to all our friends, colleagues and customers.
We had a great year in 2012 and we're hoping that 2013 will be even better and from the look at our advanced forward appointments it will be.
So, we wish everybody a very happy and PROSPEROUS new year.
Monday, 31 December 2012
Saturday, 24 November 2012
Movember
The 'tache and goat are getting a bit itchy now, but its all in a good cause.
It (the 'tache) was unveiled at the ICT4 Sustainability expo in London on the 12th November where I spoke about the EUCoC and CEEDA on behalf of the BCS.
Normally this event is well attended and has lots of vendors demonstrating new products, sadly it was not as good as previous years, the quality of the speakers was still good, but the vendor and attendance count was poor. I suspect this may have had something to do with a change of organiser and competition with other IT events, still dust yourself off, and move on as we all know that Green IT, Sustainable IT, or Resource Efficient IT, whatever you want to call it, has a place in today's IT world.
I think we're demonstrating that our industry can reduce both our own and other areas energy use, but people are fixated at the present time on business survival (because of the recession) and just not seeing how resource efficient IT can help, it may be that some of the IT industry professionals are too focused on business as usual and can not see that a little capital expenditure now can reduce energy costs in the long run.
In my opinion some Green IT products and services should be available as part of the Green Deal (energy reduction initiatives and funding from Government) but I will not be holding my breath on that, this government doesn't seem to have the will or the ability to think innovatively.
On that note I've been invited to an update on the ETL from the Carbon Trust in Birmingham on the 3rd December, I'll keep you all updated.
I also attended the Data Centre Dynamics event at London's Excel Arena and was part of the panel and presentation team for the CEEDA, Certified Energy Efficiency in Data Centres award. We spoke to many people interested in the award, both for energy reduction tips and ideas and to promote their CSR and Green credentials, I believe that we have over 500 interested organisations now.
This is a really exciting area for us and we hope to be conducting a lot of CEEDA assessments in 2013 and beyond.
We also presented at a Concurrent Thinking EUCoC briefing event in Birmingham and attended the London and Leeds events.
There's a couple of other things going on that I cant really tell you about but watch this space.
I've also been thinking about what the data centre of the future will look like and will eventually find the time to blog about it.
If you're in the Warwick, UK area on Saturdays between now and Christmas, please visit the Crafty pop up fair opposite the Museum in the Market Square. My good lady wife has a stall there selling all things crafty, pin cushions, cards, Christmas boxes with treats, stocking fillers etc, so treat yourself or your loved ones to a handmade item this holiday period.
Will be updating once or maybe twice more before Christmas but if you don't get a chance to read them, have a great winter break.
It (the 'tache) was unveiled at the ICT4 Sustainability expo in London on the 12th November where I spoke about the EUCoC and CEEDA on behalf of the BCS.
Normally this event is well attended and has lots of vendors demonstrating new products, sadly it was not as good as previous years, the quality of the speakers was still good, but the vendor and attendance count was poor. I suspect this may have had something to do with a change of organiser and competition with other IT events, still dust yourself off, and move on as we all know that Green IT, Sustainable IT, or Resource Efficient IT, whatever you want to call it, has a place in today's IT world.
I think we're demonstrating that our industry can reduce both our own and other areas energy use, but people are fixated at the present time on business survival (because of the recession) and just not seeing how resource efficient IT can help, it may be that some of the IT industry professionals are too focused on business as usual and can not see that a little capital expenditure now can reduce energy costs in the long run.
In my opinion some Green IT products and services should be available as part of the Green Deal (energy reduction initiatives and funding from Government) but I will not be holding my breath on that, this government doesn't seem to have the will or the ability to think innovatively.
On that note I've been invited to an update on the ETL from the Carbon Trust in Birmingham on the 3rd December, I'll keep you all updated.
I also attended the Data Centre Dynamics event at London's Excel Arena and was part of the panel and presentation team for the CEEDA, Certified Energy Efficiency in Data Centres award. We spoke to many people interested in the award, both for energy reduction tips and ideas and to promote their CSR and Green credentials, I believe that we have over 500 interested organisations now.
This is a really exciting area for us and we hope to be conducting a lot of CEEDA assessments in 2013 and beyond.
We also presented at a Concurrent Thinking EUCoC briefing event in Birmingham and attended the London and Leeds events.
There's a couple of other things going on that I cant really tell you about but watch this space.
I've also been thinking about what the data centre of the future will look like and will eventually find the time to blog about it.
If you're in the Warwick, UK area on Saturdays between now and Christmas, please visit the Crafty pop up fair opposite the Museum in the Market Square. My good lady wife has a stall there selling all things crafty, pin cushions, cards, Christmas boxes with treats, stocking fillers etc, so treat yourself or your loved ones to a handmade item this holiday period.
Will be updating once or maybe twice more before Christmas but if you don't get a chance to read them, have a great winter break.
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
Our Reach and Associations
So, why would you want to use us over another company?
Well, for starters we're really nice and helpful, provide independent advice and are all round good eggs.
But even if this doesn't sway your thinking lets look at our reach and associations.
We're on the British Computer Society's Green IT and Data Centre Specialist Groups and actually on the committee's so we shape policy and organise events and we get access to a lot of reports prior to release (try getting that from our competitors)
We recently provided some information and had meetings with the GHG Protocol ICT sector guidance groups through our associations with the BCS and we've seen the guide prior to its publication to the SAG (Stakeholder Advisory Group) but guess what? We're on that as well!
I'm also on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres best practice working group and this means we see all the proposed changes to the code, discuss this with our fellow members and eventually pass judgement on whether they get into the code or not. I do other stuff with the EU as well.
I also conduct CEEDA assessments on behalf of the BCS and DCD and have help shape how CEEDA will look like in the future.
I'm also a judge on various data centre groups.
I also sit on the SME Smart Cities working group for Birmingham, this is where smart grids, info sources and intelligent cities link together to create the Intelligent City of the future, so some interesting stuff passes across my desk or via the PC.
We also work with some of the leading companies in this sector, the Very PC Group, Concurrent Thinking, and Event Zero to name a few.
So, there you have it, we're well represented on the groups that are shaping Green IT and Data Centre energy efficiency concepts, we've judged projects, we assess projects, we sit on groups that shape the future of our cities and we're good guys.
We can also supply everything you need to make your ICT infrastructure as green and as "Carbon3IT" as it is possible to be.
Come and use us for your project, you know it makes sense.
Well, for starters we're really nice and helpful, provide independent advice and are all round good eggs.
But even if this doesn't sway your thinking lets look at our reach and associations.
We're on the British Computer Society's Green IT and Data Centre Specialist Groups and actually on the committee's so we shape policy and organise events and we get access to a lot of reports prior to release (try getting that from our competitors)
We recently provided some information and had meetings with the GHG Protocol ICT sector guidance groups through our associations with the BCS and we've seen the guide prior to its publication to the SAG (Stakeholder Advisory Group) but guess what? We're on that as well!
I'm also on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres best practice working group and this means we see all the proposed changes to the code, discuss this with our fellow members and eventually pass judgement on whether they get into the code or not. I do other stuff with the EU as well.
I also conduct CEEDA assessments on behalf of the BCS and DCD and have help shape how CEEDA will look like in the future.
I'm also a judge on various data centre groups.
I also sit on the SME Smart Cities working group for Birmingham, this is where smart grids, info sources and intelligent cities link together to create the Intelligent City of the future, so some interesting stuff passes across my desk or via the PC.
We also work with some of the leading companies in this sector, the Very PC Group, Concurrent Thinking, and Event Zero to name a few.
So, there you have it, we're well represented on the groups that are shaping Green IT and Data Centre energy efficiency concepts, we've judged projects, we assess projects, we sit on groups that shape the future of our cities and we're good guys.
We can also supply everything you need to make your ICT infrastructure as green and as "Carbon3IT" as it is possible to be.
Come and use us for your project, you know it makes sense.
G-Cloud
We very pleased to announce that we've been selected to appear on the G-Cloud http://gcloud.civilservice.gov.uk/ providing services under Lot 3, SaaS with our PC Power Monitoring & Management Software suite and Data Centre Infrastructure Management products and under Lot 4 Specialist Cloud Services with our Pre-EUCoC, BCS Pre-CEEDA and Web Useability Services delivered with our partners SANfire IA, their website can be found here SANFire IA.
