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Green and Virtual Data Center

A Green and Virtual IT Data Center (e.g. an information factory) means an environment comprising:

Habitat for technology or physical infrastructure (e.g. physical data center, yours, co-lo, managed service or cloud)

Power, cooling, communication networks, HVAC, smoke and fire suppression, physical security

IT data information infrastructure (e.g. hardware, software, valueware, cloud, virtual, physical, servers, storage, network)

Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) along with IT Service Management (ITSM) software defined management tools

Tools for monitoring, resource tracking and usage, reporting, diagnostics, provisioning and resource orchestration

Portals and service catalogs for automated, user initiated and assisted operation or access to IT resources

Processes, procedures, best-practices, work-flows and templates (including data protection with HA, BC, BR, DR, backup/restore, logical and physical security)

Metrics that matter for management insight and awareness
People and skill sets among other items

Green and Virtual Data Center Resources

Click here to learn about "The Green and Virtual Data Center" book (CRC Press) for enabling efficient, productive IT data centers. This book covers cloud, virtualization, servers, storage, networks, software, facilities and associated management topics, technologies and techniques including metrics that matter. This book by industry veteran IT advisor and author Greg Schulz is the definitive guide for enabling economic efficiency and productive next generation data center strategies.

Publisher: CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group
By Greg P. Schulz of StorageIO www.storageio.com
ISBN-10: 1439851739 and ISBN-13: 978-1439851739
Hardcover * 370 pages * Over 100 illustrations figures and tables

Read more here and order your copy here. Also check out Cloud and Virtual Data Storage Networking (CRC Press) a new book by Greg Schulz.

Productive Efficient Effective Economical Flexible Agile and Sustainable

Green hype and green washing may be on the endangered species list and going away, however, green IT for servers, storage, networks, facilities as well as related software and management techniques that address energy efficiency including power and cooling along with e-waste, environmental health and safety related issues are topics that wont be going away anytime soon. There is a growing green gap between green hype messaging or green washing and IT pain point issues including limits on availability or rising costs of power, cooling, floor-space as well as e-waste and environmental health and safety (PCFE). To close the gap will involve addressing green messaging and rhetoric closer to where IT organizations pain points are and where budget dollars exists that can address PCFE and other green related issues as a by-product.

The green gap will also be narrowed as awareness of broader green related topics coincide with IT data center pain points, in other words, alignment of messaging with IT issues that have or will have budget dollars allocated towards them to sustain business and economic growth via IT resource usage efficiency. Read more here.

Where to learn more

The following are useful links to related efficient, effective, productive, flexible, scalable and resilient IT data center along with server storage I/O networking hardware and software that supports cloud and virtual green data centers.

Watch for more links and resources to be added soon.

What this all means

The result of a green and virtual data center is that of a flexible, agile, resilient, scalable information factory that is also economical, productive, efficient, productive as well as sustainable.

Ok, nuff said (for now)

Cheers gs

Given the buzz about big data and conversations or confusion around clouds along with virtualizing virtually anything possible, Green IT has fallen off the Buzzword Bingo Bandwagon.

Green IT like so many other buzzwords and trends typically go through a hype cycle before getting tired, worn out, or disillusioned (see here and here). Often these buzzwords will go to Some Day Isle for some rest and recuperation before reappearing later as part of a second or third buzzword wave either making it to broad adoption which means the plateau of profitability (for vendors or vars) and productivity (for customers) or disappearing.

Some Day Isle for those not familiar with it is a visional or fictional place that some day you will go to, a wishful happy place so to speak that is perfect for hyperbole R and R. After some R and R, these trends, technologies or techniques often reappear well rested and ready for the next wave of buzz, FUD, hype and activity.

Keep in mind that industry adoption (e.g. everybody is talking about it) can differ from industry deployment (e.g. some people have actually paid for, deployed and using the technology) to broad customer adoption (e.g. many people are actually paying for, deploying and using the technology on a routine basis).

Confusion still reigns around Green IT not surprising given the heavy dose of Green Washing that has occurred.

Consequently Green IT themes or pitches often fall on deaf ears as people have either become numb or ignore the Green washing hype or FUD. For example many people will skip reading this post because the word Green is in the title assuming that it is another CO2 or related themed piece missing out on the other themes or messages here. Unfortunately as I have discussed in the past, there remains a Green Gap that results in missed opportunities for vendors, vars, service providers, IT organizations along with those who would like to see environmental benefits or change.

Another example of a Green gap is messaging around energy avoidance as being efficient vs. using energy in a more productive or effective manner (doing more work with the same or fewer resources) shown in the figure below.

Tiered Storage
Expanding focus from energy avoidance to energy usage effectiveness

In routine conversations with IT professionals it is clear that the Green Gap and thus missed opportunities will continue for some time until the business and economic values of efficient, effective, smart and productive IT are understood to have environmental benefits as a by product and thus being Green. Watch for more missed messaging around CO2 and related themes popular with so called Greenies (or if you prefer environmentalists) that miss the mark with most business and IT organizations.

Business and thus IT are driven by economics and as such will invest where they can reduce complexity and costs, become more efficient and effective while increasing productivity and reducing waste by working smarter. In other words, by changing how information services are delivered in a smarter more effective efficient manner maximizes what resources are used enabling more to be done in a denser footprint (budget, people staffing, management, power, cooling, floor space) that have positive environmental benefits. Put another way, a benefit for IT organizations to remove complexity results in lower costs, by becoming more efficient and effective reducing waste results in better productivity and fewer missed opportunities meaning enhanced profits. The net result is that environmental concerns get a free ride or being funded as a result of IT organizations improving their productivity which of course should have a business benefit.

Efficient and Optimized IT Wheel of Oppourtunity
Wheel of Opportunity: Various techniques and technologies for infrastructure optimization

Efficient and effective IT (aka the other Green IT) that links to common technology and business issues with the benefit of helping the environment can be accomplished using a combination approaches. The approaches for enabling an efficient, effective, smarter and productive IT environment includes from a generic perspective various technologies, techniques and best practices shown in the wheel of opportunity figure.

For example:

Best practices, policies and procedures, streamlined work flows
Metrics and measurements for end to end (E2E) management insight
Mask or move issues (to the cloud or elsewhere)
Consolidate where possible or practical (virtualized, ssd, fast servers)
Reduce your data footprint impact using data footprint reduction (DFR)
Tiered servers, storage and networks
Energy avoidance (avoiding doing something)
Energy efficiency (doing more with what you have)
Power, cooling, HVAC and alternate energy
E-waste, EHS, RoHS, etc
Leverage financial incentives and rebates

Here are some related links for additional reading:

What are the top 10 Green IT Strategies?
Green IT, Green Gap, Tiered Energy and Green Myths
Happy Earth Day 2011!
Happy Earth Day 2010!
Closing the Green Gap
Green IT goes mainstream, what about storage?
Shifting from energy avoidance to energy efficiency and effectiveness
The new green data center: From energy avoidance to energy efficiency and effectiveness
Saving Money with Green IT: Time To Invest In Information Factories
PUE, Are you managing power, energy or IT productivity
Green IT Confusion Continues, Opportunities Missed!

Also check out my book for enabling efficient, effective and smart IT The Green and Virtual Data Center (CRC) including a free sample chapter download here.

Ok, nuff said for now, go hug a tree, your computer, hybrid car, droid, ipad or whatever suits your needs.