers to improve efficiency and verify data on energy users.
Targeting Five Disciplines
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“To achieve significant and long-lasting energy conservation, the GDCA believes it is necessary to view the data center from five disciplines: engineering & facilities, information technology, finance, governance, and process,” said Derek Schwartz, Executive Director & Founder of the GDCA. “Our membership strongly believes that decisions in each category can have a tremendous impact on over energy consumption. The most effective strategy for increased data center productivity must encompass all areas.” -
NGD Lines Up Renewable Power for UK Data Center
June 8th, 2010 : Rich Miller
An exterior view of the Next Generation Data Ltd. facility in Newport, Wales.
Next Generation Data has arranged for a UK power supplier to provide renewable energy to the company’s huge new data center in Newport, Wales, which is one of the largest data centers in the world.
Next Generation Data Limited (NGD) has appointed SmartestEnergy, the UK’s largest purchaser of electricity from the independent generation sector, to supply the recently opened 750,000 square feet date center facility. The company said the agreement was part of its commitment to carbon reduction, a huge issue in the Uk int he wake of the April 1 onset of the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC).
Market Maker for Renewable Power
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SmartestEnergy aggregates power from independent generators of renewable energy, and use power purchase agreements and other market tools to provide that capacity to large blue chip companies seeking renewable power, with clients including Marks & Spencer, Toyota, Hitachi and Eurostar.
