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Use open source platforms to find cloud computing’s energy and emissions footprint

Regular GreenMonk readers will be very aware that I am deeply skeptical about claims that Cloud Computing is Green (or even energy efficient). And that I talk about the significant carbon, water and biodiversity effects cloud computing can have. One of the biggest issues with any claims of Cloud Computing being energy efficient, or Green, [...]

Can IBM continue to support blatant sexual discrimination?

I’ve always admired IBM’s achievements in the diversity and equality arena. Some of their milestones down through the years include: In 1914, 76 years before the US Disabilities Act, IBM hired its first disabled employee. In 1942 IBM launched a disabled employee training program. In 1943 Ruth Leach Amonette was elected IBM’s first female Vice [...]

IBM based mobile, crowdsourced-reporting application helps schools speed up repairs

Attending IBM’s Pulse 2012 event this year I was again struck by how much IBM’s Maximo is used in maintenance management applications. And why do we care about that you ask? Well, keeping machinery properly maintained, and alerting if machines go out of tolerance for certain parameters (energy consumption spikes in refrigeration plant, fuel or [...]

The Switch SuperNAP data centre – one of the most impressive I’ve been in

If you were going to build one of the world’s largest data centre’s you wouldn’t intuitively site it in the middle of the Nevada desert but that’s where Switch sited their SuperNAPs campus. I went on a tour of the data centre recently when in Las Vegas for IBM’s Pulse 2012 event. The data centre [...]

Using Mobile Endpoint Management to prolong smartphone battery life?

Endpoint management is a term I came across relatively recently at a Symantec event – it refers to software used to manage client computers, laptops, and servers in an organisation (the endpoints of the network). Endpoint management software does things like automating the rollout of updates, manages licensing of software and often has a role [...]

With great power comes great responsibility – or, Cloud companies need to get on-board

With great power comes great responsibility This great quote from the movie Spider-Man, is just as true for technology, as it is for superheroes. Technology has made possible tremendous changes in our quality of life in the last couple of decades. Everything from surgery to transportation, education to construction, space exploration and most other fields [...]

Is Cloud Computing Green?

I gave the keynote address at the Digital Trends 2011 event organised by HePIS and CEPIS in Athens recently. My talk was on Cloud Computing’s Green Potential and in my presentation, I claimed that Cloud Computing is NOT Green. I started the talk by explaining what Cloud Computing is and the many advantages it can [...]

IBM launch Intelligent Water for Smarter Cities

Intelligent water is the latest addition to the IBM Smarter Cities portfolio. in the world’s cities are growing at an astounding rate. For the 1st time in history, over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas. Over 1 million people are moving into cities every week, and it is estimated that by [...]

Potent Social Media Strategies for Utilities

I gave the closing keynote at the SAP for Utilities conference in San Antonio recently. I requested a video of my presentation, and I had it transcribed so I could post it here. Good afternoon everyone. I’m painfully aware that I am the last thing standing between you and wine tasting, so I’ll try and [...]

Smarter cities – cities of almost any size can now go digital, with all the efficiency gains that brings

I attended an IBM Smarter Cities analyst event last week, and it was, not surprisingly, very interesting. What is the whole rationale behind making cities smarter? Well, there are a number of factors. For one, the world’s population has doubled in the last 40 years (from 3.5 billion to almost 7 billion). And with the [...]

Carbon Disclosure Project’s emissions reduction claims for cloud computing are flawed

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a not-for-profit organisation which takes in greenhouse gas emissions, water use and climate change strategy data from thousands of organisations globally. This data is voluntarily disclosed by these organisations and is CDP’s lifeblood. Yesterday the CDP launched a new study Cloud Computing – The IT Solution for the 21st [...]

Computer storage systems rapidly taking on the energy efficiency challenge

In the video above, Dave Wright, founder and CEO of SolidFire makes the point that what with ARM-based servers, OpenCompute, etc. there has been a lot of breakthroughs on the computing side of servers, to make them more efficient recently, but very little innovation has happened with storage systems. Predictably he’s gone after storage modernisation [...]

