[CAnet - news] How R&E optical networks can help reduce CO2 emissions

For more information on this item please visit my blog at 
http://green-broadband.blogspot.com/ or http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com
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 [I am prompted to write this blog by the recent decision of the BCnet board
to adopt a Green Broadband strategy.  As far as I know the British Columbia
research and education optical network is the first in the world to adopt
such a program as part and parcel of their disaster recovery and
virtualization planning. Not only will this initiative have enormous
benefits for the BC university research community it will also provide
significant advantages to BC businesses and government. 

BCnet and other optical R&E networks are starting to realize that they can
play a critical role in helping mitigate the impact of CO2 emissions from
cyber-infrastructure and other carbon intensive facilities on university
campuses.

Many universities are spending millions of dollars on building new
facilities to host the demand for new cyber-infrastructure equipment that is
essential to the future of scientific discovery. A big part of the cost of
such facilities is the new electrical and air conditioning systems required
to power and cool these systems respectively, which of course has a large
carbon footprint.

But rather than building carbon intensive data centers on campuses, some
leading edge universities are starting to look at relocating these systems
to zero carbon data centers which may be at distant sites off campus, or
even sharing these facilities through grids across several campuses.  Not
only does this reduce the carbon impact of such systems, it also provides
for disaster recovery in the event of major disruptions such as earthquakes,
fires, etc

Many university computer clusters are often under utilized. But by sharing
these facilities though grids and other means their carbon impact can be
significantly reduced. And in some cases universities, Virtual Organizations
or R&E networks can earn real dollars through carbon offsets, by sharing
these facilities and increasing their overall utilization.

Of course, all of this is only possible, if the universities are attached to
a high speed optical research network.  Relocating or sharing
cyber-infrastructure systems off campus only works if researchers and
students can still have the same performance and throughput as if these
facilities were located next door on campus.  This can only be achieved by a
high speed optical network.

And yet collaboration and sharing of cyber-infrastructure is often a tough
sell to many researchers, even though many recognize it is the future of
science and research. The inertia in the way they currently carry out their
research can be a powerful disincentive to move to the world of
cyber-infrastructure.  But saving the climate may provide a more compelling
moral incentive to these researchers to encourage collaborate and share
these cyber-infrastructure facilities in the exciting new world of eScience
and eResearch.  So universities and research networks like BCnet who
implement green broadband strategies can help accelerate their researchers
to move to the world of cyber-infrastructure and leading edge science--BSA]


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These news items and comments are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect
those  of the CANARIE board or management.


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web: www.canarie.ca/~bstarn
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blog: http://billstarnaud.blogspot.com/


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