As our world becomes ever more data centric, the data center and the energy it uses seems to become a focal point of criticism for groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, as well as many others.
Of course, it is easy to blindly point to a big building full of servers that turn megawatts of energy into heat, and then criticize them as the scourge of the earth and the root of all evil. Yet many of those members and supporters of those same groups (if not in fact, but in spirit) want to watch TV and movies on their smartphones, tablets, and computers. Moreover, they also want to post their protests about data centers’ energy usage, (as well as what they ate for breakfast), on their favorite social media site.