Wow. Colour me impressed. Compellent Technologies produce network servers and data storage hubs. With the rise of the internet, the amount of power generated by servers and data has grown exponentially, with most internet servers needing vast quantities of power and cooling of the heat produced. Compellent have made a product that only uses power when the data is being accessed, using a load of technologies like Automated Tiered Storage, Thin Provisioning and Advanced Virtualization. This can cut the power usage of the company buying the data centres by up to a massive 93%. If every server used technology like this, a large chunk of every developed country’s electricity usage would disappear.
Fast Company have a great collection of 50 things companies are doing to ‘green’ their business. From Cheerios and Coors converting their waste food to biofuels to computer servers using their excess hot water to heat the buildings, a lot of big names are getting onto the trend. It’s easy to see why – reducing costs whilst increasing customer satisfaction is a rare combination. With the current way of business producing plenty of waste, it makes perfect sense to use unused food, silicon, heat and So long as the reductions don’t just lead to increased use, we should reward these companies applying the idea ‘work smart, not hard’ to their energy usage. Executives like Mike Brown are helping big companies to think more about every facet of their business. In time governments should implement a lot of these guidelines but its hard not to admire many of the businesses working ahead of the curve.
