OAKLAND, Calif. — The Green Grid has unveiled strategies to help data center managers assess energy use, while at the same time gaining a few new members to help drive efficiency in the IT sector.

The Green Grid is an industry-led consortium trying to improve data center and IT energy efficiency that is holding its first technical forum this week. There, the non-profit introduced four research driven tools to help companies address their IT-related energy needs.

The first piece of research, "Addressing Organizational Barriers to Managing Efficiency," offers guidance in addressing and overcoming split incentives between facilities management and IT.

The second is a baseline efficiency market study that examines the state of the industry and the factors driving companies to battle data center power consumption.

A third piece of literature is a peer review of a study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory that looks at high voltage direct current in the data center. A fourth research item presents strategies to immediately improve server and data center energy efficiency.

Western Digital Corp., a hard drive supplier, joined The Green Grid Tuesday. A day earlier, the Distributed Management Task Force Inc. (DMTF) joined The Green Grid to help further the interoperability of data center technologies.

The Green Grid will pursue technologies DMTF developed to unify management of distributed computing environments. Call Web-Based Enterprise Management, the technologies will form the basis of the interfaces The Green Grid eventually defines.

"By combining the technologies and expertise in systems management of DMTF with the data center expertise of The Green Grid, we have a unique opportunity to provide seamless management of heterogeneous IT and non-IT equipment to further our goals of improving energy efficiency in the data center," Green Grid Director Tom Bradicich said.