Consultancy BroadGroup offers a practical guide for managers tasked with the "greening" of their data centers in Europe. The need to reduce energy costs and the threat of future legislation have produced pressure to make data centers greener and ecologically friendly, reduce carbon emissions, and develop sustainable IT policies.

According to BroadGroup, data centers on average are using around 50 times more energy than an office block. Inefficiencies, server proliferation and rising data centre density are pushing data centres to the point at which power and cooling costs will overtake hardware expenditures.

Public pressure, legislation on statute books -- and the unknown requirements yet to be defined and imposed -- have collectively shifted the green argument to the forefront, and MNCs, a key user of data centres, are already making the enforcement of environmental objectives a key part of business competitive strategy.

Philip Low, managing director of BroadGroup, said the report provides a framework for greening data centers, and proposes recommendations for some of the key steps in the greening process. It brings together a global purview of the evolution of green data centres, the initiatives underway, identifies the many issues involved in the current debate. and offers a methodical review and recommendations, of steps for data centre managers to take in their quest to be green.

BroadGroup analysts find that much of the initiative in creating green standards has emanated from U.S. organisations and businesses, and is only now being developed into public policy in Europe.

About this study

The BroadGroup report, "The Evolution of Green Data Centres – A Practical Guide", analyzes the drivers and issues confronting data centers in their quest to go green, and describes the practicalities of implementing green strategies. It assesses the current trends in facilities design, and the advances in datacenter-related hardware and services. The core of the report looks at the practical implementation of green data centers and takes readers through the processes they must address in formulating green strategies across a wide range of criteria. An outline list of recommendations is included.

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