We are particularly pleased that our EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres pre-assessment service is available on the G-Cloud as we are seeking to assist the HMG Green Delivery Unit under the "Greening Government ICT Strategy to help them achieve their target to have all central government, local government and other public sector organisations to be participants to the code by April 2014 and by appearing on the G-Cloud this process can be streamlined and made very easy for organisations to engage with us.
We can also go one step further with the BCS CEEDA programme, which is also available on the G-Cloud.
Previous blog posts detail the difference between the EUCOC and BCS CEEDA and you can trawl through the blog to find them, however in essence the EUCoC is a commitment to implement the 110 best practices within 3 years whilst a BCS CEEDA is an actual external assessment to 43 of the best practices. Our service is to provide guidance and assistance to organisations to achieve the highest BCS CEEDA award possible and we do this by checking the physical infrastructure practices and to provide the documentary evidence that the BCS CEEDA assessor will be looking for as a part of his remit.
In other news, we've been invited to speak at the ICT4 Sustainability event at the QE2 Conference centre in London on the 13th November on the EUCoC and CEEDA programme, more info here ICT4 Sustainability
We'll also be at the DCD London event at the Excel Centre in the London Docklands on the 14th & 15th speaking about CEEDA and appearing on a panel discussion, more info here http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/conferences/2012/london-2012
We also have, later today a webinar to discuss our (BCS DCSG) proposed amendments to the GHG Protocol ICT Sector guidance on the Cloud and Data Centre chapters.
We'll post something soon about our thoughts on Hurricane Sandy and the impact its had on the NE USA and in particular their Data Centres, but we'll wait until the air has cleared as it were.
We'll also be doing 3 JISC/Concurrent Thinking/Defra EUCoC events in London, Birmingham and Leeds during the week commencing 19th November, so all in all a very busy month.
We also have a CEEDA assessment before Christmas for a major global co-location provider which hopefully will cascade around to all their other sites, they obviously recognise the value of an external energy efficiency assessment when they see one.
That's it for now, as usual we'll keep everybody updated via our social media feeds @carbon3it and @greenit_carbon3it, our facebook and linked in pages.
We are particularly pleased that our EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres pre-assessment service is available on the G-Cloud as we are seeking to assist the HMG Green Delivery Unit under the "Greening Government ICT Strategy to help them achieve their target to have all central government, local government and other public sector organisations to be participants to the code by April 2014 and by appearing on the G-Cloud this process can be streamlined and made very easy for organisations to engage with us.
We can also go one step further with the BCS CEEDA programme, which is also available on the G-Cloud.
Previous blog posts detail the difference between the EUCOC and BCS CEEDA and you can trawl through the blog to find them, however in essence the EUCoC is a commitment to implement the 110 best practices within 3 years whilst a BCS CEEDA is an actual external assessment to 43 of the best practices. Our service is to provide guidance and assistance to organisations to achieve the highest BCS CEEDA award possible and we do this by checking the physical infrastructure practices and to provide the documentary evidence that the BCS CEEDA assessor will be looking for as a part of his remit.
In other news, we've been invited to speak at the ICT4 Sustainability event at the QE2 Conference centre in London on the 13th November on the EUCoC and CEEDA programme, more info here ICT4 Sustainability
We'll also be at the DCD London event at the Excel Centre in the London Docklands on the 14th & 15th speaking about CEEDA and appearing on a panel discussion, more info here http://www.datacenterdynamics.com/conferences/2012/london-2012
We also have, later today a webinar to discuss our (BCS DCSG) proposed amendments to the GHG Protocol ICT Sector guidance on the Cloud and Data Centre chapters.
We'll post something soon about our thoughts on Hurricane Sandy and the impact its had on the NE USA and in particular their Data Centres, but we'll wait until the air has cleared as it were.
We'll also be doing 3 JISC/Concurrent Thinking/Defra EUCoC events in London, Birmingham and Leeds during the week commencing 19th November, so all in all a very busy month.
We also have a CEEDA assessment before Christmas for a major global co-location provider which hopefully will cascade around to all their other sites, they obviously recognise the value of an external energy efficiency assessment when they see one.
That's it for now, as usual we'll keep everybody updated via our social media feeds @carbon3it and @greenit_carbon3it, our facebook and linked in pages.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Self Praise is no praise...
I'm loving the fact that many data centre operators extoll the greeness of their facilities and cite the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres or a whole number of other self assessed criteria as the basis for their "greenness".
Well, in the absence of any certified data centre energy efficiency award this would be at least sensible as a differentiator and points the potential buyer to the environmental credentials of said data centre.
But, there is not an absence of a certified data centre energy efficiency award, we have the global CEEDA award programme from the BCS.
So, wheras the EUCoC is a voluntary programme where participants apply for the "badge" stating that they intend to commit or indeed have already committed to the implementation of the 110 best practices and then provide their environmental data (power consumption, temp and humidity) to the JRC, the CEEDA programme is an external assessment by a trained certified assessor to 43 of those 110 EUCoC best practices, covering the absolute virtually mandatory minimums a sensible energy efficient data centre would adopt.
So, I call the EUCoC talking the talk, whilst anyone brave enough to allow a CEEDA assessor in to their facility to poke around and ask pertinent questions in the hope of receiving a Bronze, Silver or Gold award, dependent on how many of the practices are being followed is definitely "walking the walk".
Remember, as well, that after the assessor has visited site and prepared his report and recommendation, everything is passed to the Auditor for another independent review, so the assessment will have been looked at by two independents
So, if you're a data centre marketeer looking for a USP to get customers in to your facility, look no further than a CEEDA.
I'm going to come clean now, I am a CEEDA assessor so I do have a vested interest here, but if I were a DC owner looking to enhance my offering I would have to consider CEEDA, its a badge well worth getting.
So, congratulations to Sanger Institute, Co-Operative Group and ARM who have already received their awards, more information here www.ceeda-award.org and to the 4 other organisations who have been assessed and are awaiting their awards to be confirmed.
Well, in the absence of any certified data centre energy efficiency award this would be at least sensible as a differentiator and points the potential buyer to the environmental credentials of said data centre.
But, there is not an absence of a certified data centre energy efficiency award, we have the global CEEDA award programme from the BCS.
So, wheras the EUCoC is a voluntary programme where participants apply for the "badge" stating that they intend to commit or indeed have already committed to the implementation of the 110 best practices and then provide their environmental data (power consumption, temp and humidity) to the JRC, the CEEDA programme is an external assessment by a trained certified assessor to 43 of those 110 EUCoC best practices, covering the absolute virtually mandatory minimums a sensible energy efficient data centre would adopt.
So, I call the EUCoC talking the talk, whilst anyone brave enough to allow a CEEDA assessor in to their facility to poke around and ask pertinent questions in the hope of receiving a Bronze, Silver or Gold award, dependent on how many of the practices are being followed is definitely "walking the walk".
Remember, as well, that after the assessor has visited site and prepared his report and recommendation, everything is passed to the Auditor for another independent review, so the assessment will have been looked at by two independents
So, if you're a data centre marketeer looking for a USP to get customers in to your facility, look no further than a CEEDA.
I'm going to come clean now, I am a CEEDA assessor so I do have a vested interest here, but if I were a DC owner looking to enhance my offering I would have to consider CEEDA, its a badge well worth getting.
So, congratulations to Sanger Institute, Co-Operative Group and ARM who have already received their awards, more information here www.ceeda-award.org and to the 4 other organisations who have been assessed and are awaiting their awards to be confirmed.
If you want to find out more about the CEEDA award, visit the website, speak to David Carter, CEEDA programme manager at DCD on DDL +44 (0) 20 7099 5315 or DDL +44 (0) 20 7871 9935 or email him at david.carter@datacenterdynamics.com or if you're attending the DCD London conference at Excel on the 14th & 15th November look out for us, we'll be there!
If you want any assistance in preparing your site for either EUCoC or CEEDA prior to an assessment or application, contact us on +44 192 684 3389, info@carbon3it.com or tweet to @Carbon3IT
Sunday, 7 October 2012
The new website is up...
and running, so please give it a view and let us know what you think.
You may notice that we're planning to offer some cloud services in the future and some of you may remember that we're pretty much anti cloud, but this is from a green perspective and not due to its diverse, scalable architecture and its ease of use.
In fact, our cloud services will be green, very green actually.
Our new website is hosted on "Very PC" servers, located in a Sheffield Data Centre that is powered by renewable energy from Good Energy and owned/operated by a co-operative WebArchitects.
Anyway, its late on Sunday I've good lots of things to do tomorrow so I'm off to bed, well hopefully.
