cloud computing Archives - Environment+Energy Leader

Water-Efficient Data Centers: a ‘Disruptive Solution’ to Drought

December 2, 2015December 1, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Data centers are a thirsty lot, guzzling huge amounts of water to support their cooling needs. A modest 1 MW data center facility can easily consume more than 4.4 million liters (1.2 million gallons) annually, according to Emerson Network Power’s Jack Pouchet from, who also sits on the board of ... Read more »

GE’s Industrial Internet Cloud Service Promises Billions in Operational Savings

August 6, 2015August 6, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

General Electric is entering the cloud services market with Predix Cloud, which GE says is the world’s first and only cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics. The platform-as-a-service (PaaS) will capture and analyze the volume, velocity and variety of machine data within a highly secure, industrial-strength cloud ... Read more »

Is the Cloud Drinking California Dry?

July 22, 2015July 21, 2015 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Silicon Valley data centers are working to reduce their water needs for cooling, following California’s mandated water restrictions — and a NASA prediction that the state has only one year of water left — according to a news story in the Guardian. The Green Grid, a nonprofit that promotes IT ... Read more »

Tech Firms Help Farmers Combat Climate Change

August 25, 2014April 20, 2022 by Ken Jennison

Panasonic, Fujitsu and other Japanese technology firms, looking for ways to offset decreased demand for their consumer electronics, are producing automated greenhouses and sensor-controlled fields to help farmers in Japan maintain constant conditions for their crops, according to Reuters. Heat and erratic weather in recent years has made it difficult ... Read more »

Smart City Technology Revenue to Triple

July 3, 2014April 20, 2022 by Ken Jennison

Global smart city technology revenue will grow from $8.8 billion annually in 2014 to $27.5 billion in 2023, as cities around the world embrace smart city technology to meet sustainability goals, boost local economies and improve services, according to a report by Navigant Research. The report notes that developments in ... Read more »

Can Cloud Computing Improve Mining Fleet Efficiency?

January 17, 2014 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Hitachi and Wenco International Mining Systems will this month begin a joint Proof of Concept (PoC) project that uses cloud computing to improve mining fleet efficiency. The PoC project, which will be facilitated by Teck, combines Hitachi’s cloud service and Wenco’s fleet management system with Teck’s mining operation team. The ... Read more »

How to Cut Cloud Computing’s Carbon Emissions

January 3, 2014April 11, 2022 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

A group of algorithms developed by computer scientists at Trinity College Dublin and IBM Research Dublin can help reduce the carbon cost of cloud computing, IEEE Spectrum reports. Using the new algorithms, collectively called Stratus, the scientists were able to model a worldwide network of connected data centers and predict ... Read more »

How to Measure and Control Enterprise Cloud CO2 Emissions

November 20, 2013April 15, 2022 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

An Open Data Center Alliance whitepaper published yesterday outlines how ODCA members BMW, Datapipe and Verne Global used the ODCA Carbon Footprint and Energy Efficiency Usage Model to track, evaluate and manage enterprise cloud CO2 emissions across the entire cloud ecosystem. The proof-of-concept paper details testing scenarios, results and benefits ... Read more »

IBM Patents Sustainable Computing for Data Centers

November 8, 2013April 22, 2022 by Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

IBM inventors have patented a technique that enables cloud computing data center operators to dynamically redistribute workloads to lower-powered or underutilized systems, thereby minimizing their energy usage and environmental footprint. In October, IBM received US Patent #8,549,125: Environmentally sustainable computing in a distributed computer network for the invention. Read more ... Read more »

Always-On Wireless Devices: a 30M Ton Carbon Problem

August 22, 2013April 22, 2022 by Leon Walker

Wireless networks with 24/7 access are becoming energy consuming monsters and wireless computing will lead to 30 million tons of carbon emissions by 2015, The Guardian reports. Cloud-based applications from data centers managed by Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple help create more efficiency, but they also drive a paradigm shift ... Read more »

Cloud Computing ‘Can Reduce GHGs 95%, Save $2.2bn’

June 27, 2013August 13, 2013 by Leon Walker

As cloud computing ramps up, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 95 percent, leading to savings of more than $2.2 billion, according to a study sponsored by Microsoft Europe and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI). Expanding cloud usage beyond the basics to large-scale information and communication technology (ICT) will scale ... Read more »

Marlin Buys Sustainability Software Firm Verisae

January 11, 2013April 11, 2022 by Leon Walker

Sustainability software firm Verisae Inc. has been acquired by private investment firm Marlin Equity Partners. Verisae specializes in cloud-based maintenance, energy, environmental and sustainability management software as a service. It says that the Marlin takeover brings access to best practices, technology resources and capital that Verisae hopes will lead to innovation and ... Read more »

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