Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) has today announced its intention to endorse the European Code of Conduct for Data Centres, an initiative designed to inform and stimulate data centre operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner without hampering mission critical functions. With this move, the company hopes to foment its position as a leader in data centre design throughout the European space.
“The EU Code of Conduct is an important step for the EU and will serve as an exemplary initiative across the globe for bringing together all of the key stakeholders to build energy efficient datacenters that will help both the environment and the economy,” said Dave Douglas, senior vice president of cloud computing and chief sustainability officer. “The eco-friendly technologies and practices outlined in the Code of Conduct not only help to reduce greenhouse emissions, but also serve the bottom line interests of companies and shareholders with significant savings on energy costs.”
Developed in close collaboration with the IT industry, data centre owners and operators, the EU Code of Conduct was created in response to increasing energy consumption in datacenters and the need to reduce the related environmental, economic and energy supply security impacts. It is a voluntary commitment of European companies aiming to reduce data centre energy consumption through adoption of best practices that will lead to energy savings targets. As an endorser, Sun will be responsible for providing power data and labels for all of its equipment; expanding and clearly labeling temperature and humidity limits in warranties; offering hardware and services to meet power limitation; and developing and assisting with training programs.
Bob Harvey, chair of the British Computer Society (BCS) Ethics Forum and Carbon Footprint Working Group which was heavily involved in the original draft of the EU Code said, “BCS, as one of the leaders in the development of the EU code of conduct, is delighted that large organisations are taking this issue seriously. With the help of companies like Sun, the EU code of conduct will inspire, measure and improve the efficiency of datacenters and computing infrastructures.”
As Dean Nelson, the vendor’s global design director for data centres explains to eWEEK Europe in a separate interview published today, Sun Microsystems is leading by example in the implementation of energy efficiency measures in the storage space. The company has already consolidated its own data centers around the world in adherence to these principles. In Broomfield, Colorado for example, Sun estimates that its efforts will save more than $1 million (over 717,000 GBP at today’s exchange rate) in electricity costs and 11,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.
“As a technology leader in Europe, Sun applauds the efforts of the EU in publishing the Code of Conduct and setting an example for government organisations worldwide” said Alain Andreoli, Sun’s president in Europe. “We are committed to providing the guidance as well as the energy efficient products and services that will result in real impact to curb climate change across the region.”
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It is good to see another vendor sign up to endorse the EU Code of Conduct.
What is needed for this programme is for data centre owners to sign up as Participants in order for real energy savings to be made.
As a voluntary programme the EU Code of Conduct has attracted the interests of the vendor community but unless we start to get many more data centres qualifying as Participants then the whole programme may be short lived and be limited to a marketing campaign only.
In light of the EPA's recent announcement and the new BICSI release data center design standard it will be interesting to see how this all evolves.