Initiative Seeks To Reduce Data Center Energy Usage 1000-Fold
“Imagine the amount of energy it takes for the global communications network to operate for one day. That same amount of power would represent three years of operation in this new network.”
That’s Gee Rittenhouse, director of research for Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs, at a launch event today in London. Rittenhouse and crew run the “Green Touch” initiative, which seeks a 1,000-fold decrease in the amount of power our IT structures require.
As we’ve reported before in Technomaly, huge servers and data centers emit 300 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, or about 3% of our carbon output. Green Touch seeks to slash that output by focusing on “a common reference architecture, set of specifications and road map for a new, energy-efficient ICT paradigm.”
Rittenhouse isn’t alone – the Green Touch group includes heavy hitters like AT&T, China Mobile, MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics, Stanford University’s Wireless Systems Lab, the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. That’s a lot of muscle. This clash of the science titans could come up with something we can actually use!
