The Era of Green Computing is here

The era of green computing is now here. A recent study on the vast amounts of energy consumed by data centers illustrated the need to find effective ways to reduce that consumption says AMD CEO Hector Ruiz .

In 2005, U.S-based data centers — including servers, cooling and auxiliary equipment — consumed 4.5 billion kilowatts hours, resulting in electric bills that amounted to $3 billion. “To put this into perspective this is equivalent to 5,000 megawatt nuclear power plants, making the U.S. the hungriest consumer of data center power on the planet,” he said.

Reducing this footprint by even 1% means tremendous savings in energy. Indeed, AMD is one such company making strides to provide more energy efficient computing through its next generation Opteron microprocessor and various computing initiatives. Other companies include IBM and Sun that have invested millions of dollars in developing technologies for greening the data center.

Ruiz noted that AMD has formed the Green Grid, an initiative that brings together companies whose technologies form the eco-system of data centers. The aim is to find ways to bring about more energy efficient computing. That is only part of the equation, though. Government should be a big partner. As a result, he lauded the work the Environmental Protection Agency has done with its Energy Star program to help agencies identify products that are energy efficient. “The era of green computing has begun,” which has presented opportunities for better government and industry partnership, Ruiz said.

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