Monday, July 6, 2009

Green Campus Computing


The three URL’s that I found on the internet that talks about “green campus computing” are the following:


Campus Computing Goes Green to Save Money
By JOSH KELLER

Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.

Those were a few of the ideas discussed last week at a conference, "Greening the Internet Economy," that was designed to address the problem of the soaring financial and environmental costs of information technology. The event, held by the University of California at San Diego, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments both more efficient and more sustainable.

Many of the participants emphasized the importance of systems that could more intelligently measure energy use on the campus. In recent years, colleges have been hurt by the rising costs of powering and cooling their data centers, in part because those costs are difficult to measure and poorly understood (The Chronicle, January 9).

At San Diego, researchers have started work on hardware to help colleges and other organizations understand how to make their servers more efficient. The device, called the GreenLight Instrument, will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers.

The goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption, said Thomas A. DeFanti, principal investigator on the project and a senior research strategist at the university's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology.
"Right now there isn't enough information for somebody to make a definitive decision: Where do I save my money? Do I eliminate disks in my computers, or do I stop them? Do I use more RAM or less RAM?" said Mr. DeFanti. "Nobody has detailed information on this."

Aiming for Precision

Intelligent measuring systems like Greenlight should be extended to allow engineers to more precisely determine how to use energy, said Gary L. Baldwin, director of special projects at the University of California's Citris program. For example, he said, operators at a data center could direct cool air only where the facility is generating the most heat.
Another idea that shows promise, participants said, is to supply computers directly with local DC power. Computers generally use direct current, but the public electricity grid typically supplies alternating current, and 30 percent of the electricity can be lost in the conversion of one form to the other.

Some colleges have started projects to power their computers directly from solar cells or other sources of DC power on the campus, avoiding the energy loss altogether. At San Diego, administrators hope to build a "power ring" that will supply computers across the campus with DC power, said Mr. DeFanti.

The rethinking of how to supply campus power is part of a broader effort to "divorce ourselves from the electrical grid," said Bill St. Arnaud, chief research officer at Canarie Inc., a Canadian computer-networking organization. Power-transmission lines lose a significant amount of energy over long distances, he said, which means that supplying a campus with energy from faraway power plant can be inefficient.

A better strategy, Mr. St. Arnaud said, is to build campus data centers next to a renewable source of power, like a solar plant. High-speed optical transmission lines, he said, would ensure that the computers would seem "as close as next door."

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm

It is obvious that all the ways of implementing Green Computing based on this url are very difficult to apply on USEP because of the large amount of money that is needed to make that possible. Though, we need much more funds, it would be very helpful to all of us especially to the environment if we apply all those concepts stated in this url which are using GreenLight Instrument to save energy, relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator, replace AC power with DC power, cool the servers only where they get the hottest, and put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves.

Sustainable IT in Universities and Colleges June 21, 2008
Posted by Paul Cheeseman

Sustainable IT is a subject that is going to be more and more important for all Higher Education institutions.

I must admit I didn’t realise how important Sustainable IT was until I attended an energy efficiency workshop at Cardiff University. The workshop is part of a series of events, all of which are part of the Managing environmentally sustainable ICT project by JISC and Sust-IT.

All of the presentations were really interesting, Cardiff University also arranged a tour of their brand new server room and High-performance computing (HPC) cluster. It was really good workshop and I’m already signed up for the next event about New Ways of Working.

Apparently the use of natural gas in power stations is decreasing and the use of coal is on the increase. When one of the panel described computers as being ‘Coal Powered’ it certainly made me look differently at IT. I’m now planning a complete review of our server rooms and an investigation into exactly how much electricity we use, and where the inefficiencies are. The panel also made the point that going green is not only good for the environment, there are also huge cost savings that can be made by adopting greener practices. As students become more and more interested in the green credentials of an institution the electricity usage, efficiency and carbon footprint of an institution will become a factor that students begin to consider when selecting an institution.

The rising cost of electricity means that we all have to start taking notice of the electricity we use, if we don’t then energy bills will spiral out of control and cuts in other areas will have to be made to enable institutions to pay their bills. This might sound like doom mongering, but the panel explained that in the private sector decisions to cut staffing and other resources are already being made because of the high cost of electricity.

The British Computer Societey are working on an EU Code of Conduct for server rooms / data centres. Institutions will be able to sign up to the code of conduct when a final version of the document comes out later on this year. I will be looking into this Code of Conduct, and if possible I would like to get Edge Hill signed up to the document. Institutions signing up to the code will be given some EU marketing materials to display withing the institution. Signing up for this EU recognised Code of Conduct would further enhance the green credentials of the institution.

http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/coreservices/tag/green-computing/

With this url, it talks about Sustainable IT which is a subject that is going to be more and more important for all Higher Education institutions. The idea of their Green Computing is to make computers ‘Coal Powered’ which is not only good for the environment; there are also huge cost savings that can be made by adopting greener practices. Also, the British Computer Society are working on an EU Code of Conduct for server rooms / data centres. With this concept, USEP can apply the Code of Conduct for the implementation of Green Computing though that Code of Conduct is based from Europe.

Business and Green Computing
15 05 2009
By: Dominik Schulte-Zurhausen, Marketing Manager, Tellumat Telecoms

The term ‘Green Computing’ addresses the efficient use of computer resources by business and individuals alike. As natural persons I like to think that we are all aware of the criticality that our personal and business decisions have on the environment.

However, a business, in the sense of being an entity which has no such innate prerogatives as to be concerned about the environmental impacts that its operations have on the environment can not by itself be expected to factor in the long-term value and importance of initiatives such as ‘Green Computing’.

This is where business decision makers and policy makers need to step in order to steer the organization with awareness and knowledge. Due to the fact that, in most part, these business drivers/custodians are measured by their performance in regards to a single bottom line we can not and should not expect them to divert any attention onto issues that they are not measured, audited or rewarded for.

‘Green Computing’, from a technology point of view, is effective and has the potential to dramatically redress the environmental impact that our business creates. What is needed is not more hype around these technologies, but rather an educated and demanding shareholder base that expects of its executives quantifiable returns on multiple bottom lines. I.e. the triple bottom line: Planet, Profit, People

http://tellumattelecoms.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/business-and-green-computing/

Regarding this url, it talks about business having no such innate prerogatives as to be concerned about the environmental impacts. But all I can say is that, without protecting the environment, business would be impossible to hold because of the many factors that the business have to consider such as the environment. It is not always money that should be considered on having business but also the other factors.

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