[LINK] Data Centre Green Technology Conference in Melbourne

[Tom Worthington]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> On Fri Feb  5  8:47 , Tom Worthington <tom.worthington at tomw.net.au> 
> sent:
> 
>> ... speaking on "Training Green Technologists" ... Energy saving - 
>> Data Centres ... Seven steps ...
> 
> ... The seven steps, above, takes a very simplistic approach to data 
> centre optimisation. ...

Yes, I have to keep it simple for CIOs. Seven steps is as many as will 
fit on one slide and I was tempted to trim these down to five. The seven 
steps are from Michael H. Smith's "Natural Edge Project": 
<http://www.naturaledgeproject.net/SustainableIT.aspx>.

In a brief talk for a commercial conference I can't go though all the 
strategies and standards for green ICT. You can read more in my book, or 
enrol in my Green IT course at one of seven Australian universities and 
soon at one in North America (obviously like everyone else speaking at 
this event, I will be plugging my products): 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/green/>.

> A more advanced, comprehensive and effective approach is contained in
> the whole of government data centre strategy that was presented to
> government at the end of last year. ...

I look forward to hearing what the government is planning to do and 
assume that the strategy will be released at some stage, so it can be 
implemented.

Several of my students are public servants and wrote green IT strategies 
for their agencies as their course assignments (other students work for 
telcos, multinational IT companies and one is the CIO of a North 
American government organisation). After I suggested changes to the 
drafts and marked the final documents, these were submitted to the 
student's organisations as official strategy documents. Unfortunately 
these documents were confidential and could not be shared with the other 
students in the class and could not be released publicly. I expect some 
of this will find its way into government and company strategies.

I have suggested to AGIMO setting up classes of just public servants 
(and contractors) so that sensitive matters can be discussed. This is in 
line with the Prime Minister's wish for better trained public servants.

> My opinion is that the green issue is not a primary goal it is a 
> consequence of other actions. ...

Yes, I teach the students that green has to fit into overall business
strategies. Ideally strategies can be devised which lower costs, improve 
services and also have environmental benefits. But at a green data 
centre conference I have to talk about green data centres.


-- 
Tom Worthington FACS HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Adjunct Lecturer, The Australian National University t: 02 61255694
Computer Science http://cs.anu.edu.au/user/3890