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The Green Grid Announces Technology Roadmap and Key Deliverables for 2007; Membership of PG&E

August 09, 2007 by Jeff Shepard

The Green Grid announced its technology roadmap and key deliverables for 2007. For the next several months, The Green Grid will focus on data collection through the documentation of existing standards and the evaluation of metrics; data assessment through a market study of current efficiency practices; and technology proposals that outline The Green Grid’s recommendations for the future of energy efficient data centers.

Specifically, as part of its technology roadmap, The Green Grid has announced the following deliverables: Data Collection – Data Center Standards and Metrics Inventory (Q3’07) – this study will document existing standards and metrics for energy efficiency, identify coverage gaps and make recommendations for future development; The Green Grid Metrics – Describing Data Center Power Efficiency (Q3’07) – this study will be an update to The Green Grid’s existing study on data center efficiency metrics and will look at workload classification through a data center segmentation model; Operationalizing Energy-Efficiency Data Collection (Q4’07) – this study will identify the requirements for collecting and aggregating data center power consumption data; Data Assessment – Data Center Efficiency Baseline Market Study (Q3’07) – this study on the current state of the industry will allow The Green Grid to identify key factors driving companies to take action on data center power consumption and the challenges in doing so. Collecting and analyzing this data will help to provide companies with a baseline to compare their own initiatives, goals and performance.

Other deliverables include: Operational Best Practices (Q4’07) – these studies will focus on right-sizing the data center and will outline best practices in the adoption of virtualization and consolidation technologies; Database for Data Center Performance (Q4’07) – The Green Grid will begin development work on a database focused on data center characteristics and performance schema; Initial Technology Roadmap (Q4’07) – this roadmap provides an initial assessment of existing and emerging technologies affecting data center efficiency and performance, taking into consideration both return on investment and risk to the end user; Power Distribution Options for the Data Center Study (Q3’07) – this study will look at the qualitative advantages and disadvantages of data center power distribution configurations; Cooling Options Study (Q4’07) – this study will focus on the qualitative advantages and disadvantages of data center cooling architectures.

These technology deliverables will be launched over the next two quarters and are aimed at bringing together industry leaders and end users from critical segments of the data center ecosystem to develop a unified voice around data center efficiency issues.

It was also announced that Pacific Gas and Electric has become the first utility to join The Green Grid. The utility will now include The Green Grid’s efficiency standards to expand its financial incentive programs for customers who purchase premium efficiency servers, data storage devices, routers, and other computing equipment.