NGDC Event Focuses on Green Energy

Tradeshows and events organizer IDG World Expo (idg.com) announced that this year’s Next Generation Data Center Conference & Expo (ngdcexpo.com) will address the topics of power consumption and the greening of the data center. The event will be held August 4 to 7 at San Francisco, California’s Moscone Center.

The second annual NGDC conference and expo will address energy consumption and environmental concerns within a data center in its keynote presentations and overall conference agenda, as industry experts pass onto attendees on ways they can increase efficiency across their infrastructure.

Energy costs account for the second largest expense associated with data center operations, and are expected to rise rapidly in the coming years. This issue of energy consumption will also carry over onto the show floor by highlighting exhibitors with power products in the show guide, website and through booth signage, says IDG World Expo.

“One of the most significant trends in IT today is the issue of power, so having a major emphasis on this topic throughout the event is important,” says Andreas Antonopoulos, senior VP and founding partner of Nemertes Research, and moderator for the Green Data Center Panel at NGDC. “In NGDC, the industry now has a central gathering place where they can to go to learn best practices on energy efficiency in the data center.”

The event is being sponsored by a number of industry associations and media that are supporting the green initiative, including Climate Savers Computing Initiative, the Green Computing Impact Organization and GreenerComputing.com.

The Green Grid (thegreengrid.org) is also participating in the Green Data Center Panel. NGDC will feature a Green Data Center Pavilion where exhibitors will demonstrate solutions that address energy efficient standards, processes and technologies.

Tags: , data center, IDG, The Green Grid, trade show

Building the Green Data Center

By Wayne Epperson

There are a few reasons for building green, and fortunately for the environment, the business bottom line runs pretty parallel to the interests of the environment – cutting back on cooling and energy consumption means dollars saved

Environmentally conscious is a preferred business standard these days. And there is a wealth of data – appealing to both the sympathetic and the business-minded – making the case for companies to go green. In most businesses, however, the bottom line for green energy initiatives is the same as ever – reducing costs and improving earnings.

Fortunately for the environment, the bottom line for business runs pretty parallel to the bottom line for the planet in the hosting business, where power-hungry data centers account for a sizable chunk of operating expenses. If those operators can lower electricity consumption and costs while increasing efficiency – voila, they’ve joined the green revolution.

The best way for a hosting provider to go green would be to build their data center from the ground up with efficiency first on the list of directives. But if the data center already exists, it doesn’t make fiscal sense to tear it down, just to build a green one. In practical terms, there are a number of steps hosts can take to retrofit their existing operations to simultaneously reduce both their carbon footprint and operating expenses.

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Tags: AFCOM, AISO, cooling, data center, EPA, renewable energy, solar, The Planet, trade show, Uptime Institute, virtualization