It’s not so tough being green anymore, even for power-hogs like data centers. The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has allied with The Green Grid, an association of IT professionals looking to make data centers more efficient, to develop and promote ways to improve energy efficiencies.
Half of the equipment in a data center is related to IT — for example, servers and storage devices — while the other half is comprised of chillers and HVAC equipment needed to keep the IT equipment running at the right temperature. That all adds up to a lot of energy consumed, according to Wayne Adams, treasurer and chair emeritus with SNIA.
Those power needs will only get bigger, he told us. “You’ve seen forecasts of continued growth of data and longer retention periods for data and keeping it always online,” he said. So while The Green Grid focuses on studying energy-efficiency metrics, the SNIA will use its industry clout (it has 400 member companies and 7,000 individual members) and its expertise in networked storage to press for change.
Educational Efforts
“Storage plays an important role in power and energy efficiency within data centers and business computing ecosystems,” said Vincent Franceschini, chair of the SNIA. “With that, the SNIA’s Green Storage Initiative is dedicated to applying the technical and educational expertise of the storage industry to the broader view of the data center to collaborate, develop and find more energy-efficient solutions for the IT industry.”
The two groups will work together on educational efforts to bring their “green storage” message to industry insiders. At the Storage Networking World conference, SNIA is offering two tutorials on green storage and green IT. Adams said that The Green Grid can take these tutorials and factor them into the research and white papers it provides.
Green Storage
Much of the impetus behind…