The newest eco-centric interest group aims for energy-efficient storage through education and promotion of best practices.DALLAS—The Storage Networking Industry Association is joining a growing number of eco-conscious organizations with the formation of its own green IT program, which will be dedicated to advancing energy efficiency and conservation in all networked storage technologies.
The scope of work for the SNIA Green Storage Initiative, announced Oct. 15 at the Storage Networking World Fall show here, will span all shared-storage technologies, including disk and tape systems, server connectivity, storage appliances, fabrics and other storage network infrastructure, file services and storage applications, SNIA board Chairman Vincent Franceschini said.
The GSI joins such other recently instituted organizations as the Green Grid, the Green Data Initiative and Lean & Green Group. The Environmental Protection Agency also has a green IT branch, the Energy Star server initiative. Each of these groups serves a specific sector of the IT industry.
"Our green efforts will include helping our member companies design more energy-efficient products, investigating specific technologies such as data deduplication, thin provisioning and tape-based archiving, as well as providing education that can help contribute to energy efficiency," Franceschini said.
How easy is it to go green? Find out here.
Charter members of SNIAs initiative include 3PAR, Brocade, COPAN Systems, Dell, EMC, EqualLogic, Emulex, Hitachi Data Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intransa, IBM, LSI Logic, Microsoft, Network Appliance, QLogic, Seagate, Sun Microsystems, Xiotech and Xyratex.
Each of these companies already has begun producing storage systems or components that require less electrical power than previous versions, lowering the electrocarbon output of each product. Most of these improvements are due to cooler-running microprocessors and more efficient system design.
Initiative members and others who join later will complement the work of the SNIAs Green Storage Technical Work Group. As part of their mission, the SNIA Green Storage Initiative and the Technical Work Group will develop tutorials and educational material, white papers, and best practices for energy-efficient data center storage operations, Franceschini said.
The Green Storage Initiative will also act as the SNIA liaison to other allied organizations, such as the Green Grid and the EPA, to collaborate on the development of more environmentally friendly data center solutions.
At the show here, SNIA will deliver a full agenda of green activities, including tutorials, main-stage presentations and a breakfast for attendees interested in networking with other environmentally savvy IT professionals.
For more information on the SNIA Green Initiative, go here.
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