It’s good to hear about hardcore big-iron Fortune 500 technology innovation happening right here in the U.S.A. for a change. While many companies are fantasizing about a cloud-based future in which corporate data centers no longer exist, GE is heading in the opposite direction, opening a huge and green $48 million center in Louisville, Ky., on the same site where the world’s first commercial UNIVAC computer was put to work in 1954. Located in the GE Appliance Park, it’s one of the first big data centers to earn LEED Platinum status. Some stats:
  • 98.3 percent of the walls, floors, and roof were existing space that didn’t require new construction
  • The data center is 34 percent more energy-efficient than a comparable code-compliant building
  • It reduces by 50 percent the amount of space used by the previous data center, as a result of using high-density servers
  • Water consumption inside the building is being reduced by 42 percent of the industry baseline by using ultra low-flow fixtures
  • 50.7 percent of construction materials were sourced regionally
  • 30.2 percent of the building materials are recyclable
  • 85.4 percent of construction waste was diverted from the landfill (mostly through recycling.
The center will support 27,000 employees in 100 countries who work for GE’s Appliances and Lighting division. At the same time, GE is moving 400 jobs from China to Louisville to build energy-efficient water heaters. Want to see what the data center looks like? Here’s a slide show. Source: TechRepublic