Green computing continues to prove itself as a means of helping companies reduce their environmental impact while cutting costs. However, "going green" can't be achieved through plug-and-play simplicity -- particularly in a complex technological ecosystem such as the datacenter.
In an effort to provide datacenter architects with some guidance in making their datacenters greener, the latest edition of Microsoft's freely downloadable Architecture Journal focuses entirely on green computing.
Topics in the issue include a look at the Genome research project, in which a wireless sensor network uses heat distribution data to optimize datacenter design and server provisioning in order to avoid overcooling the entire datacenter (which saves energy and money).
There's also an article on power-efficient application design, looking at tools that help architects achieve scalability while reducing energy waste.
Additionally, the issue has a piece about the maturity of virtualization practices, as well as an article about how tracking energy consumption at every level of an organization will become a factor of success for "green architecture practitioners."
Finally, there's an article describing how Microsoft SQL Server consolidation initiative, which the company says is contributing to effective resource utilization and environmental sustainability.