14 DAY TRIAL // Going green is the latest thing to do in the computing industry. Consequently, we are seeing several major companies resorting to a more energy-efficient business plan, which takes care of several aspects, including infrastructure. Search engine giant Google is one of these companies that are currently transitioning their business plan to greener solutions, helping protect the environment. The Mountain View, California-based giant is investing big in its environmental efforts, which puts it among the leading companies to resort to such actions.
Google explains that the reasons behind the decision to go green go beyond the moral aspects of environmental issues, and extend to the financial side of the opportunity. According to the company, going green is also good for business, as the solution helps the company save money on a yearly basis. Obviously, without detailing the location and exact number of servers planned, Google does like to brag about its green server initiatives, which is why it has even released a dedicated website, where it can do just that.
As per Google, the green initiative means that “in the time it takes to do a Google search, your own personal computer will use more energy than we will use to answer your query.” As a demonstration, the website even includes a graphical representation, showing the electricity requirements of Google's servers and data centers, as compared with other servers and data centers.
Among the solutions adopted for making its business greener, Google includes using a water cooling system that features an evaporative cooling process to cool the hot wastewater, in addition to using partly dirty sewage water. Furthermore, the search engine giant also claims to recycle all of its servers when it retires them, with 68 percent of the lot being repurposed. After providing a number of other ways it has dived into a greener business plan, the company concludes by stating that it saves $30 per server/per year by adopting green technology.