Who will be the new Carbon Data Center target for Greenpeace?

I take it for granted that the Green Data Center idea has caught on.  DatacenterDynamics published an article about Interxion being powered by 100% green energy.

Interxion purchases 100% green energy for Zurich data center

Increases reductions in emissions by purchasing elecricity generated by renewables

Published 8th July, 2011 by Penny Jones

Eddy Van den Broeck, managing director of Interxion (Schweiz) AG

Interxion has chosen to use 100% ‘green energy’ for its Zurich data center, signing up to receive electricity produced by solar and hydroelectric power from energy provider Energie Opfikon.

The colocation provider was already using some hydroeclectric-generated energy from the company, but had recently undergone an expansion which led it to take on the 100% offering.

But that doesn't mean everyone thinks having a green (low carbon) data center is important.  Some have said the cloud is greener, but Greenpeace pointed out cloud data centers have carbon impacts.

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I have some ideas who would be the next potential targets for Greenpeace identifying a high carbon data center.  We'll see if I can figure out who the next Greenpeace data center target is.

I wrote two years ago, thinking the targets where Apple, Google, or Microsoft, but Facebook surprised us all as the data center target for Greenpeace.

My guess is it is going to be someone who we wouldn't expect as all the big data center operators have low carbon data center strategies.

Checklist expert, Boeing's Dan Boorman who from Data Center industry will contact him?

Reading the Checklist Manifesto which I posted about last month, there is a discussion how the author Atul Gawande contacted Boeing to find a checklist expert.

Here is the Boeing pdf about Boeing's checklist expertise.

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Along with his primary responsibilities, Boorman is the contact for organizations outside of aviation that want to benefit from
checklists. He has worked with the FBI, the American Society
of Radiation Oncologists, Northwestern Memorial Hospital in
Chicago and the Washington State Hospital Association.
One of the most important beneficiaries of Boeing’s checklist
knowledge is the World Health Organization. Using ideas learned in
part from Boorman and the Flight Technical & Safety team, a study
of eight hospitals around the world showed that major complications for surgical patients decreased 36 percent after the introduction of checklists. Deaths fell by 47 percent. The World Health
Organization now is creating and distributing checklists worldwide

I think I am going to reach out to some people who would be interested in meeting with Boeing's checklist expert, and organize a meeting.

Living in the Seattle area, I am surrounded by Boeing people and my kids are fans as well.  Here is an old picture from their photo shoot for a Boeing Store poster.

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Is ITIL being used as an excuse to slow change?

In many enterprise discussions ITIL is assumed.  But when have you ever heard Google, AWS, Facebook, Twitter, or Zynga say their success is built on an ITIL framework.

Here may be a reason why the most agile companies don't use ITIL.

ITIL and other IT management frameworks can take our genetic tendency to say "no" and codify it. "You want a new application installed? Well, you're going to have to go through the Change Management Process." Dilbert's pointy-haired boss couldn't have come up with anything better. Users who ask for the simplest things can be told "no," simply because the Rules support that position. Worse, in many companies, admins who step out of the change management framework to help a user with something small are chastised, written up, and put at the bottom of the list for promotions and interesting projects.

The author doesn't hate ITIL.

No, I'm not trying to beat up on ITIL. It's actually a pretty solid, comprehensive framework for managing IT. Given that most of us weren't doing much better of a job, ITIL offers some universal structure. My problem is that ITIL pretty muchabhors change. No, not on paper -- on paper, ITIL manages and controlschange. In practice, IT organizations use ITIL as a blunt instrument to haltchange.

How many of you have run into people who are all into process, and don't really focus on the business impact?

In Pacific NW, 1 nuclear plant is more expensive to maintain than 31 hydro-electric plants

Washington State has one nuclear power plant that is up for renewal.

Seattle Times science reporter

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RICHLAND — When Washington's only commercial nuclear-power plant applied for license renewal last year, the timing seemed charmed. Hailed as a clean alternative to carbon-belching coal and gas, atomic power was poised for a renaissance.

Operators at the Columbia Generating Station near Richland were so bullish on the technology they talked about expanding with small, modular reactors.

In another Seattletimes article discussing the cost and benefits of nuclear power, the maintenance cost is mentioned.

Looking only at operating and maintenance costs, Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) puts the price at 3.6 cents per kwh. Hydropower costs about 2.8 cents per kwh.

BPA has had to boost rates — including a proposed 8 percent increase for 2012-13 — to pay for upgrades at the nuclear-power plant. According to a 2009 BPA analysis, it costs more to maintain and operate the Columbia Generating Station than all 31 of the hydropower plants in the Columbia Basin combined.

But the plant provides about 10 percent of BPA's electricity, which would have to be replaced if it were shut down.