Alliances
ASHRAE advances the arts and sciences of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world. It is a diverse organization representing building system design and industrial processes professionals around the world.
The Green Grid and ASHRAE are working together to develop and promote standard measurements that help facility managers determine the efficiency of the air handling methods inside of their data centers. The cooperative publication agreement between ASHRAE and The Green Grid encourages the sharing of technical information, particularly guidance regarding energy efficiency, between the two groups.
ASP-SaaS-Cloud Consortium (ASPIC) is dedicated to spreading and promoting ASP-SaaS-Cloud and data centers and proposing ASP-SaaS-Cloud solutions to users, providers, and governments through the market expansion, cooperation with governments, promotion of certification systems for information disclosure concerning safety and reliability, data centers, and contributions to member enterprises.
The Green Grid and ASPIC are collaborating to define a future model of resource-efficient data centers in the ASP-SaaS and cloud computing arenas.
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT
BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, is committed to making IT good for society. It uses the power of its network to bring about positive, tangible change. BCS champions the global IT profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that profession for the benefit of all.
The Green Grid and BCS are collaborating to provide a framework to improve the effectiveness of individual programs and enable the development of joint programs that will improve awareness, standards, and efficiency in the data center industry.
China Communications Standards Association (CCSA)
The China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) is the national communications standards organization with a membership of manufacturers, network operators, service providers, research bodies, and academia that carries out research, development and revision of information and communications technical standards. CCSA has the objective to adapt the Chinese communications market, to keep pace with global standardization progress, to promote the activities on communications standardization in China, and to make contributions to the global standardization work.
The Green Grid and CCSA have the common objective to perform and promote, directly or indirectly, regional and international standardization with the aim of contributing to the establishment of a global information infrastructure. The organizations have a reciprocal interest in gaining knowledge about the activities of the other organization, which may facilitate cooperation on items of common interest. CCSA and The Green Grid have noted the necessity of structuring and strengthening their relationship and fostering a closer cooperation with a memorandum of understanding to:
- Encourage communication between the two organizations
- Promote shared knowledge of the standards development activities of each organization
- Facilitate dissemination of The Green Grid standards in China
The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF)
DMTF is an industry standards organization working to simplify the manageability of network-accessible technologies through open and collaborative efforts by leading technology companies. DMTF creates and drives the international adoption of interoperable management standards, supporting implementations that enable the management of diverse traditional and emerging technologies including cloud, virtualization, network and infrastructure.
The Green Grid and DMTF are collaborating to develop standards designed to improve efficiency and interoperability of technology solutions within the data center. The establishment of standards will improve interoperability of management solutions at all levels of the data center and is designed to result in an interface for heterogeneous management for IT and non-IT equipment across data centers. To ensure the consistency and interoperability of solutions for this new management domain with existing deployed solutions, The Green Grid is leveraging the expertise of DMTF as it relates to the unifying Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) technologies in the data center.
Ecma International is an industry association founded in 1961 and dedicated to the standardization of information and communication technology (ICT) and consumer electronics (CE). The aims of Ecma are to:
- Develop, in co-operation with the appropriate national, European, and international organizations, standards and technical reports in order to facilitate and standardize the use of ICT and CE
- Encourage the correct use of standards by influencing the environment in which they are applied
- Publish these standards and technical reports in electronic and printed form. The publications may be freely copied by all interested parties without restrictions
The Green Grid and Ecma areas of intended collaboration include adopting a coordinated and integrated approach to the standardization process within the domains of mutual interest.
Global warming is a top-priority issue requiring an urgent, global-scale response. Recognizing that radical technological innovation has a critical role to play in achieving harmony between economic and social activities and the global environment, Japan has created the "Cool Earth-Innovative Energy Technology Program" for the development of new technologies from a long-term perspective. The Green IT Promotion Council believes that IT and electronics technologies can make a major contribution to realizing these new technologies and believes that the greater economic, logistical, and administrative efficiency achieved through the sophisticated control and management enabled by IT and electronics technologies will generate greater productivity and greater energy efficiency in all economic and social activities, contributing substantially to reducing the environmental burden. At the same time, full-scale IT introduction is expected to boost international information flows by around 200 times by 2025. This information explosion will also vastly increase the number of IT devices in use, positioning the energy consumption of IT devices themselves as a key issue. The Japanese government has developed the "Green IT Initiative" as a means of achieving a balance between environmental protection and economic growth. The Green IT Promotion Council was established as an industry-government-university partnership for promoting concrete action under this initiative.
The Green Grid and Green IT Promotion Council are collaborating on a number of fronts related to data center resource efficiency, including metrics enhancement, metrics development, technology sharing, and promotion of efficiency metrics. Collaboration on processes and technologies to measure and improve data center resource efficiency will enable end-users to receive the industry’s – and region’s – best practices for efficiency improvements, which benefits government agencies as they develop resource efficiency programs.
