The British Computer Society (BCS) has welcomed the publication of a European code of conduct for data centre operators.  BCS sees this as a sign that the industry is beginning to address the issue of carbon emissions which current forecasts compare to the level from the aviation industry.

Bob Harvey, chair of the BCS carbon footprint group, says: “This is a vital step forward for the industry in encouraging IT management and data centre operators to focus on the appropriate issues for data centres. This is one of the key issues for the industry today and in the future.”

The code has been developed in consultation with many different organisations including the BCS Data Specialist Group which has led the discussion about best practice for the code. The group, which recently published a white paper, has been independently involved in the development of metrics for data centres operators.   

The BCS white paper follows the announcement earlier in the year of a joint BCS, Carbon Trust and Romonet project to develop an open source simulation software tool to help companies understand the energy use within data centres.

Bob says: "The BCS believes that it is important to develop an effective understanding of IT energy use and the development of best practice to improve efficiency.  This is something that we as a professional body for IT practitioners are working very hard to achieve. We have set ourselves the goal of developing best practice guides in several areas of IT and are now working to achieve these goals. In addition, the BCS internal IT department is committed to adopting this code.”

“The white paper and simulation tool will provide the level of detail necessary to understand the per service energy use and impacts on ROI of energy optimisation as well as providing IT professionals with the tools and understanding to make their own informed decision on whether a proposed product or action is 'green'.”