The Green Grid (News - Alert), an industry group that advocates enhancement in energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems, has reportedly launched new tools and has declared it has gone into new industry alliances at its third annual Green Grid Technical Forum and Members’ Meeting.

 

The institution is a global consortium of companies, government agencies and educational institutions dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. At the forum that has a theme “Get Connected: Drive Change with Global Strategies for Efficient IT,” attendees will be able to have the detailed information about these new tools and alliances are designed to address the global needs of data center operators and foster greater collaboration among key stakeholders in industry and government.

 

According to Christian Belady, a representative of Microsoft and treasurer of The Green Grid, members are demonstrating their commitment to improve data center energy efficiency through the hands-on development of tools, standards and global alliances that make it easier for end-users to drive practical improvements at this year’s Technical Forum. Belady noted that leveraging Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s inspiring efforts, the grid welcomes new voices to join the hundreds of volunteers in this unique organization who are working to develop new programs to assist data center managers and end-users advance energy-efficiency.

 

The grid has constantly been working upon an array of both strategic and tactical projects to improve data center energy efficiency, with an aim to create a unique opportunity for worldwide industry collaboration. At this year’s meeting, it announced a number of free, online tools that extend the benefits of the widely-used free cooling tools introduced in 2009.

 

These tools include a power efficiency estimator, which enables data center operators to compare different scenarios of power topologies and technologies inside of their facility. On the basis of various factors such as workload, availability, and space constraints, the tool generates a report that is designed to improve decision-making in a facility. The grid will make it available for use by the end of March this year.

 

Power Usage Effectiveness or ‘PUE’ Calculator is a yet another tool launched by The Greed Grid. PUE is a metric created by The Green Grid, determines the amount of energy used by the facility and the IT gear inside of it, and with the help of this calculator data center operators can conveniently input their facility’s specific data at regular intervals to determine their PUE. This tool also will be made available along with the Power Efficiency Estimator. 

Apart from these new tools, The Green Grid has announced to launch some other useful resources as well. These include a white paper is titled “Impact of Virtualization on Data Center Physical Infrastructure”, and provides guidance on how data center professionals can maximize power and cooling equipment electricity savings in an environment that is using virtualization to achieve its consolidation strategies. Both members and non-members can access the paper in the “Library & Tools” section of The Green Grid’s Web site. Additionally, the Green Grid Academy has now introduced its latest self-directed online course, named “Data Center 101: Constrained Capacity”. This course will help data center managers and operators get familiar with industry lexicon and solutions to everyday data center challenges.

 

October last year, IP Infusion (News - Alert), an ACCESS company and provider of intelligent software for Next Generation Network equipment manufacturers and converged IP service providers had reportedly announced its membership in The Green Grid. The company said by joining The Green Grid, it aimed at helping both developers and end users of data center technology.