Ecolibrium November 2009 Archives

Greening your Data Center - New Book

Not sure if you’ve seen it yet but a great book for anybody trying to define what a “Green” data center means and take steps  towards migrating to one.  I’ve known Doug Alger for about 4 years now, he is a Solutions Architect within Cisco IT.  Doug does is a rare breed, he has a strong facilities background but is employed by an IT operation.  Doug often jokes that if Facilities and IT departments had no issues in planning and management, his job would go away.  I was privileged to provide technical editing for this book and from what I know in the industry, I believe it is the best work today in providing a resource base to build upon.

Since there is no such thing as a Green Data Center today (in a purist sense), this book addresses what steps you can take and what standards are their to move towards one.  This is a great book to not just read once but refer back to in building your plan.

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Posted by Rob Aldrich at 01:16PM PST

Higher Education Goes Green with Cisco TelePresence

As often is the case, institutes of higher education are at the forefront of innovative ways to solve problems.  Melding technology and sustainability is a natural area where they’ve taken the lead: read the cover article in the current issue of EDUCAUSE Review.

I’m here at the EDUCAUSE 2009 Annual Conference, where some of higher education’s best and brightest information technology thinkers meet and collaborate about ways to enhance and extend learning.

A lot of them have adopted Cisco TelePresence, not only as way to create new educational and business models, but also as a way to be more sustainable. 

The more conventional way to be sustainable with Cisco TelePresence is to reduce travel between various campuses.  Take a look at what conference attendees had to say about that in this video:

 

But there’s another twist.  

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Posted by Irene Sandler at 10:59AM PST