Being environmentally aware has become one of the most sought after goals of many companies. Colorado Colocation facilities have decided to jump on that bandwagon, as well.

By using more emission-efficient power systems components, using environmentally friendly building materials and the latest technology in cooling, humidification and water purification systems all ensure that Colorado Colocation facilities are at the top of the list when it comes to "Going Green".

This has become such an important subject that now universities are even offering courses on going green for IT centers.

Colorado Colocation ""facilities should be built with strategies to create energy efficiencies, minimize energy consumption, and maximize energy savings potential. ..data center should offer redundant power supplies to the building itself as well as A and B power feeds to your hosted servers using switches to ensure immediate switchover from one feed to the other if the power fails..." (www.denver-hosting.info)

If you are a Colorado Colocation center owner, have you measured your facility's PUE lately? PUE stands for "Power Usage Effectiveness". The equation "PUE = TFP/IEP", where TFP = "Total Facility Power" and IEP stands for "IT Equipment Power", will tell you how much of a carbon imprint you are currently leaving behind. (www.datacenterandcolocation.com)

In the effort of reducing emissions and better performance, some Colorado Colocation centers have opted for using environmentally friendly power sources such as wind powered data center facilities.

Colorado Colocation companies are also focusing on their cooling systems as a means of reducing emissions. ".striving to become one of the nation's "greenest" data centers, recently installed an environmentally responsible cooling system. They chose a Trane Voyager (http://trane.com) unit which incorporates an outdoor air economizer that uses free mountain air to cool the data center." (www.redrocksdatacenter.com) The system cuts down the company's cooling cost "to one-sixth of its previous consumption using conventional air conditioning." (www.web-hosting-top.com/rrdc)

Ultra-sonic humidification systems are now being used, as a green replacement for steam, in Colorado Colocation facilities. Ultrasonic humidification "provides an efficient method for evenly distributing humidity throughout the data center. In addition to the equipment we have put in place, we have a highly engineered airflow structure in place that forces cool air through the front of your equipment and reclaim the heated air as it exits. This is done with strict adherence to "hot" and "cold" isles within the data center." (www.sherpalink.com)

Your Colorado Colocation company also has alternative options to being eco-friendly. "There are tons of "carbon neutral" hosting companies out in the market right now. To be "carbon neutral", a hosting company need to have a net zero carbon footprint - gained by balancing the amount of CO2 released with an equivalent offset. There are numerous ways to implement this offset. One is by swapping what is lost - for a lot of companies this means getting involved in reforestation programs. Yet another method to offset is by funding projects that lead to the the avoidance of future greenhouse gas emissions, or by buying "carbon credits" to remove them through "carbon trading.

Other alternatives which Colorado Colocation centers should consider are using the heat which the centers emanate to heat other structures such as homes, greenhouses, etc., "Notre Dame's idea of heating a greenhouse with the waste heat from an on-campus data center, now containerized near the greenhouse. The historic greenhouse was in serious danger of being shut down because of all the energy required to heat it, and what with the constant struggle to deal with all the heat produced in a data center, this seems like a pretty ingenious symbiosis which Notre Dame has achieved.data centers which have been used to heat offices and swimming pools. Also, recently in the news, was the data center under construction underneath a cathedral in Finland, the waste heat of which is going to be used to heat homes in the area." (Elizabeth English, www.teamsilverback.com)

Environmental concerns have escalated to such a degree that now even universities such as UC Berkley Extension are offering courses in "Green IT Project Management: Data Center Energy Efficiency. This course is designed for CIOs, CTOs, Director of ITs, IT managers IT service providers, facility managers, facility engineers, utility managers, energy consultants, green building consultants, corporate social responsibility managers and sustainability officers who want to learn the energy savings cost-benefit potential of appropriate Green IT technology and strategies. This will also be of value to policy makers, investors, IT equipment manufacturers and mid career professionals who wish to enter or advance their career track in this emerging field." (www.extension.berkley.edu.com)

The ideal Colorado Colocation facility would emulate the pattern set by Syracuse University, who "recently opened a new Data Center that is being described by IBM as the "greenest" yet. The new 12,000 square foot facility that recently opened offers a comprehensive approach to energy efficiency and incorporates a micro-turbine engine fueled by natural gas, absorption chillers, the reuse of waste heat in nearby buildings , DC power distribution to power the IBM z10 mainframe, high efficiency 415 V 3-Phase power to power the devices within the cabinets, and rear-door liquid cooling for each cabinet. This new data center will serve as a test bed for energy efficient data center design, back by technology from IBM and financial support for the state of New York and is expected to use 50% less energy than a typical data center." (www.servertech.com)

When it comes to what we want to leave for our children and their children, you can make a difference even within technology." (www.ezinearticles.com)