Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA) announced the publication of PoC (proof of concept) paper providing guidelines for validating the concepts outlined in the ODCA Carbon Footprint and Energy Efficiency Usage Model. The PoC is developed on the basis of a study conducted by ODCA in association with its members from Datapipe (News - Alert), BMW and Verne Global. The study was focused on understanding how organizations deploying the cloud infrastructure can measure and optimize their carbon footprint using ODCA Carbon Footprint and Energy Efficiency Usage Model. A public flash webinar will be hosted by ODCA during mid-December to assess the outcomes of the study published in the PoC.
In a release, Marvin Wheeler, Executive Director at ODCA, said “The ODCA Carbon and Energy Efficiency PoC released today is a valuable resource for any organization looking to measure and reduce CO2 emissions across the entire cloud ecosystem and an important document for helping enterprises meet government energy efficiency mandates and corporate sustainability goals. We congratulate BMW, Datapipe and Verne Global for taking a leadership role in the development of the Carbon and Energy Efficiency PoC and for demonstrating how enterprises worldwide can leverage ODCA usage models and requirements to deploy greener and more energy efficient cloud services.”
The PoC outlines the test cases, outcomes and the advantages of assessing the carbon emissions from cloud IT operations from three different perspectives - data center operator (Verne Global), cloud service provider (Datapipe) and consumer of cloud services (BMW). The PoC provides organizations with a detailed framework for comparing the carbon emissions from products supplied by different vendors and identify the ideal solution for reducing their carbon footprints.
Speaking of the PoC, Susanne Obermeier, Global Data Center Manager, BMW Group, said “From the standpoint of BMW, the proof-of-concept testing confirmed that equitable comparisons of an enterprise's carbon footprint can be successfully obtained at a cloud subscriber level. The documented techniques and approach in the ODCA carbon footprint PoC should provide a valuable framework for other organizations to track, measure, and report the carbon emissions linked to their data center activities.”
The other participants in the PoC development include representatives from Intel (News - Alert), Atos, T-Systems and National Australia Bank. The paper has references to the Digital Service Efficiency (DSE) methodology from eBay and the metrics published by The Green Grid (News - Alert) Association.
ODCA is an independent consortium floated by leading players in the IT industry for creating sustainable data center requirements.
Edited by Cassandra Tucker