Verizon, Green Grid Join Forces to Update International Data Centers

Verizon's three operating companies—Verizon Telecom, Verizon Wireless and Verizon Business—employ 228,600 people in 75 countries, occupy about 32,000 facilities, operate some 59,000 vehicles and partner with about 3,800 suppliers to source material.

In 2007, Verizon corporate consumed 9.4 billion kilowatt hours of electricity along with 60 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. As its networks are upgraded, the company continues to manage vast amounts of electronic equipment—19,000 tons, give or take a few pounds. In the process, it also uses 36 tons of cell phone batteries and 18,000 tons of paper and cardboard.

The company now is undergoing a major transformation from data centers that were built in the 1980s and 1990s, and is replacing the older, more power-hungry servers and storage arrays with newer, faster and more power-sipping models with cooler-running multicore processors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.