Until next time.
You may notice that we're planning to offer some cloud services in the future and some of you may remember that we're pretty much anti cloud, but this is from a green perspective and not due to its diverse, scalable architecture and its ease of use.
In fact, our cloud services will be green, very green actually.
Our new website is hosted on "Very PC" servers, located in a Sheffield Data Centre that is powered by renewable energy from Good Energy and owned/operated by a co-operative WebArchitects.
Anyway, its late on Sunday I've good lots of things to do tomorrow so I'm off to bed, well hopefully.
Until next time.
Thursday, 4 October 2012
The Australia Trip
Through my involvement with the BCS/DCD CEEDA programme I was invited to undertake a short trip to Sydney between the Olympic & Paralympic games.
So, I left London on the 16th August and arrived in Sydney late in the evening of the 18th.
I had the weekend to myself so did just a little exploration of Sydney, started off by doing the usual tourist stuff, down to the Rocks and the Harbour Bridge and then visited the shopping area.
I did notice that most Australians were wearing coats and scarfs, this in 68degrees and sunny, I found out later that 68 degrees is cold to them, after all it was winter (a bit like our summer to be honest!)
On the Sunday I trotted down to Darling Harbour to check out where I was going to meet a linked in contact. I then recalled a friend telling me that a good trip is to jump on a ferry and take lunch in one of the outlying areas, so multi-trip all day ticket duly purchased I jumped on the first ferry and off I went, and ended up at Circular Quay, which for those of you who don't know Sydney, is the main ferry terminal.
So, my attempt to get to an outlying area and take lunch was being seriously thwarted.
No worries, I then took the next rivercat to Parramatta, the absolute furthest place I could find on the map and a route that goes past the Olympic Stadium. I reckon I must have been the only person to be at both places in a 3 week period.
At Parramatta there seemed to be a lot of people waiting for the ferry and I was worried about getting back so I just turned around and came straight back home, lunch was McDonalds.
The next day I arose bright and early to meet the client and to conduct the first of three CEEDA assessments.
As these assessments are in the audit stage I am not allowed to tell you all who they are but all will be revealed in a later post.
I visited two data centres, one was owned and operated by the client and the other was a colo facility that had my main client has their anchor tenant, so 3 CEEDA assessments, one Owner Occupier, one CoLo, and one CoLo Tenant.
I was very impressed with the both facilities and this is reflected in their recommended awards, although they still need to get through the audit stage.
I was also taken out to dinner by the client, we went to Cafe Sydney, which overlooks Circular Quay with the Harbour Bridge on the left hand side and the Opera House and the Right, Sydney set fair.
On the Tuesday evening I met my linked in friend down at Darling Harbour and was promptly whisked off in the boat over to the Zoo.
One of my most enduring memories of Australia and Sydney, will be the view from the boat looking back towards the CBD and the Harbour Bridge with the sun setting on a background of purples, oranges, golds and crimsons of a Sydney sunset, breathtaking!
On Wednesday I gave a talk at the Australian Computer Society on the topic of "Is the Cloud Green?" and outlined the EUCoC and CEEDA programme to the attendees.
I also met up with a few old friends the following morning to discuss some possible business ventures prior to a quick trip to Parramatta to meet with Nick Parfitt from DCD and my flight back to the UK.
All in all, a very successful trip and one I look forward to taking again sooner rather than later and possibly for a lot longer.
Until next time, keep up to date with our new website which should be live this weekend (7th October) for news and events Carbon3IT Ltd will be attending, speaking at or generally just mooching about at.
So, I left London on the 16th August and arrived in Sydney late in the evening of the 18th.
I had the weekend to myself so did just a little exploration of Sydney, started off by doing the usual tourist stuff, down to the Rocks and the Harbour Bridge and then visited the shopping area.
I did notice that most Australians were wearing coats and scarfs, this in 68degrees and sunny, I found out later that 68 degrees is cold to them, after all it was winter (a bit like our summer to be honest!)
On the Sunday I trotted down to Darling Harbour to check out where I was going to meet a linked in contact. I then recalled a friend telling me that a good trip is to jump on a ferry and take lunch in one of the outlying areas, so multi-trip all day ticket duly purchased I jumped on the first ferry and off I went, and ended up at Circular Quay, which for those of you who don't know Sydney, is the main ferry terminal.
So, my attempt to get to an outlying area and take lunch was being seriously thwarted.
No worries, I then took the next rivercat to Parramatta, the absolute furthest place I could find on the map and a route that goes past the Olympic Stadium. I reckon I must have been the only person to be at both places in a 3 week period.
At Parramatta there seemed to be a lot of people waiting for the ferry and I was worried about getting back so I just turned around and came straight back home, lunch was McDonalds.
The next day I arose bright and early to meet the client and to conduct the first of three CEEDA assessments.
As these assessments are in the audit stage I am not allowed to tell you all who they are but all will be revealed in a later post.
I visited two data centres, one was owned and operated by the client and the other was a colo facility that had my main client has their anchor tenant, so 3 CEEDA assessments, one Owner Occupier, one CoLo, and one CoLo Tenant.
I was very impressed with the both facilities and this is reflected in their recommended awards, although they still need to get through the audit stage.
I was also taken out to dinner by the client, we went to Cafe Sydney, which overlooks Circular Quay with the Harbour Bridge on the left hand side and the Opera House and the Right, Sydney set fair.
On the Tuesday evening I met my linked in friend down at Darling Harbour and was promptly whisked off in the boat over to the Zoo.
One of my most enduring memories of Australia and Sydney, will be the view from the boat looking back towards the CBD and the Harbour Bridge with the sun setting on a background of purples, oranges, golds and crimsons of a Sydney sunset, breathtaking!
On Wednesday I gave a talk at the Australian Computer Society on the topic of "Is the Cloud Green?" and outlined the EUCoC and CEEDA programme to the attendees.
I also met up with a few old friends the following morning to discuss some possible business ventures prior to a quick trip to Parramatta to meet with Nick Parfitt from DCD and my flight back to the UK.
All in all, a very successful trip and one I look forward to taking again sooner rather than later and possibly for a lot longer.
Until next time, keep up to date with our new website which should be live this weekend (7th October) for news and events Carbon3IT Ltd will be attending, speaking at or generally just mooching about at.
Thursday, 6 September 2012
What a summer!, and what an Autumn to look forward to.
Hello to all our followers and blog readers.
Well, what a summer we've had. I was lucky enough to be selected as an Olympic and Paralympic volunteer and spent 4 weeks at Wimbledon and Greenwich Park respectively.
What can I say, the fact that there were no reported Olympic technology failures (as far as I know, and certainly not at Wimbledon or Greenwich Park in my time there) is testament to the systems put in place.
I can reveal that at Wimbledon we used the existing IT infrastructure and basically just changed the patch leads into our devices, installation commenced immediately after the Wimbledon tournament had finished and we were the first olympic location to be completed technology-wise, well we did have 3 weeks!
At Greenwich Park, the task was, I understand, a little more fraught, the temporary buildings and site infrastructure were delayed to the weather and at many points completion in time for the start of the event looked in jeopardy.
But, due to the professionalism and sheer hard work of the venue technology managers and all the relevent support personnel, BT, Atos, Acer, Xerox and the AV crew everything turned out all right.
I also went to Australia for a week on a working trip (more of that in a later post) but on the way I watched "Marigold Hotel" where I heard the following from one of the characters "Everything will turn out alright in the end, if it is not alright then it cannot be the end"
So, even if the circumstances seem to indicate that you will not meet your target, and everything is not alright, then it cannot be the end.
Having been on may projects, and at some points troubled by a lack of progress, I've always been part of teams that pull through, so I'll be using the above phrase in future.
And what a future, but I have to get some paying work completed so updates on this and other subject wil have to wait a little while (probably over the weekend)
Until then , be safe and happy and remember "If it is not alright, then it is not the end!"
Well, what a summer we've had. I was lucky enough to be selected as an Olympic and Paralympic volunteer and spent 4 weeks at Wimbledon and Greenwich Park respectively.
What can I say, the fact that there were no reported Olympic technology failures (as far as I know, and certainly not at Wimbledon or Greenwich Park in my time there) is testament to the systems put in place.
I can reveal that at Wimbledon we used the existing IT infrastructure and basically just changed the patch leads into our devices, installation commenced immediately after the Wimbledon tournament had finished and we were the first olympic location to be completed technology-wise, well we did have 3 weeks!
