IBM opened its new data center in February of 2010 in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The 100,000-sf facility supports cloud computing and operates on half the energy required for a conventional data center. The facility features reduced technology infrastructure costs while delivering improved quality and speed of services. LEED Gold sustainable design certification will be sought for the project.
IBM initiated construction in December of 2009 on a $57 million data center in Manukau City, New Zealand. Located in the Highbrook Business Park in East Tamaki, the 56,000-sf facility will feature energy efficient technologies and systems. The high reliability data center will support cloud computing. Completion is expected in late 2010.
Syracuse University opened the $12.4 million Green Data Center in Syracuse, N.Y., in December of 2009. Created in partnership with IBM and the state of New York, the 12,000-sf facility is comprised of 6,000 sf of infrastructure space and 6,000 sf of raised-floor data center space. The Green Data Center features energy-efficient IBM servers and an on-site power generation system for electricity, heating, and cooling.
Dell has implemented strategies to reduce energy consumption that will result in $5.8 million in annual savings. By year-end 2009, the company will have cut global energy consumption by 48 million kilowatt hours per year.
Construction of the $38-million WSU Vancouver Applied Technology Classroom Building will begin this year.
The University of Illinois broke ground on the $72.5 million Petascale Computing Facility at the National Center for Super Computing Applications in Urbana-Champaign in November of 2008. The 95,000-sf Blue Waters Data Processing Center will include a command center, offices, loading docks, and a system administration center. A 20,000-sf water-cooled machine room with a six-foot raised floor will hold the IBM Blue Waters supercomputer and other systems.
Hewlett-Packard will build a 150,000-sf technical support center in Conway, Ark. Site work will begin for the $30 million project in August of 2008. The general contractor is Conway Development Corp. LEED certification for sustainable design will be sought for the facility.
The University of Melbourne is planning to construct the $100 million Victorian Life Sciences Computation Initiative Centre in the University’s Parkville Precinct in Melbourne, Australia. The facility will support high performance computing for life sciences research on diseases including cancer, influenza, and brain disorders by using large databases of genetic information. The facility will partner on research initiatives with the San Diego Supercomputer Center of the University of California, San Diego.
IBM is creating a sustainable business consultancy program called Green Sigma. Based on the Six Sigma management methodologies, the service will help companies reduce the carbon footprint of their business processes. Part of IBM's Big Green Innovations division, Green Sigma has formulated best practices guidelines that will be implemented in IBM’s internal pilot program and eventually by external clients. IBM is entering the carbon management services arena as part of an effort to become a green technologies and services provider.
The Canadian federal government has announced the recipients of its 2007 research budget allocations. Science and technology growth will be supported by $1.3 billion in funding, including:
Cadence Design Systems broke ground in February 2007 on a five-story, 208,000-sf R&D center in San Jose, Calif. Housing engineering research in integrated circuits and electrical systems for the electronics industry, Building 10 will enable the consolidation of Cadence’s research and development operations in a single collaboration-enhancing technology center.
Northrop Grumman Corp. broke ground on the 185,000-sf Commonwealth Enterprise Solutions Center in Chesterfield County, Va., in May of 2006. Housing 185,000 sf of offices, the building is sited on 28 acres. It will serve as Virginia's primary data center and will house the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, as well as containing a technology lab, a security operations center, a video broadcast studio, a training room, and a fitness center. Completion is slated for fall of 2007.
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp. is beginning construction in early spring of 2006 on a $300-million semiconductor assembly and test facility in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Production at the plant is slated to begin in the second half of 2007. The facility will eventually employ 1,200 workers.
Cornell University is planning to construct the $50-million William H. Gates Hall on its campus in Ithaca, N.Y. Funded in part by a $25-million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the facility will accommodate education in computing and information science with a lecture hall, conference rooms, classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and student project spaces.
Stony Brook University is planning to develop a 246-acre research and development park on a site straddling Stony Brook and St. James, N.Y. Groundbreaking for a 100,000-sf Center of Excellence for Wireless and Information Technology (CEWIT) is expected in spring of 2006.
