With data centers, web giants have great eco-responsibility
It appears that not everyone whose job involves running a data center is ready to join the angry mob trying to discredit New York Times reporter James Glanz. Dean Nelson, vice president of global foundation services at eBay (s ebay), told me during a recent phone interview that although Glanz’s exposé on data center energy waste certainly didn’t present a complete picture about data center efficiency, it did spark a very necessary debate about how to responsibly scale in an age of always-increasing demand for computing resources.
When he read the first of Glanz’s two articles, Nelson said, “Literally, a movie quote came to mind … ‘With great power comes great responsibility.'” Internet companies need to use their immense technological prowess and bargaining power to make their chosen — and very lucrative — business as environmentally friendly as possible. Companies spend tens of millions of dollars, if not billions, trying achieve maximum…
View original 1,121 more words
