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Greening the Data Center: Improve Energy Efficiency

As energy costs begin to compete with the cost of maintaining the underlying hardware, IT decision makers no longer have the luxury of being complacent towards issues of power consumption and energy management. Any data center can be improved in regards to energy efficiency, cost efficiency, and environmental responsibility.

From the Executive Summary of the report:

Data centers inherently conflict with the green movement: they operate in an "always on" state, consume copious amounts of energy, and use equipment containing toxic chemicals that can harm health and the environment. But all of that is changing. Rising energy costs coupled with growing power requirements, new advancements in technology, and changing attitudes towards the environment are causing enterprises to rethink their data center power strategies.

The first part in this three-part series looks at what IT can do to improve overall energy efficiency and reduce power requirements. Key topics include:

• Rising energy costs.
• Data center energy consumption.
• Power supply efficiency.
• Emerging energy standards for servers.
• High value, energy-saving tips for the data center.

Leading enterprises, vendors, analysts, governments, environmentalists, and even utility companies are all onboard when it comes to maximizing energy efficiency. It makes sense – save money and save the environment.

Download the report for free from InfoTech.com.

Changing x86 Server Market Leads to End of Itanium Development at Microsoft

Microsoft has announced it will no longer support further development for Intel's Itanium processor, putting the products it currently has on the market into maintenance status for the next three years and ending support in eight years.

Dan Reger, senior technical product manager at Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), made the announcement in a blog post on Friday. Windows Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 R2 and Visual Studio 2010 will be the last versions of those products to support the Intel Itanium architecture.

Current support for Itanium will remain unchanged. Mainstream support for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems (and R2) will end on July 9, 2013 while extended support will continue until July 10, 2018.

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Windows 7 fuels demand for desktop support staff

Businesses upgrading to Windows 7 fuelled an increase in demand for project and desktop support staff last month, according to recent study.

In its 'Professional talent spotlight – March 2010' report, recruitment consultancy Badenoch & Clark noted the demand as organisations planned upgrades to Microsoft Windows 7, having "snubbed" Vista.

Badenoch & Clark also noted trends in sectors such as the NHS and financial services.

In the NHS in general, it said there was a particular demand for information analysts, data migration experts, and in some areas, network and server engineers.

"A number of systems upgrades and restructures in the NHS in the Midlands in particular have led to increased demand for permanent network and server engineers," said Matt Gascoigne, associate director, IT at Badenoch & Clark.

"Preference within NHS trusts for fixed term contracts over contracts is continuing," he added.

In the financial services sector, Gascoigne said that 70 percent of organisations in the sector have been forced to change their IT systems in light of new regulations within energy trading and risk management.

"Consequently, we're seeing an uplift in demand for IT professionals with experience of OpenLink, TriplePoint or SolArc," he said.