Top 14 IBM achievements in the last 100 years

IBM turned 100 earlier this month – a significant achievement for any company, but for one in the constantly shifting sands that is the technology industry, it is particularly notable. As part of the celebrations, they released the video above outlining 100 of their achievements during that time. The video is beautifully executed and it [...]

Deeply embedding social media and gamification into utility companies

Energy 2.0 at Visualizar11 View more presentations from Tom Raftery I was asked by the MediaLab Prado to give an updated version of my Energy 2.0 talk at their Visualizar11 – Understanding Infrastructures event in Madrid during the week. I took the opportunity to update the deck with some of the thoughts I presented at [...]

IBM’s Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities announcements

Smart buildings are a topic I’m interested in and so I devote significant coverage to them on this blog. One of the reasons for that is that, for example, in the US alone, buildings are responsible for about 70% of the energy consumption and for about 40% of the greenhouse gases emitted and by 2025, [...]

Learnings from Google’s European Data Center Summit

I attended Google’s European Data Center Summit earlier this week and it was a superb event. The quality of the speakers was tremendous and the flow of useful information was non-stop. The main take home from the event is that there is a considerable amount of energy being wasted still by data centers – and [...]

HP publishes paper on enabling next-generation cities

Ha! No sooner do I criticise HP for being shy about their work on Sustainability than I start to receive all these great links to stuff HP is doing in this space – result! Overnight I received news that HP has opened a new research facility to advance sustainable data center technologies (more on which [...]

IBM Partner companies discuss Smarter Buildings and collaboration

I had a chat with some of IBM’s partners – Eaton‘s Dave Davidson and Tridium‘s Marc Petock, at IBM Pulse 2011 about the state of Smarter Buildings, and Smarter Cities today and the requirement for collaboration to achieve their possibilities. Unfortunately I messed up the setup of the camera cutting off my head from most [...]

IBM’s Dave Bartlett on his vision for Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities

I had a chat with IBM’s Dave Bartlett while we were both at at Pulse 2011 about the state of Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities today and their possibilities. I posted the first part of it yesterday – in today’s post, we discuss the future for Smarter Buildings and cities Here’s a transcription of our [...]

Have HP’s senior executives lost interest in Sustainability?

I attended a HP analyst summit last week in San Francisco and I have been putting off writing down my impressions of the event because I was, frankly, very disappointed. Writing recently about HP’s announcement of their new Energy and Sustainability Solution, I noted that HP’s new CEO Léo Apotheker’s legacy from his time at [...]

IBM’s Dave Bartlett talking today’s Smarter Buildings

I had a chat with IBM’s Dave Bartlett while we were both at at Pulse 2011 about the state of Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities today and their possibilities. Here’s a transcription of our conversation: Tom Raftery: Hi everyone! Welcome to GreenMonk TV. I am here with Dave Bartlett. We are at IBM’s Pulse 2011 [...]

I want one of those cute energy dashboards IBM and HP are touting for my home

Above is a screenshot of one of the slides from HP’s webinar announcing their new Energy and Sustainability Management solution. What is most interesting about it for me is that, front and center there is a focus on Facilities and Buildings. We have already seen that IBM has identified Smarter Buildings as one of the [...]

Friday Green Numbers round-up for March 11th 2011

And here is a round-up of this week’s Green numbers… Progress Energy investing approximately $520 million dollars in smart grid technologies IBM today announced that it has been selected by Progress Energy as the lead systems integrator for the utility’s smart grid program. Together the companies will transform Progress Energy’s networks by improving power efficiency, [...]

IBM Pulse and Smarter Buildings/Smarter Cities

I attended IBM’s Pulse conference last week and the big surprise for me was the amount of attention being paid to Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities. With 600+ sessions over six parallel tracks it is only to be expected that there be some Smarter Building content but at this event Smarter Buildings and Smarter Cities [...]

Green bits and bytes for Jan 27th 2011

. Some of the Green announcements which passed by my desk this week: This year’s annual Transmission & Distribution Europe and Smart Grids Europe conference will be held in Copenhagen from 12-14 April. More than 30 utilities, as well as utility experts, regulators and technology giants from all over Europe, as well as the USA, [...]