The McKinsey / Uptime Institute report Revolutionizing Data Center Efficiency, available as both a PowerPoint and a podcast, contains a wealth of current and projected data on energy utilization and GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions, including information about what various enterprises are doing. Among its findings:

Citing industry and government sources, Baseline reports that "facility costs have climbed from about 2 percent of budgets to 5 percent . . . that number will zoom up to 30 percent within just a few years . . . data center power consumption is due to significantly increase in just the next three years, by at least 40 percent." Are CIO's responding by deploying the ever-growing range of technologies and practices that they can find here at Vertatique?

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Ted Samson writes in Infoworld that he has been reflecting on the difference between "green" and "sustainable".

"Green is understood to mean "environmentally friendly" and "energy efficient"; technology means "technology." So a server that uses 50 percent less energy than a rival machine while doing just as much work would be considered an example of green technology."

"Then there's sustainable technology.

There is a clear opportunity for CIOs in every country to act boldly to assess their organizations' green computing profiles and to advocate enterprise-wide goals and policies. An article in UK's Computing reports that all to often, IT departments are followers, not leaders:

The entertainment industry requires massive amounts of compute power for special effects, animation, game creation, and online rich media. Advances like "virtual backlots" reduce some environmental impacts, but also increase the demand for computational horsepower and communications bandwidth. IBM is now incorporating Hollywood into its Project Big Green, as announced last week at the Hollywood Goes Green conference. Here is IBM's Project Big Green video:

Software maker Symantec released its 2007 Green Data Center Report in late November. Among its findings:

"Currently, only one in seven data center managers globally has implemented or has begun to implement a green data center. However, an additional 57 percent are in the discussion, planning, or trial stage, with only 29 percent not yet even considering a green data center."

Active Power Management is implemented through software that allows an enterprise to control energy consumption of its desktop and/or data center equipment.  Typically, this is done through a central administrative function that can tune the power consumption of all computers on an enterprise network.

Compare with Behavioral Power Management.

More about Active Power Management at Vertatique's Computer Power Management Resources.

A new trend in energy regulation is to give incentives to utilities that focus on conservation instead of consumption.  The practice is "decoupling" and California regulators have been practicing it for years.  Large Silicon Valley computer companies are the latest beneficiaries, getting paid by the utilities for improving the energy efficiency of their data centers. Hear/read the story at American Public Radio's Marketplace.

Those of us attuned to audio information can now get podcasts from Sun Micosystems, a company regularly covered by Vertatique. The podcasts cover green computing and other aspects of sustainability and technology. iTunes link: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1605516...