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Data centers are power-hungry, and ultimately lead to significant emissions. So one way or another, they'll be affected by regulations such as cap-and-trade ones related to CO2.
That has at least one influential technology leader blowing the horn against regulation. Mike Manos, senior vice president of technical services at Digital Realty Trust, and formerly the general manager of Microsoft's datacenter division, claims in his blog that federal green laws related to data centers are on the way, and warns:
Whether you view this to be a good thing or bad thing its something that you and your company are going to have to start planning for very shortly. This is no longer a drill.Manos makes clear that he thinks this is a bad thing, and he issued a call to arms of sorts. He wants to establish a formal lobbying group to curtail any government involvement in data center regulation:
As an industry we need to start involving ourselves in educating and representing the government and regulatory agencies in our space. While the Green Grid charter specifically forbids this kind of activity, having a Data Center industry lobby group to ensure dumb things won't happen is a must in my opinion.I can understand Manos' concerns, but I think he's on the wrong track. The federal government is very unlikely to issue strict green regulations related to data centers. And if they do regulate them in some way, the regulations will no doubt be reasonable. The current administration is very technology-savvy --- after all, the current Secretary of Energy Steven Chu was recently the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose work was heavily dependent on its data center. Chu did some great work related to Green IT when at the labs. He knows what can and can't be done --- and will make sure that data centers aren't hamstrung with unnecessary regulation.
Climate
Government regulations almost anywhere are bad…
the regulations will no doubt be reasonable
Are you kidding? Regulations by the government are rarely reasonable or logical. Let the market dictate needs for data centers, it's the only logical way to go. Green is fine once it becomes something that the market wants. Why force green? It will end up costing people and hurting the economy (which is already in shambles), we need to have less governmental regulation especially now.
Gov't regulation of data centers
I don't see direct federal government regulation of data centers either. Mike commented on direct regulation becuase that's what they will be seeing in the UK and he had just returned from a meeting there. Here in the US, there is a more ambitious plan in the works. Why bother targeting individual market segments when you can target the entire economy in one fell swoop through cap-and-trade? Every consumer of electrical energy will pay more for their electricity when the utilities pass the cost of compliance down to the consumer. Consumers of large amounts of electrity, such as data centers, will pay in large amounts.