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• Romonet brings predictive data center tool to US

  Data center engineers looking to maximize energy efficiency can now model design changes using a tool called Prognose from U.K. startup Romonet.

• Viridity calculates energy cost of applications

  Viridity has updated its data center infrastructure management software to let businesses keep track of how much electrical power is being consumed by individual applications and lines of business, the company will announce Monday.

• Inside HP's prefab data center

  The cutaway section of Hewlett-Packard's latest iteration of a prefabricated modular data center has a space-station-like feel to it.

• IBM releases Intelligent Building Management software

  IBM has released new software designed to cut energy costs by monitoring sensors inside of large buildings and flagging potential maintenance issues.

• Google: Five data center energy saving ideas you can implement

  When it comes to saving data center energy few companies would have the expertise of Google, which has some of the largest data centers in the world. It has or is experimenting with some interesting ideas to cool data centers more efficiently as well - it will soon open a seawater-cooled data center in Finland for example.

• ARM servers still 'several years' away, its president says

  The president of ARM Holdings has sought to temper the expectations around ARM-based servers, saying those systems might not ship in volume before 2015.

• Opinion divided on impact on iPad of Foxconn blast

  Opinion is divided on whether a blast on Friday at a Foxconn factory in Chengdu, China will affect the production of Apple’s iPads

• Intel sees opportunity from Asian data center boom

  Intel’s sale of chips and related products to data centers is growing by over 20 percent year-on-year in Asia-Pacific, on the back of increased data center capacity creation in China, South Korea, and Australia, a company executive said.

• Three dead after Foxconn factory blast, Apple investigating

  A third employee had died from injuries caused by an explosion at a factory of Foxconn in Chengdu, China, the company said Sunday. Initial findings show the blast was caused by "combustible dust in a duct."

• The Green IT movement has lost the plot

  When it comes to environmental sustainability, the information technology community has seriously mistaken its priorities. Our latest research has confirmed what we have been saying for four years. The IT industry is already energy-neutral in terms of its consumption and savings, but there is still no credible scenario for safely managing the global production and disposal of literally billions of personal computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices. Yet even today, improving the energy efficiency of IT equipment is still the overwhelming focus of the Green IT community.

• 'Project Triforce': How Facebook tested its new data center

  When Facebook built its first company-owned data center in Prineville, Oregon, designing and managing the facility was only part of the challenge. In a blog post Monday, the company explained how it had to stress-test its entire software infrastructure by commandeering a giant cluster of production servers on the other side of the country.

• Data centers turn to outsourcing to meet capacity needs

  More large companies are turning to collocation providers to relieve capacity constraints in their data centers, as a way to avoid the high cost of building their own new brick-and-mortar facilities, two studies suggest.

• Data centers experiment with new power sources

  Data center power usage is soaring -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that data center energy requirements will double in the next five years. To address that surge in energy use, some companies are turning to alternative sources of energy, including solar arrays, natural gas turbines, wind power, fuel cells and hydro power. But one big question is whether these power sources will deliver a return on investment in the near future.

• Uptime exec: Data center ratings aid cloud choice

  Julian Kudritzki has more visibility than most into how the Uptime Institute's data center tier system is being used around the world, and according to him it's become a useful tool to help businesses find a reliable hosting provider for their applications.

• Cisco jumps into portable data center market

  Cisco Systems launched its first containerized data center on Monday, coming late to the party but offering some unique management features that could help set it apart from other vendors.