Cardiff University hosts conference on Sustainable IT
3 July 2008
Pictured, left to right: Dr. Chris Dickson, Dr. Hugh Beedie and Prof. Peter James
Cardiff University recently hosted a prestigious national JISC conference on sustainable IT.
The event was entitled ''Sustainable IT in Universities and Colleges - Energy Efficient Configuration, Cooling & Power Supply in Data Centres''.
It was a very successful event, with around 60 delegates from across the UK coming to Cardiff University's Main Building, to discuss the latest solutions in minimising the environmental impact of computing data centres.
Hugh Beedie, Chief Technology Officer for Information Services (INSRV) and Advanced Research Computing @Cardiff (ARCCA), gave a presentation on the design of the new ARCCA supercomputer and its state-of-the-art computer room.
Hugh outlined the many ways that the ARCCA facility has been designed to minimise its electricity consumption, making the ARCCA suite one of the greenest and most cost-effective data centres of its type. He also showed that this was an example of where ''going green'' could also save money for an organisation. The question and answer session, fielded by Hugh and INSRV colleagues, showed the attendees had a very keen interest in learning from our experiences.
There were other talks on energy efficiency during the day, as well as opportunities for networking, and exchanging best-practice and new ideas.
Other attendees from Cardiff University included Tony Morgan, Steve Lloyd and Chris Dickson from Information Services, and Huw Lynes and James Osborne from ARCCA, all of whom were involved in designing and building the ARCCA facility in partnership with ARCCA, INSRV and Estates colleagues. John Newton of the University's Finance Division was also in attendance. Chris Dickson is INSRV's Senior Consultant for Research and Environmental Development, and is responsible for the overall coordination of INSRV's environmental agenda.
The one-day event, held on 19 June, was organised by the JISC-funded SusteIT project (Sustainable Information Technology in Tertiary Education). The conference was chaired by Peter James, Professor of Environmental Management at the University of Bradford, who is also the Co-Director of HEEPI (Higher Education - Environmental Performance and Improvement) and the Director of the JISC SusteIT project.
Read a summary of the day's event