The environmental impact of so much online time really boils down to energy usage, which in turn affects the amount of greenhouse gases we pump into our atmosphere. Google, which has been carbon neutral since 2007, has been a real leader in the building of green data centers, even powering them with renewable energy. (Media credit/Jurgen Plasser via Flickr)

The environmental impact of so much online time really boils down to energy usage, which in turn affects the amount of greenhouse gases we pump into our atmosphere. For one, each of us can help by limiting computer time (whether surfing the ‘net or not) and shutting them down or putting them into sleep mode when we aren’t using them (this can be automated via the computer’s power management control panel).

Also, when shopping for a new computer, consumers and businesses alike can opt for models certified by the federal government as energy efficient with the Energy Star label. If all computers sold in the U.S. met Energy Star requirements, Americans could pocket $1.8 billion annually in saved energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to taking some two million cars off the road.

Individual responsibility aside, the creation and management of more efficient data centers by the major online hubs—especially as we enter the age of “cloud” computing whereby most of the software, content and services we look to our computers for resides online and is served to us as-needed—is what can have the biggest impact. Google, Facebook, and Amazon.com are already deeply committed to the cloud computing model, with Microsoft, Yahoo and others following suit accordingly.

For its part, Google has been a real leader in the building of green data centers, even powering them with renewable energy. The company recently released environmental footprint scores for several of its data centers. While the energy usage required to run its cloud services (Google Search, Google+, Gmail and YouTube) seems huge in the aggregate—it used 260 megawatt hours to power its data centers in 2010—it boils down to only 7.4 kilowatt hours worth of energy annually per user. Google reports that to provide an individual user with its services for a month uses less energy than leaving a light bulb on for three hours. And because the company has been carbon neutral since 2007, “even that small amount of energy is offset completely, so the carbon footprint of your life on Google is zero.”

In an April 2011 report entitled “How Dirty is your Data?” the non-profit Greenpeace examined energy sources for the 10 largest IT companies involved in cloud computing, finding Apple, Facebook and IBM especially guilty of getting significant amounts of power from coal-fired power plants. (Facebook had come under fire earlier this year when reporters uncovered that the company planned to buy electricity for its brand new eco-friendly data center in Prineville, Oregon—one of the greenest such facilities ever designed and constructed—from a utility that derives most of its power from coal.) Yahoo, Amazon.com and Microsoft scored best in use of renewable alternative energy sources for cloud services.

In the long run, analysts think that the widespread shift to cloud computing will be a great boon to the environment. A report released in September 2011 by Pike Research, “Cloud Computing Energy Efficiency,” predicts that because of the shift to cloud computing and increasing efficiencies, data center power consumption will decrease by 31 percent between 2010 and 2020.

CONTACTS: Energy Star, www.energystar.gov; Greenpeace, www.greenpeace.org; Pike Research, www.pikeresearch.com.

Sun Microsystems recently completed energy efficient data centers in US, UK and India, reducing Sun’s energy costs by 60 percent and earning the company nearly $1 million in rebates and awards, a company statement said in August. They’re also shiny.

“Put into operation between January and June of this year, all three data centers were built using breakthrough designs and next-generation energy efficient systems, power and cooling,” the statement said “Sun estimates that the company’s data center efforts will save the planet nearly 4,100 tons of CO2 per year and trim 1% from Sun’s total carbon footprint.”

The 76,000 square foot Santa Clara center is the largest of the three. The efficient data center greatly reduced power consumption while actually increasing the computing power there.

“There are many projects, big and small, that businesses can begin today to make a difference,” said Dave Douglas, Vice President of Eco Responsibility for Sun Microsystems. “It doesn’t have to be complicated and the ROI can be larger than you’d imagine,”

The push for efficiently led Sun to reduce its 267,000 square feet of data center space worldwide into approximately 133,000.

“New standards in data center design and management are not only good for the environment, but they are also good for a company’s bottom line,” said Bob Worrall, Sun’s CIO “Most CIOs don’t even see an energy bill, which makes little sense given that data centers can consume a significant portion of a company’s total energy draw.”

In the Sun Eco Innovation line, the Sun Fire/Sparc Enterprise T1000/T2000 server is three to five times more energy efficient than its nearest competitor, Sun says. The new data centers run Solaris on T1000/T2000 servers as well as x64 servers. For more info and even more pictures, take a look at this.

I’m pleased to announce a new component to Blast Magazine. For a bonafide nerd, there’s nothing exciting than a bunch of circuits, wires, boards, lights and plugs — especially when you have no idea what they do.

That’s just what we’re going to celebrate. Our new feature “Shiny Things” looks at all things in the realm of complicated technology and showcases them in photo and in easy-to-read words.

That brings us to our first contraption; 10-Gigabit enterprise-level fiber optic networking devices from CXtec.

“These are products that fit in the Data Center environment. This environment usually houses a company’s storage area network, mainframe, or other mission critical applications and devices,” said Lisa Belodoff, Director of Strategic Marketing for CXtec.

These types of products, branded under the CABLExpress name are used by large financial institutions, phone/cable companies and others that have the need for this type of thing. “Even smaller and mid-sized organizations are finding a need for these products, traditionally found in the larger data centers,” Belodoff said. If you’re really interested in learning more about the finer points of fiber optic networking, peruse this article.

Besides being shiny, these products don’t run cheap. A full-scale system runs $12,000 and up, while smaller units can run you $2,000.

“The unique thing is that we also have an asset recovery program where customers can trade in their old Cisco, Nortel, 3Com and HP gear for credit towards this type of product or other products we sell (network equipment, cables, etc.),” Belodoff said. “Typically we look for networking – switches, routers, etc. Or voice products – phones, line cards, pbx components, etc.”

Mmm…more shiny things.