Green Data Centre Initiative Launched By SNIA

At its biannual conference in Dallas, the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) unveiled its Green Storage Initiative Emerald programme, which will eventually lead to the release of its Emerald Power Efficiency Measurement Specification.

This is similar to other data centre standardisation efforts already in play, such as those in operation by the Green Grid’s Data Centre Efficiency programme, the US government’s Energy Star programme, the Uptime Institute, and AFCOM’s data centre instructional programmes.

Focused On Green Storage

The Emerald initiative, planned to launch in 2011, focuses more closely on the storage side of the data centre. SNIA, whose main job is to standardise cloud storage and power efficiency standards for enterprise storage systems, has posted a website that vendors and other interested organisations can use to prepare for the forthcoming public release of the power efficiency measurement specification.

SNIA chairman Wayne Adams, a senior technologist at EMC, said the Emerald programme is designed “to provide a vendor-neutral power efficiency test measurement specification and serve as a clearing house for sharing the results of using the specification. The Website will provide the resources needed to learn about, evaluate, test and share storage system power usage and efficiency.”

There is a fee to participate in the Emerald programme. SNIA members pay about $300 to download and use the specification and to post their power efficiency measurements to the Website. Non-members will pay about $500 to do the same. The money will go toward “sustaining the programme’s infrastructure”, Adams said.

The SNIA Green Storage Initiative manages Emerald by providing input and guidance to the Green Storage Technical Working Group (GS-TWG) and general marketing of energy efficiency activities within the SNIA and the storage-networking industry.

SNIA is a non-profit, international organisation of manufacturers, systems integrators, developers, systems vendors, industry professionals, and end users.