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.

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