Reckless texting, net surfing and emailing is killing the planet! Surprised? Thats exactly what my reaction was when I heard it for the first time. This gentleman, I met last year, heads a Cooling solutions company that specifically looks after Data Center cooling. During the course of an informal conversation, I learnt facts that were appalling. Like everytime I forward a fun sms to a friend, somewhere at some data centers it is taking up energy enough to light up a football field!
Data Centers, typically the size of a football field, house servers which work behind the scenes everytime we send that sms, or email or access the internet. They are power hungry and generate immense heat, green house gases. According to a study by McKinsey, by 2020, the greenhouse gas emissions from data centers would have surpassed those by the airline industry. Data Centers will be major contributors to Global Warming!
And so understandably, there is immense interest in innovations for Green data centers. However, while that happens, lets do our bit to save the planet:
- Lets think twice before we forward that totally unnecessary sms to friends.
- Lets think twice before we while away hours on a social networking site. I am going to just hop over and see friends who live close by. Nothing like chatting with a friend in person, over a good cup of coffee
- Lets get a DVD to watch a movie and if its new, watch it at a movie hall with friends and family. In the long run, it will turn out to be cheaper than mitigating the effects from Global Warming that result from downloading or watching a movie online.
- Lets reduce the number of spam mails we send…yes, we all spam our friends’ mailboxes with fun email forwards.
The information technology has impacted our lives, and, more importantly, the way we communicate with each other, radically. But in our enthusiasm, lets not forget that until further advancements ensure Green Data Centers we’ll be better off if we keep our ‘data center footprint’ to what is necessary.
Its difficult – ask me! I make a living out of internet services – but possible.
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