Clean Energy, Google Is Ready To Take The Plunge. Are You?
As Google has moved a step ahead towards clean and green energy by purchasing wind power for its Oklahoma data center, the IT world is standing again in front of a question. A question which has been here for a long time, but in a muted mode, has again hit the news headlines. It’s about the IT world vs. clean energy. Since the adverse effect of using too much of fuel or coal energy is bare to all and sundry, the Information Technology industry often comes under the scrutiny.
You may know that this IT industry is standing tall because of all the servers and data centers which are deployed for an eternal run. And to make sure that this colossal performance never comes to a halt, immense power back up is assured by the companies. At any cost they should maintain the 24x7x365 service happen around the clock. This urgency of the situation is considered responsible for such an enormous fuel and coal power consumption worldwide. In the last quarter of the decade, IT honchos spent a lot of time discussing about the problem and brainstorming to find a proper and viable solution.
With the announcement of Google, it has become apparent that world has got its answer. Last Wednesday, Google made it clear that it has finally taken the initiative which was in their plan for quite a long time. Being one of the leading advocates of green energy, it has tried and tested different means of solar or wind or biogas energy to run its offices as well as data centers. And finally, it directly bought power to run its Oklahoma data center.
This milestone setting action by Google has certainly raised the question for other internet companies who are still running their data centers and businesses upon conventional energy resources. Are they ready to follow the path set by Google by embracing clean energy and saving the earth from running out of its natural resources? All it needs is the will to set up a clean energy plant as a part of business infrastructure (like Apple making its own solar power farm) or buy the same from some reliable provider against a lofty premium amount which can raise the cost initially.
The world is yet to see who steps forward and follows Google and Apple in becoming a wise and socially responsible IT giant, and when?
By Durba Sengupta
