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.