In recent years, the attention of many information-technology professionals has turned to making their systems more sustainable and energy-efficient. But most organizations have still failed to address a huge amount of low-hanging fruit, speakers at a conference, Greening the Internet Economy, said last week.
The conference, which was held at the University of California at San Diego, attracted some of the leading voices in green technology from vendors, universities, and government. When buying and managing servers and other infrastructure, universities and others are just starting to factor environmental considerations into their core decisions, said Horst D. Simon, Associate Laboratory Director for Computing Sciences at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
“Everybody does green. We’re halfway there because people have recognized we have a problem,” Mr. Simon said. “But if we look at vendors and how everybody builds technology, we’re not even beginning to make a difference.”
The huge amount of power taken up by data center severs is already started to affect the science that researchers can perform, Mr. Simon said. It will be impossible to build faster and faster supercomputers during the next few decades unless the basic energy issue is addressed, he said.
“If we stay on the current technology curve, we cannot continue growth in a very important area of science,” Mr. Simon said.—Josh Keller
Developing online and blended learning programs requires research and collaboration. Learn how top technology companies are partnering with campuses across the country to advance online learning as it becomes an increasingly important aspect of higher education.