BBC Radio 4, Costing the Earth interviewed Ian Osborne, Director at Intellect for Grid Computing Now! KTN about virtual computing

15 April 2009

The BBC Programme Costing the Earth looks at man's effect on the environment and how the environment reacts, questioning accepted truths, challenging those in charge and reporting on progress towards improving the world. Ian Osborne, Director at Intellect for Grid Computing Now! KTN was interviewed by the BBC Radio 4 Costing the Earth about virtual computing.  Ian spoke about the real cost of IT bearing in mind the high demand for power in running data centres and computing.  He also gave an overview of the Green IT agenda along with the opportunities and challenges the industry faces.

A description of the programme is below and is set to air on 20 April 2009, according to the website: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4wn

The contribution to global CO2 emissions of huge ICT dataprocessing warehouses.

Using your computer for business, socialising online shopping and leisure saves massive amounts of energy, doesn't it? But do you ever stop to think where all that stuff we post on Facebook, YouTube and all over the web is actually stored? The answer is in dataprocessing warehouses the size of football fields, strung together by fat cables and inside which air-conditioning fans cool rows of computing servers 24 hours a day.

Far from being low energy, the expanding digital cloud is really an enormous web of steel, silicon and concrete. Technology analysts estimate that the manufacture, use and disposal of ICT equipment contribute around 2 per cent of global emissions of carbon dioxide, about the same as aviation. As the use of ICT grows, its emissions are likely to increase despite improvements in efficiency. It is estimated that ICT will be responsible for 3 per cent of global emissions by 2020.The programme finds out how it works and why the City of London is running out of power for its IT use.

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