http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ Green This Life Discussion Forums: Last 35 Posts en Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:30:08 +0000 http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/topic.php?id=4#post-6 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:56:32 +0000 ecoRich 6@http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ <p>I have posted a couple of blog entries about green computing and promised to share my research and findings. I am finding that there are tremendous efforts being made by hardware manufacturers, ISP/Hosting companies, and software developers to reduce the energy used by computer infrastructure. There is one technology that I believe is going to blow the lid off of this subject and yield tremendous gains. That technology is virtualization.</p> <p>You can't open a business and technology section of a newspaper or periodical without someone singing the praises of virtualization. Virtualization is the process by which one physical machine is made to do the work of many different machines. The technology runs a virtual machine (VM) host on a physical machine. That VM host houses instances of other machines that run in a emulated mode on the physical machine that simulates more then one physical machine. This issue is hard for some people to grasp. We in the software development field have been using it in one form or another since the 1980s. I wrote an article in a Windows NT technical journal while working at Symantec that touched on the technology introduced by Intel into their CPUs (the central processing unit, or brains of the computer) that support virtual 386 mode where the CPU could take a block of memory and make it look like a separate 386-based computer. I pioneered some early uses of this technology long before the full power of this would be understood. Someday I’d like to connect the dots to the work I did in the mid-80s and how it helped fuel the current expansion of virtualization. But that discussion is for another time!</p> <p>How does virtualization help to be more green? Imagine a typical web site: Many web sites are build using multiple computers to handle different functions. For example, a common web system topology is called an n-tier system where "n" equals the number 2 or greater. A typical n-tier system may have one or more web servers answering requests from users surfing to the web pages. These web servers typically have the presentation logic to render the html to the user's browser. Another set of app servers may contain the business logic that has the various business rules that comprise the web site’s operation. Yet another tier may contain the database that stores the data consumed by the app tier. Assuming one machine for each tier, that is a minimum of three machines to actually implement said website. In reality few web sites use only one machine at each level. They typically have at least two to handle traffic bursts or hardware failure of one of the machines.</p> <p>In virtualization, one or more of these logical tiers are hosted on a single physical server. You could literally run all three tiers on a single server with a powerful CPU. Intel, AMD, IBM and others are shipping CPUs with dual, quad or more “coresâ€?. A core is like another processor inside the CPU. The Apple computer I am typing on is a Mac Mini with Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor with two computing cores. Although the mechanics of managing virtualization at the hardware level are complicated, using virtualizations is simpler then you can imagine. A popular Mac program called Parallels allows me to run Apple’s OS X, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Linux all simultaneously on this tiny mini computer. WOW! It took me about 4 hours to set this configuration up.</p> <p>While developing the Greenthislife.com site I used virtualization on my Mac Mini and my MacBook extensively to provide a rich environment complete with web server, database, and development platform. Instead of 3 or 4 different machines I did it on one. You may ask “how is this possible?â€? The answer lies in the increasing power of the CPUs and increasing size of RAM and hard disk space. 5 years ago this technology was technically possible but not quite feasible. Now I don’t know of a single developer who doesn’t use this in some form.</p> <p>By now it is probably obvious how this is “greenâ€?. Less physical machines means less power consumption, less heat generated, less materials used to make the hardware, less materials to recycle when the machine is retired. I have begun to collect statistics and run experiments, but I will make the bold statement that virtualization is poised to be one of the most significant ways to reduce the ecological impact of web sites, business applications, and entertainment systems. </p> <p>There really is a lot to discuss on this subject, but I wanted to throw the idea out there to get people thinking. Feel free to contact me if you want to analyze how virtualization can help you save energy, hardware, space, and other precious resources. And of course, numerous open source solutions exist so the cost of virtualization can be very low. In fact, I have worked on recent projects where the choice to virtualize systems saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars. Isn’t it just grand when something can be good for the environment and good for your business? That is the classic definition of a win-win relationship. I intend to blog on this subject and provide consulting. Some materials will be posted here, others on my personal website richsad (dot) com. You can email me at rich (at) richsad (dot) com. A new virtual reality is coming to town and boy is it green! </p> http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/topic.php?id=4#post-5 Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:45:57 +0000 ecoRich 5@http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ <p>Apparently I am not the only person thinking about green computing initiatives. I came across this article kicking off the new year with some encouraging news about green initiatives across the industy. Please checkout </p> <p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080104/tc_nm/show_environment_dc_2;_ylt=Ajg8oRGmkWefWZ._wY4jb38E1vAI" rel="nofollow">http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080104/tc_nm/show_environment_dc_2;_ylt=Ajg8oRGmkWefWZ._wY4jb38E1vAI</a></p> <p>Please share your thoughts on how to save energy, reduce waste, and recycle computer components.</p> <p>In regards to Boston's Fenway Park and it's Green Monster wall, Roger Angell:</p> <p>“… the Wall giveth and the Wall taketh away.” </p> http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/topic.php?id=4#post-4 Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:15:06 +0000 ecoRich 4@http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ <p>Hi folks. My name is Rich Sadowsky and I am a software developer/executive. I contributed many hours writing some of technology on <a href="http://www.greenthislife.com." rel="nofollow">www.greenthislife.com.</a> You can read about other technologies I've invented/implemented on my personal website at <a href="http://www.richsad.com." rel="nofollow">www.richsad.com.</a></p> <p>I am doing research and writing on the subject of Green Computing. By "Green Computing" I mean tips, techniques and technologies to make computer usage more eco-friendly. I have some very innovative ideas that I plan to prototype in the near future and publish the results. </p> <p>It's a safe bet that when I am ready to share my thoughts this will be the first place I post them. I have enjoyed working with Michelle, Trevor (Dr. Cates) and Rebecca on this website and I look forward to seeing the community develop.</p> <p>"It's not easy being green."<br /> Kermit, the frog </p> http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/topic.php?id=2#post-2 Sun, 28 Oct 2007 11:00:47 +0000 admin 2@http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ <p>this is a test </p> http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/topic.php?id=1#post-1 Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:31:22 +0000 admin 1@http://www.greenthislife.com/wpmu/bbpress/ <p>First Post! w00t. </p>