(By Info-Tech Analyst Nauman Haque – Printed with permission from Processor magazine www.processor.com).

"Green" has solidified itself as the new buzz word for 2007. Call it the Al Gore effect or a response to the rising cost of energy, but everyone is thinking about going green. The data center is no exception. While data centers have been one of the last places you'd expect to see a green label applied, this time there's a significant motivator: money.

Not Your Granddaddy's Granola

Green isn't just for tree-hugging, granola-crunching environmentalists. Everyone from traditional environmentalists to governments, economists, and utility companies are onboard. Dell, HP, IBM, and others are jumping on the bandwagon with marketing campaigns targeting the green data center. But what does this really mean? Can an always-on, mass energy-consuming, electronic-waste-producing data center really be green?

A recent Greenpeace report highlighted the shortcomings (and successes) of several prominent electronics vendors on such criteria as environmental policy, management of toxic chemicals (including PVC and brominated flame retardants), and electronic waste recycling. But it's clear from the hype in the industry that this is not what is meant by those rallying...