At Greenwich Park, the task was, I understand, a little more fraught, the temporary buildings and site infrastructure were delayed to the weather and at many points completion in time for the start of the event looked in jeopardy.
But, due to the professionalism and sheer hard work of the venue technology managers and all the relevent support personnel, BT, Atos, Acer, Xerox and the AV crew everything turned out all right.
I also went to Australia for a week on a working trip (more of that in a later post) but on the way I watched "Marigold Hotel" where I heard the following from one of the characters "Everything will turn out alright in the end, if it is not alright then it cannot be the end"
So, even if the circumstances seem to indicate that you will not meet your target, and everything is not alright, then it cannot be the end.
Having been on may projects, and at some points troubled by a lack of progress, I've always been part of teams that pull through, so I'll be using the above phrase in future.
And what a future, but I have to get some paying work completed so updates on this and other subject wil have to wait a little while (probably over the weekend)
Until then , be safe and happy and remember "If it is not alright, then it is not the end!"
Friday, 6 July 2012
Carbon3IT Ltd is closing down.....
for the summer.
I've been lucky enough to get an Olympic Volunteer role and will be providing IT Technical Support at two venues, my shifts start on the 21st July and run until the 4th August, then I'm off on a long overdue family holiday, back on the 13th Aug.
Then I have 4 CEEDA assessments to carry out, 1 in Scotland, and 3 in Sydney Australia.
I return from down under on the 25th August to start my Paralympic shifts and finish in early September.
We'll get all our outstanding quotations and reports to clients sorted by the 20th July and then we'll be providing limited support during games time.
If you wish to contact us about a new project please email us on our usual contact email addresses and we'll be back to you asap with some dates for an initial meeting.
We were lucky enough to be asked to attend the Green Business Awards this week as a guest of the BCS, we're also providing some assistance in the creation of a new Green IT practical exam and there are other very interesting projects in the pipeline.
We're just waiting on a contract from a client and we hope to be able to provide you with news on this soon.
We're also organising an event to take place in the West Midlands on the 22nd November as previously advised and we're getting close to being able to make an announcement.
Our website is also under review and we should be going live in the Autumn.
As always you'll hear about it on twitter first, followed by an in depth review on this blog.
The rain is still falling here and it seems that summer has stalled, we think that the back end of summer will probably turn out alright but we dont tend to make a habit of forecasting.
Oh, if any readers of this blog want to be a part of our event in the West Midlands on the 22nd November please contact us for more information.
I've been lucky enough to get an Olympic Volunteer role and will be providing IT Technical Support at two venues, my shifts start on the 21st July and run until the 4th August, then I'm off on a long overdue family holiday, back on the 13th Aug.
Then I have 4 CEEDA assessments to carry out, 1 in Scotland, and 3 in Sydney Australia.
I return from down under on the 25th August to start my Paralympic shifts and finish in early September.
We'll get all our outstanding quotations and reports to clients sorted by the 20th July and then we'll be providing limited support during games time.
If you wish to contact us about a new project please email us on our usual contact email addresses and we'll be back to you asap with some dates for an initial meeting.
We were lucky enough to be asked to attend the Green Business Awards this week as a guest of the BCS, we're also providing some assistance in the creation of a new Green IT practical exam and there are other very interesting projects in the pipeline.
We're just waiting on a contract from a client and we hope to be able to provide you with news on this soon.
We're also organising an event to take place in the West Midlands on the 22nd November as previously advised and we're getting close to being able to make an announcement.
Our website is also under review and we should be going live in the Autumn.
As always you'll hear about it on twitter first, followed by an in depth review on this blog.
The rain is still falling here and it seems that summer has stalled, we think that the back end of summer will probably turn out alright but we dont tend to make a habit of forecasting.
Oh, if any readers of this blog want to be a part of our event in the West Midlands on the 22nd November please contact us for more information.
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
At last some joined up thinking
We seen a number of reference to this news item Olympics Site Data Centres and think that this is a brilliant idea, the site itself is well equipped with fibre links and power should not be an issue.
I only have two small things to ask, the first is that the whole facility be built to the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres and that a BCS CEEDA assessment is then carried out.
The first is actually going to have to happen as the Governments green IT strategy states that all facilities should be a participant to the code by April 2014.
The second is down to the individual councils themselves but the cost of a CEEDA spread over all the 33 boroughs will bring the cost down to less than £500 per council, well worth it!
One wonders if this is going to be a London Local Authority Cloud?
Well thats my 2p worth.
Very busy at the moment with all sorts of green and sustainable IT stuff so off to work I go.
More updates soon, until then enjoy the footie tonight and lets all pray for an England win.
I only have two small things to ask, the first is that the whole facility be built to the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres and that a BCS CEEDA assessment is then carried out.
The first is actually going to have to happen as the Governments green IT strategy states that all facilities should be a participant to the code by April 2014.
The second is down to the individual councils themselves but the cost of a CEEDA spread over all the 33 boroughs will bring the cost down to less than £500 per council, well worth it!
One wonders if this is going to be a London Local Authority Cloud?
Well thats my 2p worth.
Very busy at the moment with all sorts of green and sustainable IT stuff so off to work I go.
More updates soon, until then enjoy the footie tonight and lets all pray for an England win.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Update
Well, it has been sometime since our last update so here goes:
CEEDA, we've completed another 2 CEEDA assessments in the past few weeks, as the reports have yet to be submitted we cannot comment on these at the present time but further information will be available on our website when it is released.
We've also got another 4 CEEDA's scheduled for July and August
And talking of websites, we're undertaking a refresh project and this is scheduled to be released sometime in September, we've got our team looking at new technologies and we're convinced that the entire website will have a brand new look and provide even more information on Green IT and our activities.
We're also planning an event to take place in the Midlands on the 22nd November 2012, futher information and details will be available on the new updated website soon.
We'll also be building a new website just for this event, so watch this space, but our twitter feed will be the best place to get advanced information, details of the speakers, exhibition stands and registration details on the event.
We're very exciting about this event, but as with all external events it takes time to organise so bear with us, we working very hard on this.
We've completed our Greentrac trial at our school and we'll be reporting back to the project sponsor next week, where we hope to expand the trial to more schools in the area, so again watch this space for an update.
We've been a number of events recently, notably the Data Centre Alliance, and various EU CoC updates.
We'd like to tell you more about some of our other activities, but these are at early stages of engagement and as such we can't really talk about them.....yet
Finally, we enjoyed the Jubilee festivities although the weather was horrid, but we're looking forward to the England game tonight at Euro 2012 and of course a little matter of the Olympic Games in less than 45 days.
So, we're very busy at the present time but we hope to be a little more regular in our updates on the blog, but the realy important news will always go out via twitter, so if you're not following us, you really should.
we use two twitter accounts @carbon3it and @greenit_carbon3.
Until next time, enjoy.
CEEDA, we've completed another 2 CEEDA assessments in the past few weeks, as the reports have yet to be submitted we cannot comment on these at the present time but further information will be available on our website when it is released.
We've also got another 4 CEEDA's scheduled for July and August
And talking of websites, we're undertaking a refresh project and this is scheduled to be released sometime in September, we've got our team looking at new technologies and we're convinced that the entire website will have a brand new look and provide even more information on Green IT and our activities.
We're also planning an event to take place in the Midlands on the 22nd November 2012, futher information and details will be available on the new updated website soon.
We'll also be building a new website just for this event, so watch this space, but our twitter feed will be the best place to get advanced information, details of the speakers, exhibition stands and registration details on the event.
We're very exciting about this event, but as with all external events it takes time to organise so bear with us, we working very hard on this.
We've completed our Greentrac trial at our school and we'll be reporting back to the project sponsor next week, where we hope to expand the trial to more schools in the area, so again watch this space for an update.
We've been a number of events recently, notably the Data Centre Alliance, and various EU CoC updates.
We'd like to tell you more about some of our other activities, but these are at early stages of engagement and as such we can't really talk about them.....yet
Finally, we enjoyed the Jubilee festivities although the weather was horrid, but we're looking forward to the England game tonight at Euro 2012 and of course a little matter of the Olympic Games in less than 45 days.
So, we're very busy at the present time but we hope to be a little more regular in our updates on the blog, but the realy important news will always go out via twitter, so if you're not following us, you really should.
we use two twitter accounts @carbon3it and @greenit_carbon3.
Until next time, enjoy.
Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Saturday, 19 May 2012
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Next Week
As I'm going to be really busy next week I thought I'd share with the readers of this blog what I'm going to be doing.
