The last few weeks have been busy, with VMWare buying EMC's Ionix assets and the "open source" data center.  I've been talking to the press and commenting on some blogs about the progress, and am posting a round up here.

First, there's an article in Automated Buildings about the need for IT and Facilities to come together to best manage energy in the data center.  This is a position that I've held, because the data center is not there to be a cooling plant.  Instead, IT impacts facilities and everyone must have a view of what's going on to run efficiently and effectively.

There was an announcement about an Open Source Data Center initiative between Mike Manos and GreenM3.  I commented on the blog post, and James Niccolai from IDG wrote up a nice article about the topic and interviewed me for my take on the topic.  I'm still skeptical about how this will actually move forward, and who will be doing the heavy lifting to build the architecture required, but I'm following it closely.

Finally, the Carbon Reduction Commitment for Energy Efficiency is starting in April in the UK, and data centers are still trying to get their hands around what it will actually mean for their business.  Colocation centers of large size have started lobbying to be exempt, since they're not responsible for the IT power that's driving the efficiency of the building (seems like they're passing the buck).  James Hayes wrote up a thorough article, Energy Efficiency Scheme: Winners and Losers.  I was also interviewed for this article, and there's a few interesting discussion points around how companies can launder their carbon through outsourced data centers.  We'll see what actually happens, and whether colocation companies add 3-4% to customer bills to pay for the CRC taxes.