Google grant helping data center project

Google has given a $1 million grant to a team that includes an assistant professor at the University of Virginia.

Sudhanva Gurumurthi’s group will use the two-year award to look for ways to make Internet data centers more energy-efficient.

Google has an option to fund a third year of research, depending on progress, for $500,000.

The group’s award is the largest of 12. All told, Google handed out $5.7 million Feb. 2.

Data centers, where companies store and manage ever-increasing heaps of data, are typically electricity hogs.

“Given how much energy data centers use, designing them to be energy-efficient is a globally conscientious pursuit,” Gurumurthi said. “This will reduce these data centers’ demand for electricity and their carbon footprint.”

Gurumurthi is working with colleagues from Rutgers University; the University of California, Santa Barbara; and the University of Michigan toward a redesign of server architecture.

The researchers hope they’ll be able to cut the amount of energy the machines use at off-peak hours.

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Google grant helping data center project

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