Sadly, I will not be in NICE for the data centre 2012 event http://www.datacentres2012.com/ but I do have appointments every day.
I have a discussion with a data centre hosting provider on Monday regarding the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, another on Tuesday in London, followed by a visit to the Data Centre Academy at the Tower Hotel (SNIA) on Wednesday and an an evening event at the BCS organised by the CW500 Club on the topic of Data Centre Transformation.
Thursday I shall be in Northampton for an energy efficiency networking event and finally on Friday I shall be a bit closer to home doing planning for an event that we're organising with a partner organisation that will take place in September.
Phew, and it doesn't stop, the week after I have 2 events and a CEEDA assessment and then its the bank holiday weekend for the Queens Jubilee.
We've also had some great news this week but its under embargo until I have permission to make it public.
Sadly, I will not be in NICE for the data centre 2012 event http://www.datacentres2012.com/ but I do have appointments every day.
I have a discussion with a data centre hosting provider on Monday regarding the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, another on Tuesday in London, followed by a visit to the Data Centre Academy at the Tower Hotel (SNIA) on Wednesday and an an evening event at the BCS organised by the CW500 Club on the topic of Data Centre Transformation.
Thursday I shall be in Northampton for an energy efficiency networking event and finally on Friday I shall be a bit closer to home doing planning for an event that we're organising with a partner organisation that will take place in September.
Phew, and it doesn't stop, the week after I have 2 events and a CEEDA assessment and then its the bank holiday weekend for the Queens Jubilee.
We've also had some great news this week but its under embargo until I have permission to make it public.
Green IT Qualifications
Here at Carbon3IT Ltd, all our consultants have as a minimum the following recognised qualifications:
Foundation Certificate in Green IT (ISEB)
Intermediate Certificate EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
ITIL Foundation
Prince 2 Practitioner
We've also been invited to participate in the creation of new intermediate green IT qualifications and review new syllabuses for Data Centres design, more details soon.
If you have any questions on the course content or which training provider we used please contact us on our usual numbers or email info@carbon3it.com
Foundation Certificate in Green IT (ISEB)
Intermediate Certificate EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres
ITIL Foundation
Prince 2 Practitioner
We've also been invited to participate in the creation of new intermediate green IT qualifications and review new syllabuses for Data Centres design, more details soon.
If you have any questions on the course content or which training provider we used please contact us on our usual numbers or email info@carbon3it.com
CEEDA BEEVERS!
Well, the BCS CEEDA award CEEDA Website is going great guns, we have a number of clients scheduled for assessments before September and they are all very keen to get their data centres assessed for energy efficiency.
But, we're very pleased that the wide range of clients have taken the steps to prove to the outside world that they are taking energy efficiency within the data centre very seriously (perhaps to stop Greenpeace from mentioning them!).
Anyway, go to the website to find out more and then when you're ready to get an assessment contact the BCS directly or David Carter from DCD.
If you're not ready and are unsure what to do next with regards to data centre energy efficiency measures contact Carbon3IT Ltd directly on 01926 843389.
We offer a pre CEEDA assessment that will detail the areas that you'll need to focus on for a high level of CEEDA award.
We also offer a full Green IT solution from desktops to data centres, so if you want to be ICT resource efficient, you know where to come.
But, we're very pleased that the wide range of clients have taken the steps to prove to the outside world that they are taking energy efficiency within the data centre very seriously (perhaps to stop Greenpeace from mentioning them!).
Anyway, go to the website to find out more and then when you're ready to get an assessment contact the BCS directly or David Carter from DCD.
If you're not ready and are unsure what to do next with regards to data centre energy efficiency measures contact Carbon3IT Ltd directly on 01926 843389.
We offer a pre CEEDA assessment that will detail the areas that you'll need to focus on for a high level of CEEDA award.
We also offer a full Green IT solution from desktops to data centres, so if you want to be ICT resource efficient, you know where to come.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Olympic IT Scaremongering
I'm getting concerned that in some quarters at least, fear, ignorance and downright blatent scaremongering concerning the London 2012 Olympic Games is being given media space and airtime.
Take this for instance, Network Overload, Power Disruptions where the report highlights potential problems during the games, except that the issues cited are not specifically to do with the games themselves and rather on poor DR and continuity management that is present at all times.
I've attended a number of events, organised by the BCS, with the Head of Service Delivery (BT) for the games and based on the architecture and support services that will be provided, I cant see any disruption to communications or for that matter power during the games, why? because in the communications infrastructure is virtually new and separate from the current infrastructure and will become part of the national network after the games. On the power infrastructure side of things, it seems that people have forgotten that the games site was originally a light industrial area and has a upgraded power system.
So, we have the situation where some companies and commentators are conducting blatant scaremongering about the games, when in fact every possible angle has already been covered and tested, they should be ashamed of themselves and instead of bleating and creating problems should be getting behind the games or indeed speaking to those that actually know rather than going into print!
Take this for instance, Network Overload, Power Disruptions where the report highlights potential problems during the games, except that the issues cited are not specifically to do with the games themselves and rather on poor DR and continuity management that is present at all times.
I've attended a number of events, organised by the BCS, with the Head of Service Delivery (BT) for the games and based on the architecture and support services that will be provided, I cant see any disruption to communications or for that matter power during the games, why? because in the communications infrastructure is virtually new and separate from the current infrastructure and will become part of the national network after the games. On the power infrastructure side of things, it seems that people have forgotten that the games site was originally a light industrial area and has a upgraded power system.
So, we have the situation where some companies and commentators are conducting blatant scaremongering about the games, when in fact every possible angle has already been covered and tested, they should be ashamed of themselves and instead of bleating and creating problems should be getting behind the games or indeed speaking to those that actually know rather than going into print!
Sunday, 22 April 2012
Comments Welcome
Here at Carbon3IT Ltd we're always looking for feedback on our services, products or views, so if you have any comments please get in touch.
Green IT Awards - Drinks with Snakes!
I've never had a drink with a snake, well actually I can think of a few individuals I have met with over the years that could be described as Serpentes or Ophidia, but never with an actually wriggling snake.
That was until last Thursday where the drinks and pre reception for the Green IT Awards was the reptile house at London Zoo, its quite unsetttling to be partaking of a glass of champagne under the watchful and to be honest baleful eyes of a long snake like creature, glaring as if to say "well, thank you very much, you come into my house, wake me up from my snooze and then you have the gall to drink in front of me!!"
Anyway, the awards were the usual mix of all encompassing "X of the Year, Y of the Year etc etc and I'm sure that all the receipients will be celebrating their inclusion into a green it hall of fame.
Well done to those that put their products or projects up for external assessment and received an award of some description, and commiserations to those that didn't win, there's always next year!
That was until last Thursday where the drinks and pre reception for the Green IT Awards was the reptile house at London Zoo, its quite unsetttling to be partaking of a glass of champagne under the watchful and to be honest baleful eyes of a long snake like creature, glaring as if to say "well, thank you very much, you come into my house, wake me up from my snooze and then you have the gall to drink in front of me!!"
Anyway, the awards were the usual mix of all encompassing "X of the Year, Y of the Year etc etc and I'm sure that all the receipients will be celebrating their inclusion into a green it hall of fame.
Well done to those that put their products or projects up for external assessment and received an award of some description, and commiserations to those that didn't win, there's always next year!
Monday, 16 April 2012
EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres - Practical Quantifiable Savings
Is it worth it? Thats the question Stephen Bowe Phipps, data centre manager of the University of Hertfordshire asked recently after accumulating and reviewing a years worth of energy data from the renewly refurbished RARE-IDC Data Centre, well you can see what Steve had to say on Steve's blog post.
But to my mind it speaks for itself, after a refurb costing about £400,000 the facilty now boasts a PUE of sub 1.3 (from it has to be said the upper 3.xx) is using substantially less energy and therefore carbon and the project has raised capacity.
So, implementing the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centre best practices will save you money.
We can offer advice and identify products that will assist you in making your data centre more energy efficient, push us and we may be able to help you become IT efficient too.
Full congratulations to Steve and his team at the University of Hertfordshire, if you can get nearly £200k of savings from a 75sqM data centre, imagine what you coud do with an enterprise class data centre.
Go on, you know you want to, get in touch with us soon to start your energy savings and green IT journey.
But to my mind it speaks for itself, after a refurb costing about £400,000 the facilty now boasts a PUE of sub 1.3 (from it has to be said the upper 3.xx) is using substantially less energy and therefore carbon and the project has raised capacity.
