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10: Green IT Case Studies for Universities and a Large Company 163

centers, finding an average of 1.21, with one test facility going as low as
1.13. A perfect PUE would be 1—all the energy going into a data center is
used for IT functions instead of support infrastructure. Some of the details
released on the Microsoft container-based data centers include information
that Microsoft is using standard-sized shipping containers that can each
house as many as 2,500 servers. Containers have the potential to drive signif-
icant cost benefits and green benefits. The use of containers is one method of
expanding data center infrastructure to help prevent overbuilding. The com-
petition among IT vendors on PUE results for their data center designs will
continue to help drive innovation in the designs.

Columbia University Green IT and
New York City Green Plan

This case study is based on information provided by Alan Crosswell,
Associate Vice President and Chief Technologist for Columbia University’s
Information Technology. In addition to Alan, the other members of the
Columbia team who contributed to the information were Victoria Hamilton, ptg
Lynn Rohrs, and David Millman.
The Columbia University green data center analysis involved many of the
unique green IT issues within a large research university. (For example, each
research project often has its own servers in its own labs because the funding
model works best that way.) In addition, the green IT analysis included New
York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ten-year plan for New York City on
reducing carbon emissions by 30 percent based on 2007 levels. Columbia
University has committed to that 30 percent reduction even in the face of
greatly increased growth in High Performance Computing (HPC) require-
ments fueled by the worldwide research community.
The implementation of much of the Columbia University green data cen-
ter strategy is just getting underway as of early 2009. Because the main idea
behind this book is to first look at the business and environmental aspects of
green IT with the technical (engineering) aspects secondary, the Columbia
University green IT case study fits this goal and should be of value not only
to other universities in their pursuit of green IT, but also to all groups look-
ing at the road to green data centers.
As discussed at the beginning of this chapter, Columbia University’s chal-
lenge of getting the many different administrative and research groups to
agree to share computer resources is similar to the challenge faced at most