Wednesday, 13 February 2013

EUCOC Workshops

Following on from our previous blog posts, the workshop event brite page is now up and running, you can find it on this EUCOC Participant Workshops.

We've decided on 3 dates as follows:

London, to be held at Intellect on the 28th March and 11th April

Manchester to be held at the Manchester Conference Centre on the 4th April

Places are limited to 10 delegates per workshop.

You'll need to bring your laptop and be armed with some info about YOUR data centre as we will be going through the entire application form and filling it in with the information that is required by the reviewer.


Monday, 4 February 2013

The Costs of EUCOC

I'm often asked about the costs of participating in the EUCOC, so I decided to get things down on paper (well in this blog anyway).

With the  EUCOC, it costs nothing to submit an application to the EC JRC team to get your Data Centre listed as a participant to the code, however the application form can be a tad tricky if you've never seen one before and if you don't have the required information to hand, this adds time mostly internal.
From my estimates it will take an internal resource about a week (not cumulative) to gather together all the info required to submit the form, it can take up to 6 weeks to ask questions of the facilities guys, the IT guys and the IT director.
Filling out the form once you've gathered all the info will probably take about a day.
So, using a conservative £250 per day of internal resource cost, you looking at least £1500 (6 x £250) just to gather and submit the information and that is an absolute minimum.

So, how to minimise the costs of making a EUCOC application and ensure that it will not get rejected due to a lack of information (one the biggest rejection points is people telling the EC JRC that certain elements of the best practice have been implemented but not actually telling us how)?

Well, the obvious best way is to get somebody within your organisation trained up specifically in energy efficiency skills from various Data Centre training outfits, such as DCD and C-Net, this will cost approximately another £1000 on top of the internal resource costs.

But, here at Carbon3IT Ltd we think that a better way to help would be to run a workshop that looks at the specific things you'll need to complete an application, and to provide application assistance through a follow up visit on site (if taken) so we've partnered with Concurrent Thinking Ltd to develop a EUCOC workshop which will be held in London on the 28th March and 11th April and in Manchester on the 4th April.
The costs of the workshop is £495+ VAT and we'll be releasing the booking form (via eventbrite) shortly
We're restricted these events to 10 delegates and there is special pricing available for the early birds (20% off), if you'd like the discount code and for further information please contact us on info@carbon3it.com.

The workshop will take you through each element of the EUCOC Application form, and you'll be safe in the knowledge that your form will totally compliant to the requirements of the EUCOC and you'll hear tips and tricks to minimise energy consumption in your data centre, whats not to like?

The course is aimed at anyone who has a data centre and wants to reduce energy consumption, it will also be suitable for any organisation that is intending to provide services to G-Cloud or services to the public sector, this is due to HMG endorsing the EUCOC (See separate Blog Post), this means that Govt will be seeking participation for all data centres that will be providing new services from April 2014.

As LOCOG put it in the summer before the London 2012 Olympics, get ahead of the game(s), get your data centre(s) approved as EUCOC participants before you need to.


Friday, 1 February 2013

GDU, Cloud Expo, & GHG Protocol Update

Time for our weekly update.
Its been a busy week and I'll deal with it in order, firstly on Monday I was invited to give a very brief presentation to the Green Delivery Unit (which is a group set up by the UK Government to deliver the "Greening Government ICT Strategy") on the subject of the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres Energy Efficiency.
The strategy states that all government departments will be endorsers to the code by April 2013 and participants to the code for all new services delivered by a Data Centre or cooled server room from April 2014 and they wanted to get a handle on what this actually means.
We were very please to advise them that as endorsers they are required to promote the code as follows (extracted from the endorser guidelines (available here)

Endorsers Commitment
General Principles:


1. Organisations eligible to become Endorsers include:
• Vendors
• Consultancies (design, engineering, maintenance and service companies)
• Utilities
Customers of data centre services
• Industry Associations/Standards bodies (e.g. ASHRAE, BCS, national ICT industry
associations).
• Educational institutions


2. They are expected to utilise the Code of Conduct in order the develop products, solutions
and programmes to enable data centre owners and operators to meet the goals and
expectations of the Code of Conduct.
3. Furthermore, some organisations that intervene in some aspect of the design, building or
operation of data centres may take actions which contribute to the overall Code of Conduct
goals of improving the energy efficiency of data centres. The nature of these actions will of
course be dependent upon on the organisation's activities, for instance;
• a manufacturer of IT or air-conditioner components might develop specific material to
help raise user awareness of energy efficiency issues, or might introduce or encourage
use of high efficiency products
• engineering consultancies might develop specific guidelines (based on the list of best
practices) to ensure that energy consumption is taken into account in the design
process
• a trade association might develop an "Energy Efficiency Charter"
• a training or educational institution might emphasise and extend the treatment of
energy efficiency
• an electricity company could instigate a specific Data Centre Demand Side
Management programme
• Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) might develop financing instruments adapted to
Data Centres
4. Organisations that support the aims of the Code of Conduct and endeavour to persuade
their clients, suppliers or members to sign the Code of Conduct and commit to some of the
above actions may sign up as Endorsers of the Code of Conduct.
Code of Conduct on Data Centres – Endorser Guidelines -- Version 2.0, 20 November 2009
7
5. The Code of Conduct recognises the contribution to be made by Endorsers such as
manufacturers, consultants or industry bodies. 


Best practice commitments for customers of data centre services;
1. Promote best practice and procurement standards
2. Use Code of Conduct participant status and best practice adoption as part of
procurement processes
3. Promote the Code of Conduct
4. Promote the Code of Conduct best practices
5. Support Research Development & Delivery
6. Consider and campaign for standardised international metrics and standards.