So, implementing the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centre best practices will save you money.
We can offer advice and identify products that will assist you in making your data centre more energy efficient, push us and we may be able to help you become IT efficient too.
Full congratulations to Steve and his team at the University of Hertfordshire, if you can get nearly £200k of savings from a 75sqM data centre, imagine what you coud do with an enterprise class data centre.
Go on, you know you want to, get in touch with us soon to start your energy savings and green IT journey.
Friday, 30 March 2012
PUE = 1
Well, next week I'm off to the 451 HCTS summit at the Russell Hotel in London followed by an Concurrent Thinking event on the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres. This has set me thinking this week about the real future for data centres. Many consultants in the field will talk about energy efficiency as being getting the PUE as close to 1 as possible and I note that there is an ongoing ratings battle between google and facebook about whose PUE is better, as if it mattered!
It doesn't, as we all know (don't we!) PUE is the ratio of the total energy into a facility divided by the amount of energy that is used by the compute function (if you don't know then visit the Green Grid website) http://www.thegreengrid.org/
This is expressed as a single number 2, or 3 or 1.16 or whatever, but it is NOT a measure of energy efficiency or indeed energy usage, it is just a number, and if I wanted to get pedantic I'd say that PUE is variable, as it actually is, because it is dependent on two factors, the first being the external temperature of the facility, as this links directly into the way your cooling system operates, warm outside, controls set to 21degrees, chilling will take place, 5 degrees outside, controls set to 21, no chilling takes place, thus colder outside less energy being used in chilling. So external temperature will affect your PUE, as will what your IT is doing, take for example 3 pm on the last Saturday before Christmas in a retail environment, lots of electronic transactions flowing through your payment systems, linked into your logistics systems for re-ordering etc, and you have a large IT load, contrast with 2am on a Sunday in August, do you think it's going to be anywhere near the same? Of course not, its going to be less or more depending on how your IT is used to support the business and the outside temperature, so PUE is variable and that delta could be quite wide so it amuses me to see the marketing spin put on the PUE figures. Another factor is two completely different organisations using PUE to trade insults "my PUE is smaller than yours" etc when their facilites are NOT comparable, a small retail chain for instance that has say 200 shops compared to a large cloud type search engine with multiple locations, but with huge facilities, say 100,000sq ft plus. The PUE cannot be used to compare, in fact the Green Grid website makes this very clear indeed, so marketing people huh? what can you do, well start by not spinning the truth would be a good start.
Anyway, I digress, the purpose of this blog is to think about those facilites whose PUE =1, WOW! 1 meaning that ALL of the energy in to the facility is going directly (do not pass AHU's, UPS, CRAC's Chillers etc, go directly to) IT. What does this mean? well it means that your facility is going to be using full fresh air, as it comes in from the outside, maybe with a filter to block those nasty particulates that reside in the atmosphere, and that you haven't provided any UPS's, so you're going to be at the will of your electricity company, and most importantly that you've saved money, and lots of it, and you continue to save it for every year that facility is operation (over your peers that is).
The capex costs of NOT providing resilience is something that you are going to have to explain to your IT and finance directors, ultimately its down to your risk appetite, can you withstand the loss of your facilities for the amount of time your power is down, do you have adequate backup, is your network resilient enough to go off site to a cloud facility to provide continuity? Do you in fact need to have compute on site? why not stick it all in the cloud and let them worry about the resilience, then because you only have network and the odd non cloudable app in your onsite facility, and you can get rid of that nasty HVAC system, that costs you the same as your IT to run and maintain.
If we all move to the cloud for our compute, we only need network, but that puts us in jeopardy, as we are now dependent on other organisations to support the platform that supports your business, its all down to risk.
I'll be at the event next week, please come and talk to me if you're there, it'll be emotional....
It doesn't, as we all know (don't we!) PUE is the ratio of the total energy into a facility divided by the amount of energy that is used by the compute function (if you don't know then visit the Green Grid website) http://www.thegreengrid.org/
This is expressed as a single number 2, or 3 or 1.16 or whatever, but it is NOT a measure of energy efficiency or indeed energy usage, it is just a number, and if I wanted to get pedantic I'd say that PUE is variable, as it actually is, because it is dependent on two factors, the first being the external temperature of the facility, as this links directly into the way your cooling system operates, warm outside, controls set to 21degrees, chilling will take place, 5 degrees outside, controls set to 21, no chilling takes place, thus colder outside less energy being used in chilling. So external temperature will affect your PUE, as will what your IT is doing, take for example 3 pm on the last Saturday before Christmas in a retail environment, lots of electronic transactions flowing through your payment systems, linked into your logistics systems for re-ordering etc, and you have a large IT load, contrast with 2am on a Sunday in August, do you think it's going to be anywhere near the same? Of course not, its going to be less or more depending on how your IT is used to support the business and the outside temperature, so PUE is variable and that delta could be quite wide so it amuses me to see the marketing spin put on the PUE figures. Another factor is two completely different organisations using PUE to trade insults "my PUE is smaller than yours" etc when their facilites are NOT comparable, a small retail chain for instance that has say 200 shops compared to a large cloud type search engine with multiple locations, but with huge facilities, say 100,000sq ft plus. The PUE cannot be used to compare, in fact the Green Grid website makes this very clear indeed, so marketing people huh? what can you do, well start by not spinning the truth would be a good start.
Anyway, I digress, the purpose of this blog is to think about those facilites whose PUE =1, WOW! 1 meaning that ALL of the energy in to the facility is going directly (do not pass AHU's, UPS, CRAC's Chillers etc, go directly to) IT. What does this mean? well it means that your facility is going to be using full fresh air, as it comes in from the outside, maybe with a filter to block those nasty particulates that reside in the atmosphere, and that you haven't provided any UPS's, so you're going to be at the will of your electricity company, and most importantly that you've saved money, and lots of it, and you continue to save it for every year that facility is operation (over your peers that is).
The capex costs of NOT providing resilience is something that you are going to have to explain to your IT and finance directors, ultimately its down to your risk appetite, can you withstand the loss of your facilities for the amount of time your power is down, do you have adequate backup, is your network resilient enough to go off site to a cloud facility to provide continuity? Do you in fact need to have compute on site? why not stick it all in the cloud and let them worry about the resilience, then because you only have network and the odd non cloudable app in your onsite facility, and you can get rid of that nasty HVAC system, that costs you the same as your IT to run and maintain.
If we all move to the cloud for our compute, we only need network, but that puts us in jeopardy, as we are now dependent on other organisations to support the platform that supports your business, its all down to risk.
I'll be at the event next week, please come and talk to me if you're there, it'll be emotional....
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
A Broadband Saga
Some of you may have seen some of my more vicious tweets to Sky and BT over recent weeks, and believe me they well deserved it, we were left without broadband services for over a month due to what can only be described as a complete and utter customer service failure.
Apparently, and I do not believe a word of it, Sky were unable to provide Broadband services at more than 0.3MB, this from a line that up until changeover from BT had been able to provide close on 2MB.
So, unwilling to go cap in hand back to BT to change back again we decided to see if any of the mobile broadband providers could offer us a deal.
Yes, it turns out they could, we had a 3 dongle for use on trips to London etc that was costing the company £14 odd per month, 3 upgraded the dongle to their new wifi dongle with speeds up to 20MB+ (when the cell is upgraded) which arrived when they said it would. We can connect up to 5 devices to it (which at the present time is more than enough) and we're getting more than 2MB at the present.
So, we've saved the £17 per month on the fixed broadband service, getting a faster upload and download speed and touch wood getting a better service and should get an even better service in the future.
If you're having problems with your broadband service, go see what the mobile providers can offer, you may be surprised.
Good Luck
Apparently, and I do not believe a word of it, Sky were unable to provide Broadband services at more than 0.3MB, this from a line that up until changeover from BT had been able to provide close on 2MB.
So, unwilling to go cap in hand back to BT to change back again we decided to see if any of the mobile broadband providers could offer us a deal.
Yes, it turns out they could, we had a 3 dongle for use on trips to London etc that was costing the company £14 odd per month, 3 upgraded the dongle to their new wifi dongle with speeds up to 20MB+ (when the cell is upgraded) which arrived when they said it would. We can connect up to 5 devices to it (which at the present time is more than enough) and we're getting more than 2MB at the present.
So, we've saved the £17 per month on the fixed broadband service, getting a faster upload and download speed and touch wood getting a better service and should get an even better service in the future.
