Green computing in the big data era

Posted By Matt Williams|08-05-2012

The the era of big data, green computing can be very helpful.

While people at home address issues of PC power management, companies are looking to go green by addressing data center power. Energy Renewable World said cloud adoption could be something that brings businesses significant cost savings while reducing emissions.

“While the debate over exactly how big an energy saving impact the cloud will have is on-going, there is no doubt that investment in the cloud is growing fast with the big four – Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple – leading the way,” the news source said. “That said, the energy required to power data centres is enormous, and rising fast. In recent years, increased digital communication, record keeping and financial transactions have been pushing up demand for data processing and storage.”

As this big data push occurs, some enterprises are trying to be mindful of keeping their data center usage green. Renewable Energy World said with open data centers, excess capacity can be distributed to other clients that are already using highly efficient servers. The website said Hewlett-Packard has designed a modular data center that it has called the world’s most efficient and Google has also said this of its data centers. Facebook is also taking steps to improve data center efficiency so it seems as though companies are starting to be more mindful about this issue.

GreenBiz.com said not only are data centers becoming greener, they could lead to more widespread eco-friendly practices. The vast amounts of data being stored in data centers could be leveraged by devices to maximize efficiency. For example smart cars that run on electricity could generate information that could be analyzed to determine the greenest routes, recharging patterns and driving techniques.

Do you have an energy saving computer at home? Do you think it’s important for both individual users and organizations to go green in their computing? Let us know in the comments section!