So what does this mean for those organisations that are providing or thinking of providing data centre or cloud services to UK public sector bodies, well in a nutshell, you'd better get ready to become a participant to the EU Code of Conduct, it is very likely and in fact is already an item on the G-Cloud framework (albeit one that is not a determining criteria) that service providers will need to be participants. Bear in mind though that the EUCOC is still a voluntary programme and other determining criteria may apply, one thing that Government is considering is the use of the BCS CEEDA award to determine the energy efficiency status of a data centre more information here.
The CEEDA award is given to data centres that have been externally assessed and audited in a two stage process, the assessment covers a portion of the EUCOC and proves that energy efficiency measures have been witnessed to be in place within the facility.
So, consider the above to have been a "heads up" and my advice is to get ahead of the game.


Next, we visited the Cloud Expo Europe exhibition at Olympia, I wasn't expecting to see so many data centre operators on site so I took the opportunity to speak to them about energy efficiency in general and the EUCOC and CEEDA specifically, it was refreshing to see that all of them were considering participation or undertaking a CEEDA assessment in the next year, so the message is obviously getting out, begs the question why aren't all data centres signing up to these programmes, some must be running scared as they either haven't installed or implemented the best practices or they operate in such a bubble that the programmes aren't on their radars, and that's probably worse.
I managed to get invited to a few after show parties so a few drinks were consumed.


Last night I received a email advising that the latest revision of the GHG Protocol ICT sector guidance has been released for public comment, Carbon3IT Ltd are on the Stakeholder Advisory Group and through our work with the BCS DCSG have made comments on the Cloud and Data Centre chapters, the full guidance document can be downloaded from here

So that's been our week, as usual we've been accumulating knowledge and networking with our peers, I'd like to thank all the people I met at the Cloud Expo Europe, please do get in touch with us on info@carbon3it.com or visit our website and use the contact page if you need any further assitance on anything #greenit.
We've got a few things that we need to catch up on over the weekend so we'll be busy but we love it.
Until next time.....

Saturday, 26 January 2013

Green Data Centres, how would you know?

Many data centres state that they are "Green" and sometimes use the dreaded PUE metric to support their claims, but what can you do to determine whether a data centre, colocation or hosting facility is "Green"?
Well, first off, a data centre is never going to be the greenest thing on the block, the inherent nature of them dictates otherwise, after all we talking about a building that houses IT equipment in a permanent state of readiness. Thus Data Centres normally have duplicate power, cooling and networks to provide us, the users a 24/7/365 technical environment in which to share, transmit and store data.
But, it is possible to reduce a Data Centre's energy consumption using a number of techniques, equipment and strategies available today and there are two accreditations you should look for if you plan to move your data centre into an external facility.
The first (within Europe, but becoming more widespread around the globe is the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres - Energy Efficiency) the EUCoC as it is known is a series of best practices that cover:

Section 3 - Data Centre Utilisation, Management & Planning.
Section 4 - IT Equipment & Services
Section 5 - Cooling
Section 6 - Data Centre Power Eqiupment
Section 7 - Other Data Centre Equipment
Section 8 - Data Centre Building
Section 9 -Monitoring
Section 10 - Practice to become minimum expected
Section 11 - Items under consideration

Any data centre can participate in the scheme, in fact many do implement and follow the best practices without becoming participants in the scheme, but if you do then you do need to commit to implementing as many of the best practices as you are able to in a three (3) year timeframe and to provide initial environmental and energy data with your application and then continue to provide this information in a yearly basis (monthly reporting).

More information on the scheme can be found EUCoC

So, ask your intended data centre supplier if they are participants in the EUCOC as then you will know that there are serious about being Green and using as less energy as they can.

But, even being a participant in the scheme is not the best you can get as it is a largely self assessed, and even with the best will in the world, some operators will commit to the programme and then decide not to proceed with the implementation due to financial or operational reasons, so what you really need is an independent external assessment of the facility that you can use as a decision point in your thinking.

There is only one global energy efficiency award programme currently operating today and it is the "Certified Energy Efficiency for Data Centres Award" known as CEEDA and you can find out more information here CEEDA
If a data centre has a CEEDA award of whatever level (they are assessed as Bronze, Silver or Gold) it means that an independent assessor has visited site and actually seen the best practices implemented in situ, spoken to senior management and has seen evidence that they are operating a very high standard of energy efficiency within the facility, this is then written up in a report that is then sent to an auditor who conducts a second review, only when the auditor is satisfied that a facility meets these high standard is an award granted.
The actual assessment is to a series of the EUCOC best practices covering all of the elements as listed above, further information on the criteria can be found on the CEEDA website.
Current CEEDA holders, include banks, retail, IT and educational organisations in the UK and Australia, and each week more and more companies seek CEEDA certification and are arranging to be assessed, make sure that your intended co location, hosting or Managed Service Provider has or is seeking to be accredited to a CEEDA and you can be sure that they are "Green"

PS, Carbon3IT Ltd provide assessment services to both the above schemes and are currently in conversation about the extension of both into the UK Government.
We feature on the UK G-Cloud for "Green IT" services including assistance with preparing for your EUCOC Application and PRE-CEEDA, A review to ensure you get as high an award as is possible prior to your assessment.
Much more information can be found on our website www.carbon3it.com, our social media feeds, search for @Carbon3IT on twitter and our facebook/linked in pages.
We also in the final stages of providing workshops on how to complete your EUCOC application, these will be held in London and Manchester in March & April 2013, these will be limited to 10 delegates for session initially and further information will appear on this site and our social media feeds.
Contact us on info@carbon3it.com for more information and to book your place

Monday, 31 December 2012

Happy New Year

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.

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.

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.