If you're having problems with your broadband service, go see what the mobile providers can offer, you may be surprised.
Good Luck
Friday, 2 March 2012
Its getting better and better.
I'm creamed, absolutely creamed, since the start of the year I've been rushed off my feet.
First off, CEEDA, or the Certificated Energy Efficiency for Data Centres Award, this is a BCS initative and basically means that your data centre is assessed against a series of energy efficiency best practices that is closely linked to but not part of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, and I'm very sure that I've blogged about this previously.
Anyway, its gone mad, we have 5 assessments reserved, and at least another 5 where we are waiting on various contracts, board approvals or more information required. Its look like I'll be spending a lot of time overseas as well, as a number of potential clients are abroad.
Anyway, if you want your data centre assessed, contact me directly and I'll pas your details on to the engagement manager.
I was down at DCW this week, thats Data Centre World, met a lot of friends and business partners and was very well looked after by Simon Allen and Tom Absolom thanks guys!
Anyway, I'm going to cut this short and go look at a tender, as usual, no peace for the wicked.
Next Time..
First off, CEEDA, or the Certificated Energy Efficiency for Data Centres Award, this is a BCS initative and basically means that your data centre is assessed against a series of energy efficiency best practices that is closely linked to but not part of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres, and I'm very sure that I've blogged about this previously.
Anyway, its gone mad, we have 5 assessments reserved, and at least another 5 where we are waiting on various contracts, board approvals or more information required. Its look like I'll be spending a lot of time overseas as well, as a number of potential clients are abroad.
Anyway, if you want your data centre assessed, contact me directly and I'll pas your details on to the engagement manager.
I was down at DCW this week, thats Data Centre World, met a lot of friends and business partners and was very well looked after by Simon Allen and Tom Absolom thanks guys!
Anyway, I'm going to cut this short and go look at a tender, as usual, no peace for the wicked.
Next Time..
Monday, 13 February 2012
Are we Green?
This is an interesting question and one I'll leave up to you to decide, once you've gone through the list below:
Travel: Carbon3IT Ltd use a smart 42 pulse, this costs £30 to tax, £290ish to insure, £35 to fill up and we get around 300 miles to a tank depending on whether we' re driving locally or to a client.
For longer trips and always for trips to London we use the Chiltern Mainline, it would be rude not to, seeing as we have a railway station on our doorstep.
In our office we use an electric aga for cooking, but it also fills the kitchen with heat, and surprisingly energy efficient, it works like a fridge and keep to a set temperature, we've turned off the small oven as well.
Every light except 3 have energy efficient lightbulbs.
Our main heating and water are from LPG gas, stored in a tank outside.
We've also had 300 mm equivalent of insulation installed in the attic, this on top of 50mm of some pebbly stuff that is an insulator.
We have draught excluders on every door
What we intend to do is as follows:
We want to build an extension that will be zero carbon, with solar panels, underfloor heating and if we can we'll install either a GSHP or an ASHP, everything will be from sustainable sources and rest assured that we will keep everyone up to date via this blog, all we need to do now is to find some money.
Technology wise, we have a Very PC PC, this is the broadleaf model and it uses 66% less electricity than its competitors.
We also run Greentrac on all our PC's and have instigated active profile management that is quite agressive, if you're not using the pc for 10 minutes it'll go into an automatic low power state.
We also use automatic power strips for both the computer area and the tv area that will turn everything off if a master component like the TV or PC are switched off.
Our electricity bills are approx £1200 per year, our heating/water bills are about £700, intend to reduce this by as much as we can over the coming years.
We also think we deserve some recognition for our business activities which after all are to reduce IT related energy consumption, we do this with our consultancy services, our assessment services and our products supply services (Greentrac, Very PC, Concurrent Command & Control products)
We have reduced our electricity and heating/water bill by active management such as washing up less, turning off components when not in use, turning off lights etc, but we know we can do better.
Travel: Carbon3IT Ltd use a smart 42 pulse, this costs £30 to tax, £290ish to insure, £35 to fill up and we get around 300 miles to a tank depending on whether we' re driving locally or to a client.
For longer trips and always for trips to London we use the Chiltern Mainline, it would be rude not to, seeing as we have a railway station on our doorstep.
In our office we use an electric aga for cooking, but it also fills the kitchen with heat, and surprisingly energy efficient, it works like a fridge and keep to a set temperature, we've turned off the small oven as well.
Every light except 3 have energy efficient lightbulbs.
Our main heating and water are from LPG gas, stored in a tank outside.
We've also had 300 mm equivalent of insulation installed in the attic, this on top of 50mm of some pebbly stuff that is an insulator.
We have draught excluders on every door
What we intend to do is as follows:
We want to build an extension that will be zero carbon, with solar panels, underfloor heating and if we can we'll install either a GSHP or an ASHP, everything will be from sustainable sources and rest assured that we will keep everyone up to date via this blog, all we need to do now is to find some money.
Technology wise, we have a Very PC PC, this is the broadleaf model and it uses 66% less electricity than its competitors.
We also run Greentrac on all our PC's and have instigated active profile management that is quite agressive, if you're not using the pc for 10 minutes it'll go into an automatic low power state.
We also use automatic power strips for both the computer area and the tv area that will turn everything off if a master component like the TV or PC are switched off.
Our electricity bills are approx £1200 per year, our heating/water bills are about £700, intend to reduce this by as much as we can over the coming years.
We also think we deserve some recognition for our business activities which after all are to reduce IT related energy consumption, we do this with our consultancy services, our assessment services and our products supply services (Greentrac, Very PC, Concurrent Command & Control products)
We have reduced our electricity and heating/water bill by active management such as washing up less, turning off components when not in use, turning off lights etc, but we know we can do better.
This week.
Its quite busy, we're off to the renewable energy expo at Malvern tomorrow or Wednesday, more info on this link http://www.energynowexpo.co.uk/ and then Cambridge for a CEEDA assessment visit.
In the meantime, we have a previous CEEDA assessment thats needs a review, this is routine, all CEEDA assessments are passed to an independent audit for scrutinity, and we get together after the visit and the auditors review to check that we're all happy with the award offered.
The wife has an interview tomorrow for a position in Strategic Planning, hope it goes well, the job is right up her street and I know that she can make a difference to the organisation and all their properties.
The Child is away with the Gramps, and we should see her on Thursday.
Friday is a birthday and on Saturday we're all going to see "Swallows & Amazons" in Coventry.
Thats it, until next time.
In the meantime, we have a previous CEEDA assessment thats needs a review, this is routine, all CEEDA assessments are passed to an independent audit for scrutinity, and we get together after the visit and the auditors review to check that we're all happy with the award offered.
The wife has an interview tomorrow for a position in Strategic Planning, hope it goes well, the job is right up her street and I know that she can make a difference to the organisation and all their properties.
The Child is away with the Gramps, and we should see her on Thursday.
Friday is a birthday and on Saturday we're all going to see "Swallows & Amazons" in Coventry.
Thats it, until next time.
Friday, 3 February 2012
IBM Greenwash?
You may have seen some press releases from IBM stating that they have been "awarded" the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres" for some 27 data centres throughout Europe. more info on this link IBM Press Release.
Unfortunately, IBM are not being entirely 100% truthful with this statement and I am sure that other commentators will be on their case soon enough.
So, whats the issue?
Well, I'm sure IBM are working very hard within their data centres to reduce energy consumption and to implement many of the code of coduct best practices, but all the EU has done is to ratify an application by IBM to be a participant to the code of conduct, this takes the form of an application to the JRC for participant status and a committment by IBM to implement as many of the best practices contained within the EU Code of Conduct in a 3 year period, and to provide environmental data to the EU JRC yearly.
So, basically, its not an award.
An award would be, if IBM had instigated an independent body to assess their data centres to the required standard, had the assessment audited and had then been awarded a level of award by an appropriate body such as the British Computer Society.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
We applaud IBM for applying for recognition that they are intending to or have implemented the best practices as indicated in the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres but essentially this is a self assessment, we'd like them to go one step further and get these 27 facilities assessed for CEEDA, which is an independently assessed and audited review of how far they actually are in implementing the best practices.
Until that point in time, IBM are merely using their application to "greenwash" their environmental credentials, and whilst IBM actions have probably been taken with good intent and to aid the development of the EU Code of Conduct to a wider audience, it also boosts their own activities with a falsehood.
Carbon3IT Ltd could have stated that we were "awarded" endorser" to the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres back in July 2010 and this would have boosted our credentials, but we did not, we said that we'd been granted "endorser" status.