The purpose of the Green500 is to provide a ranking of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world. For decades, the notion of "performance" has been synonymous with "speed" (as measured in floating-point operations per second). This particular focus has led to the emergence of supercomputers that consume egregious amounts of electrical power and produce so much heat that extravagant cooling facilities must be constructed to ensure proper operation. In addition, the emphasis on speed as the ultimate metric has caused other metrics such as reliability, availability, and usability to be largely ignored. As a result, there has been an extraordinary increase in the total cost of ownership of a supercomputer. In order to raise awareness to other performance metrics of interest (e.g., performance per watt and energy efficiency for improved reliability), the Green500 offers lists to encourage supercomputing stakeholders to ensure that supercomputers are only simulating climate change and not creating climate change.
The Green Grid and the Green500 are collaborating in the area of energy efficiency metrics, methodology, and workloads for high-performance computing.
The Japan Data Center Council (JDCC)
To strengthen the foundation of an IT-oriented nation of data centers in Japan in terms of cost, performance, safety, and security, JDCC provides support to data centers in Japan in facing challenges of global competition. JDCC is a non-profit organization formed by Nippon Data Center Association together with data center operators and IT industry stakeholders so as to address issues that hinder the growth of the industry. It also aims to help Japan maintain its international progression and therefore lead the global competition. JDCC envisions a strong and globally competitive data center industry that maintains high standards and technical skills.
The Green Grid and JDCC are collaborating on activities conducted around improving the resource efficiency of data centers, including:
- Performing a survey and defining data center operator requirements
- Performing a survey to constructor and facility equipment manufacturers to determine Japan's unique requirements to data centers
- Performing joint discussions to determine the requirements for The Green Grid's Data Center Design Guide
- Synchronizing data center evaluation metrics
The Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT)
Set up in 1982 for purposes of scientific, educational, and IT industry promotion, MAIT has emerged as an effective, influential, and dynamic organization. Representing hardware, training, R&D and hardware design, and other associated service segments of the Indian IT industry, MAIT’s charter is to develop a global competitive Indian IT industry, promote the usage of IT in India, strengthen the role of IT in national economic development, promote business through international alliances, promote quality consciousness in the IT industry and transform the Indian IT industry into a world-scale industry leading to a world-class usage, and thus a world-size market.
The Green Grid and MAIT areas of intended collaboration include:
- Exchanging information about IT products and solutions that improve the energy efficiency of the broader economy
- The execution of international forums and symposiums
- Best practices for green IT promotion
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)
SNIA is a not-for-profit global organization comprised of member companies spanning the global storage market. SNIA’s mission is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. To this end, SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market.
The Green Grid and SNIA are collaborating in developing standards, measurement methods, and processes to improve data center performance against defined metrics and to promote the adoption of energy-efficient standards, processes, measurements, and technologies that improve overall data center resource efficiency. By sharing common objectives, the collaboration will enable the delivery of a complete and consistent set of information that benefits IT data centers and government bodies, such as the U. S. Department of Energy, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other regional and global agencies that have data center and computer equipment resource efficiency programs. This collaboration will leverage SNIA expertise in networked storage and The Green Grid's expertise in computer servers and data center infrastructure.
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
U.S. Department of Energy’s Save Energy Now is an initiative of The U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Technologies Program (ITP). ITP is spearheading a broad initiative that harnesses public and private sector resources to drive a 25% reduction in industrial energy intensity over the next 10 years. ITP is engaging other federal agencies, leading corporations, states, utilities, universities, and other organizations to accelerate industry adoption of the technologies and practices that will enable increased production with reduced energy requirements.
DOE’s Save Energy Now initiative provides the resources industry needs to identify and implement the most cost-effective options for energy savings. The initiative has now targeted data centers as a high-growth and energy intensive sector of the US economy as an important area to improve energy efficiency. Save Energy Now is developing a tool suite backed with a training curriculum, energy assessment protocols, best-in-class guidelines, a process to certify data center energy experts, and is considering working with industry on a voluntary certification process that will validate any data center's continual improvement in energy.
The Green Grid and the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy are working together to help data center managers initiate and implement an energy management program. This collaboration has resulted in the development of a Data Center Energy Profiler (DC Pro), which is designed to help owners quickly "diagnose" how energy is being used by their data centers and how they might save energy and money. DC Pro is a first step to identifying potential savings and reducing environmental emissions associated with energy production and use. The Green Grid is also participating in the Pacific Northwest National Labs Data Collection Project and is in regular dialog with Lawrence Berkeley National Labs.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The Environmental Protection Agency leads the nation's environmental science, research, education, and assessment efforts. The mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. Since 1970, the EPA has been working for a cleaner, healthier environment for the American people.
The Green Grid and the EPA have agreed to assess a small to mid-sized EPA data center with the intention of providing specific recommendations for improving resource efficiency in the subject data center and sharing the results, methodologies, and recommendations across the EPA and related governmental agencies. The real-world lessons learned and quantifiable benefits achieved will be shared with other government agencies and industry stakeholders.