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The Green Grid announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Information Technology Industry Council to aid the group in its public policy advocacy efforts to promote energy efficiency and environmental responsibility in data centers.
The non-profit consortium, which has focused its efforts in the ten months since it was founded on advancing energy efficiency in data centers, also announced that it, has met key milestones in both membership and projects.
“The data center offers a point of concentrated target where we can have a great effect,” said Larry Vertal, senior strategist at AMD, in Sunnyvale, Calif.
The ITI MOU (memorandum of understanding) will allow each organization to bring its distinct roles and abilities to helping address the demand for energy efficiency.
“We are not a lobbying organization, but the ITI [Information Technology Industry Council] works with the government to make sure there is good public policy that is not damaging to the industry. We want to get together as an industry to create a consolidated response of the best way to deal with these topics,” said Don Tilton, founder and director of SprayCool in Liberty Lake, Wash., and director of The Green Grid, which is based in Portland, Ore. “We can agree on things as an industry and let the government build off of that.”
Last February, the group signed a similar agreement with the Department of Energy.
Click here to read more about Green Grids data center energy conservation plans.
As part of its announcements, the consortium also finished several reports and white papers that are the result of its work in the past months.
The working groups of the organization have completed a Qualitative Analysis of Power Distribution Configurations for Data Centers report, which outlines the advantages and disadvantages of seven high-level configurations for data center power distribution; an Existing Data Center Energy Efficiency Metrics report, which recaps research about the organizations and metrics focused on energy efficiency; and an update on its Data Center Efficiency Metrics white paper, which updates previously released metrics from February 2007.
Today, the Green Grid boasts 102 member companies, including vendors, distributors, solution providers and user companies. “When we first were founded, there was confusion. But weve seen pretty steady increase in awareness of the Green Grid,” said Tilton. “We are a member-staffed organization so the more members key and technical people we have, the more tasks we can take on.”
In addition, member-company Schneider Electric opened its Schneider Electric Technology Center. The 97,000 square foot, state-of-the-art testing facility in OFallon, Mo., will be available to the Green Grid to allow the group to do research, development and dynamic testing on improving power and cooling efficiency within IT.
The Green Grid also reaffirmed its commitment to developing an industry-standard rating system for data centers.
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