Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Review of HP Dynamic Smart Cooling

Looks interesting, sounds expensive. Turning down the AC in a data center can be accomplished with a thermostat and costs a whole lot less - but it's true that servers are spec'ed to run at temperatures that are much higher than what data centers tend to set their cooling at.
http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2007/08/chilling_with_h.html

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Large Companies on Green

One reason I started this blog was to help ferret out the market noise and provide real-time feedback on what's happening in the green space.

I met with some data center managers of some very large companies a couple of weeks ago. It's clear that although awareness is high in green-related topics, they for the most part are not making any fundamental changes to the way they are doing business. I say "for the most part" because there was a person there representing a large financial institution in Manhattan - his business unit, like all others in his company, is being asked to provide the data on how they are adding to his company's "green" story. As a result, he is looking for ways to contribute without breaking the bank or sacrificing performance of the data center.

This, plus anecdotal feedback from other large companies, drives my opinion that US businesses are nearing a tipping point - we're moving past green being good PR and moving into a period where it is fundamental to a company's ongoing operations. Large companies that can fund Sustainability teams and initiatives will be able to weather this trend just fine. However, as they push green requirements into their supply chains, smaller companies will be forced to tell their story as a condition of doing business.

We will see this trend roll downhill, it's a question of "when" this will happen, not "if."

Hello

Hello, and thanks for visiting my blog. I'm new to the blogosphere but hope to add some worthwhile dialog, and hopefully clarity, to the cacophony of "green"-related issues that we all hear so much about every day.

Who am I to have a point of view on this topic? I manage a team of marketing professionals at Dell, and have been driving our power/cooling related story into the market. However, this blog is not sponsored or endorsed by Dell - as I've become close to this part of the market, it has become a topic about which I am both passionate and practical. This is my personal blog.