14 DAY TRIAL // The renown Hewlett-Packard is soon to cut down on its use of energy by approximately 30% and reduce its dependence on the national power grid by a staggering 80%, all thanks to its brand new Net-Zero Energy Data Center. Designed by some of the company's own researchers, this data center allows for the use of energy coming from local renewable sources.
As well as this, it is quite capable to come up with a management plan for these resources: it distributes workloads according to what type of resources are most available at any given time.
Thus, if certain non-critical tasks are performed using solar energy, then they are scheduled for when the sun is the brightest, and if other non-pressing activities are based on wind power, then they are to be carried out when this type of resource is the most available.
As environmentalleader.com explains, this means that Hewlett-Packard can now “toy” with the company's energy demands and make them match resource availability. Thus, the company no longer needs to spend significant amount of money on energy bills, and also adds something to environmental protection.
Official reports indicate that Hewlett-Packard's workload planning involves four major modules.
First, there is the prediction module, which deals with anticipating what resources are most likely to be available at a certain point in time and with figuring out which tasks need to be performed either sooner or later.
Then they have the execution module, which takes care of matching the resources with the activities identified during the first step.
Thirdly comes the execution model, which, as the name itself suggests, is in the business of making sure that everything is done with according to plan.
Lastly, any faults made in the previous three stages are analyzed by means of a verification and reporting module, so as to make sure that similar mistakes will not be made in the future.
Hewlett-Packard's Net-Zero Energy Data Center strikes us as a more than welcomed endeavor, seeing how the issue of natural resources management has of lately been coming up quite often, both amongst environmentalists and some ordinary citizens.
As giving as Mother Nature might be, it is our firm belief that we should make sure not to waste whatever resources it decides to throw at us.