Deadlines Set for EPA Data Center Data Collection Effort
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s Energy Star program updated interested parties on its progress in its data center data collection efforts during a teleconference held yesterday. During the webinar, Alexandra Sullivan of the EPA expressed disappointment that only 22 companies representing 43 data centers had submitted data. Sullivan said that the EPA believed that 100 data centers would be needed to submit data for an adequate representation in each category. 120 persons attended the webinar.

Sullivan was hopeful that resolving outstanding questions about the program participation would increase participation. Later during the teleconference, Bill Angle, CSTechnology , spent an hour answering previously submitted questions as well as new ones. During this portion of the event, Angle's answers tended to allow more data centers to qualify for the data gathering effort. The EPA also used on-line surveys to analyze the barriers that end users faced in participating.

In order to participate, data center operators must first submit an Expression of Interest Form. This form, as well as the Data Collection Instructions and Data Collection Form, are available on the Energy Star web site. Data center operators intending to collect and provide energy data should complete and return the Expression of Interest Form as soon as possible, and no later than June 1, 2008. Data collection must also begin no later than June 1, 2008.

EPA plans to hold an industry stakeholder meeting in Seattle, WA, the week of July 7.  This stakeholder meeting will be held in conjunction with a 1-day workshop to explore how the recommendations made by the EPA Report to Congress are being implemented and to discuss policy opportunities moving forward.  More details will be sent to stakeholders soon.
 

Digital Realty Trust Adopts PUE as Standard for Efficiency
Digital Realty Trust, Inc. announced on May 1 that it had published the industry's first energy efficiency data about its data center facilities. Digital Realty Trust will use the power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric as the methodology for measuring and reporting energy efficiency in its portfolio of facilities in North America and Europe. Digital Realty Trust said that it is the first company to provide customers with detailed and actionable information about how data center operations are meeting their corporate green IT objectives.  The company will also publish benchmarks that will support industry-wide initiatives to make data centers greener and reduce expenditures on energy.
"Significant gains in energy efficiency can be achieved by designing, building and operating data centers in ways that reduce the overall power needs of the data center. This translates into minimizing the amount of power required by non-IT equipment and maximizing the ratio of power used by computing systems like servers," said Jim Smith, vice president of Engineering at Digital Realty Trust. "Digital Realty Trust has been a leading voice on this issue since well before it gained the prominence it has today, and has achieved a number of important industry milestones related to green datacenters. However, I believe that reporting the PUE metric for our datacenter facilities is the most significant milestone yet because it will provide a model and benchmarks that can be used industry-wide to achieve dramatic increases in energy efficiency and can be used by customers to compare the energy efficiency of different datacenter facilities."
Gartner Research estimates that while energy costs have traditionally accounted for approximately 10 percent of IT budgets, this percentage could soon rise to more than 50 percent of departmental expenses due to a combination of factors including:

• Increases in energy costs
• Increasing demand for computing capability
• Continued adoption of high-density computing strategies

Digital Realty Trust is initiating this process by reporting PUE data about the following facilities on spec sheets available through the company's web site. Digital Realty Trust plans to broaden the program to include all of the future facilities it develops worldwide:

• The entire facility at 3011 Lafayette Street in Santa Clara, CA
• Suite 230 at 3 Corporate Place in Piscataway, NJ
• Suite 106 at 200 Paul Avenue in San Francisco, CA
• Suite 160 at 200 Paul Avenue in San Francisco, CA
• Suite 102 at 1100 Space Park Drive in Santa Clara, CA

"We recently commissioned a research study to assess green data center trends.  One key finding is that companies are seeking more information about how to achieve their green IT goals and are looking for guidance from the datacenter industry about standards for doing so. Digital Realty Trust has taken a leadership position in adopting PUE as a standard approach to assessing energy efficiency, and have made a corporate commitment to share our expertise and our data," said Chris Crosby, senior vice president at Digital Realty Trust. "No other datacenter facility company is supporting customers in this way, and we are proud to be at the forefront of the energy efficiency movement." To learn more about  how Digital Realty Trust is using the PUE metric and to read about a number of best practices for green datacenters, view the recent Webinar entitled, "Planning and Building an Energy Efficient Datacenter" and related white papers at www.digitalrealtytrust.com/knowledge_library_LP.asp. 

DatacenterDynamics will be holding its next event in Washington, DC, on May 13th. Organizers are expecting more than 400 attendees, 20 exhibitors, and 28 presentations at this year's event.
Speakers at the event will include:

• Brian Carroll, Project Manager - US EPA ENERGY STAR Team - ICF Incorporated
• Paul Scheihing, DOE Industrial Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy - United States Department of Energy
• Dr. Roger R. Schmidt, P.E., Distinguished Engineer, IBM Corporation, Chairman, ASHRAE TC 9.9
• Ken Baker, Datacenter Infrastructure Technologist, HP
• Gordon Jackson, Technology Evangelist, DataSynapse
• Evan MacBeth, Director of Operations, Sine Nomine
• Robert Arno, C4ISR Group Leader, EYP Mission Critical Facilities