Unfortunately, IBM are not being entirely 100% truthful with this statement and I am sure that other commentators will be on their case soon enough.
So, whats the issue?
Well, I'm sure IBM are working very hard within their data centres to reduce energy consumption and to implement many of the code of coduct best practices, but all the EU has done is to ratify an application by IBM to be a participant to the code of conduct, this takes the form of an application to the JRC for participant status and a committment by IBM to implement as many of the best practices contained within the EU Code of Conduct in a 3 year period, and to provide environmental data to the EU JRC yearly.
So, basically, its not an award.
An award would be, if IBM had instigated an independent body to assess their data centres to the required standard, had the assessment audited and had then been awarded a level of award by an appropriate body such as the British Computer Society.
Unfortunately, this is not the case.
We applaud IBM for applying for recognition that they are intending to or have implemented the best practices as indicated in the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres but essentially this is a self assessment, we'd like them to go one step further and get these 27 facilities assessed for CEEDA, which is an independently assessed and audited review of how far they actually are in implementing the best practices.
Until that point in time, IBM are merely using their application to "greenwash" their environmental credentials, and whilst IBM actions have probably been taken with good intent and to aid the development of the EU Code of Conduct to a wider audience, it also boosts their own activities with a falsehood.
Carbon3IT Ltd could have stated that we were "awarded" endorser" to the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres back in July 2010 and this would have boosted our credentials, but we did not, we said that we'd been granted "endorser" status.
Tuesday, 31 January 2012
The pre- EUCoC/CEEDA assessment
Data Centres are defined in the EU Code of Conduct as any room/floor or building that is used to house compute/telecommunications equipment, that means even the humblest of server rooms can be considered to be a data centre under the code of conduct.
The EU CoC provides a series of best practices to adopt, to make your data centre more efficient, however participation is voluntary and the only thing you need to do is to send your environmental data to the EU every year. This data is then used to compile a report about data centre energy use throughout the EU.
In order to comply, organisations are requested to visit this page for further information:
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data_centers.htm
However, participation in the scheme does not mean that you are in fact an energy efficient data centre provider, all it means is that you have committed to implementing the best practices as contained within the code in a 3 year time period.
The BCS CEEDA award on the other hand, is comprised of elements of the EU CoC, the Green Grid's maturity model and the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Framework (DCEEF) and is only awarded to those organisations that have been assessed by an independent assessor to a strict set of guidelines. The assessment provides proof and evidence that a best practice has been and is continually reviewed by the operator, it is in essence a rubber stamp that you, as an organisation have actually implemented what you have said you would. The assessor seeks visual and documentary evidence and prepares a report that itself is sent to an independent auditor, who reviews the assessment.
Only after both the auditor and assessor agree as to the level (if any) of the award is it passed to the BCS who issue the award itself.
With the exception of enterprise data centres (over 20 racks) built over the last two years the majority of data centres will not comply with the EUCoC at present.
It is possible that the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency) will become a directive from the EU which will require legislation to be passed in the HP.
Carbon3IT Ltd are represented on the BCS Green IT and Data Centres special groups, endorse the EU Code of Conduct as consultants, are members on the "Best Practices" committee and are approved to conduct CEEDA assessments.
We offer a pre EU CoC/CEEDA assessment, a service that assists in getting your Data Centre ready for seeking participant status and to ensure that you will get a level of CEEDA award.
Please contact us directly for more information
The EU CoC provides a series of best practices to adopt, to make your data centre more efficient, however participation is voluntary and the only thing you need to do is to send your environmental data to the EU every year. This data is then used to compile a report about data centre energy use throughout the EU.
In order to comply, organisations are requested to visit this page for further information:
http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/energyefficiency/html/standby_initiative_data_centers.htm
However, participation in the scheme does not mean that you are in fact an energy efficient data centre provider, all it means is that you have committed to implementing the best practices as contained within the code in a 3 year time period.
The BCS CEEDA award on the other hand, is comprised of elements of the EU CoC, the Green Grid's maturity model and the Data Centre Energy Efficiency Framework (DCEEF) and is only awarded to those organisations that have been assessed by an independent assessor to a strict set of guidelines. The assessment provides proof and evidence that a best practice has been and is continually reviewed by the operator, it is in essence a rubber stamp that you, as an organisation have actually implemented what you have said you would. The assessor seeks visual and documentary evidence and prepares a report that itself is sent to an independent auditor, who reviews the assessment.
Only after both the auditor and assessor agree as to the level (if any) of the award is it passed to the BCS who issue the award itself.
With the exception of enterprise data centres (over 20 racks) built over the last two years the majority of data centres will not comply with the EUCoC at present.
It is possible that the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency) will become a directive from the EU which will require legislation to be passed in the HP.
Carbon3IT Ltd are represented on the BCS Green IT and Data Centres special groups, endorse the EU Code of Conduct as consultants, are members on the "Best Practices" committee and are approved to conduct CEEDA assessments.
We offer a pre EU CoC/CEEDA assessment, a service that assists in getting your Data Centre ready for seeking participant status and to ensure that you will get a level of CEEDA award.
Please contact us directly for more information
Greenprints
Greenprint's are our method of providing organisations with a action plan or roadmap to energy efficient Green IT within their buildings.
Effectively, we visit your site(s), speak to your IT and energy people and come up with an assessment of where you are now and the products, services and concepts you can use to get greener.
The initial assessment is free, yes, that's right free and will comprise a site visit and a report.
Our report will give you an idea of what you have now and where you could be.
The products are services we offer will form part of the report, if you need them.
Our mission is to reduce energy consumption from IT in your organisation. simples
Contact us for more information or to make an appointment for us to visit or for a draft report to be sent directly.
Effectively, we visit your site(s), speak to your IT and energy people and come up with an assessment of where you are now and the products, services and concepts you can use to get greener.
The initial assessment is free, yes, that's right free and will comprise a site visit and a report.
Our report will give you an idea of what you have now and where you could be.
The products are services we offer will form part of the report, if you need them.
Our mission is to reduce energy consumption from IT in your organisation. simples
Contact us for more information or to make an appointment for us to visit or for a draft report to be sent directly.
Monday, 23 January 2012
This week
I'll be on a webinar for the GHG protocol ICT sector guidance on Wednesday.
We're off to the Digital Birmingham conference on Thursday morning with our friends from SANFIRE IA.
In the afternnon we're off to London for a F2F meet with a major investment bank on Friday AM to discuss a CEEDA assessment.
We're pleased with the interest about the CEEDA award, as many of you will know the CEEDA assessement and award is very closely linked with the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency). (EUCoC)
Whilst the EU CoC is very much a voluntary code of conduct, the CEEDA award assesses how far organisations have actually implemented the various best practices in the EUCoC and therefore is a snapshot of how they are actually doing and not what they say they are going to do (The EUCoC has a three year window in which to implement as many of the best practices as you can).
We recently completed a CEEDA award for a major high street retailer and more are scheduled to be conducted over the coming months.
We cannot stress how useful the assessment and award will be to Data Centre owners and operators, an award will really show how committed an organisation is to energy efficiency and how this can be used as a marketing tool.
Further information can be found on our website and if you're considering requesting a CEEDA award please contact us first as we are able to conduct a PRE-CEEDA assessment that will give you a better idea of what you need to do and how you can attain a higher level of award.
Have a good week
We're off to the Digital Birmingham conference on Thursday morning with our friends from SANFIRE IA.
In the afternnon we're off to London for a F2F meet with a major investment bank on Friday AM to discuss a CEEDA assessment.
We're pleased with the interest about the CEEDA award, as many of you will know the CEEDA assessement and award is very closely linked with the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres (Energy Efficiency). (EUCoC)
Whilst the EU CoC is very much a voluntary code of conduct, the CEEDA award assesses how far organisations have actually implemented the various best practices in the EUCoC and therefore is a snapshot of how they are actually doing and not what they say they are going to do (The EUCoC has a three year window in which to implement as many of the best practices as you can).
We recently completed a CEEDA award for a major high street retailer and more are scheduled to be conducted over the coming months.
We cannot stress how useful the assessment and award will be to Data Centre owners and operators, an award will really show how committed an organisation is to energy efficiency and how this can be used as a marketing tool.
Further information can be found on our website and if you're considering requesting a CEEDA award please contact us first as we are able to conduct a PRE-CEEDA assessment that will give you a better idea of what you need to do and how you can attain a higher level of award.
Have a good week
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