James Riley
Monday, 22 March 2010 12:42
IT Policy -
Government Tech Policy
Page 1 of 2
The Rudd Government has applied a carbon reduction target to the Commonwealth's energy-intensive data centre operations for the first time, acknowledging its fast growing demand for information systems.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has told a CeBIT conference in Sydney the Australian Government was by far the biggest data centre operators in the country – larger than the Big Four banks combined – and that environmental and sustainability issues were now priority considerations for data centre strategy.
Mr Tanner said the Commonwealth had estimated its data centres generated 300,000 tonnes of carbon each year. The government's goal is to reduce that carbon output by 40,000 tonnes annually in five years.
"The data centre strategy focuses on both the efficiency of the data centre and of the ICT infrastructure itself," he said.
"The two are inseparable – when the ICT infrastructure uses less electricity, it generates less heat and thus less electricity is required for cooling."
Under the 15-year data centre strategy announced by Mr Tanner this morning, departments and agencies have to measure and report annually the energy consumption of their data centres and their ICT infrastructure.
"The strategy makes it clear that the 'green credentials' of a data centre site and its infrastructure will be a major consideration in the Government's future procurement of data centre services," Mr Tanner said.
