A recent report from the UK independent analyst firm Verdantix, focused on energy, environment and sustainability, reminds us that many large users of data centres are not reporting the energy aspects of their data centre use in their sustainability or environmental reports.

According to Verdantix, only 4 of the 14 major internet and social networking firms in the study – Akamai, Apple, eBay and Google – disclose GHG emissions from their data centres on a global basis. Us Department of Energy reports that data centres now consume as much as 3% of total US electricity use.  The internet and social networking firms have their own reporting issues, but companies that are using large outside data centres should be reporting their share of data centre energy use as if it were their own. Those have have large in-house data centres may or may not be reporting the associated energy use, depending on how they measure their energy use.

More importantly, reporting of data centre energy use should be leading to greater energy efficiency. Energy ratings are becoming a more important component of IT system marketing. Greener IT is very much part of the future and GallonDaily recommends that all companies seeking a more sustainable path forward take a good look at what can be done to reduce their in-house and external data centre energy use.

For information on the Verdantix report visit http://www.verdantix.com/index.cfm/papers/Press.Details/press_id/59/verdantix-says-the-world-s-largest-internet-and-social-networking-firms-need-to-fix-