IDC Announces Green IT Forum West

May 21, 2008 — (GREEN DATA CENTER INFO) — IDC announced plans today for the IDC Green IT Forum West taking place June 10, 2008 at the Santa Clara Hilton in Santa Clara, CA.

This event follows a successful IDC Green IT Forum East, drawing 200 attendees to New York City on February 28th. IDC says the program is designed for senior IT, technology, procurement, and strategic planning executives tasked with managing the role of Green IT to effectively measure and capture market opportunities for energy efficient systems.

“Most IT executives get the message that a Green IT strategy is a good one, but many simply don’t know what it will cost”, says Vernon Turner, senior vice president at IDC, “Many are wrestling with the Green IT business case, and quickly back into the skeptic’s corner. However, if they look at a Green IT as an outcome from a Lean IT strategy, then it’s a different story.”

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Tags: Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Hewlett Packard, IDC, Intel Corporation, Pacific Gas and Electric Company

Carbon Offsets, What are they Good For?

By Esther M. Bauer

Some hosting companies looking to add an environmentally friendly element to their businesses are looking at carbon offset credits, a practice that raises its own questions

Global warming has made going green a symbol for saving the planet and, by default, a marketing mantra with an increasing impact on web hosting. Businesses that factor anti-global warming practices into their corporate culture want green websites, too, and prefer environmentally responsible hosting providers.

The end-user quest for green has led to increased business for Affordable Internet Services online, a rare case of a hosting provider so green it doesn’t emit any carbon into the atmosphere. Its data center was designed from the ground up to be earth friendly and sun powered via its own solar panels.

But, since few providers have the proper infrastructure or location to retrofit their dirty-powered data centers as solar- or wind-powered, many seek to leave a carbon neutral footprint.

Emissions they cannot eliminate through energy-saving measures, they seek to offset by buying so-called “carbon offsets,” including green tags or renewable energy certificates.

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Tags: 3Degrees, AISO, carbon offsets, data center, IDC, NaviSite, renewable energy, solar, ThinkHost