There's been plenty of hype about the Smart Grid -- some justified and some not. But the gold award for Smart Grid hype has to go to Cisco, whose spokesperson last month said that the grid could end up being up to 1,000 times the size of the Internet.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A new report from Forrester Research outlines the 15 "Green IT 1.0" technologies that are helping IT managers clearly define and achieve business and environmental benefits through smart technology management.

Think that solar power can't power data centers? Think again. i/o Data Centers, an IT infrastructure provider in Phoenix is in the process of deploying a massive array of solar panels that will generate up to 4.5 megawatts of electricity to help power its giant data center.

Think virtualization in a data center, and you most likely think of the latest generation of multi-core chips, such as Intel's recently released Nehalem-EX processor, which comes with eight cores a a whopping 2,300,000,000 transistors. But the future of green data centers may be in the opposite end of the spectrum, with server clusters built using many small, power-efficient processors.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- With new servers, printing solutions, an upcoming "telepresence-lite" program and new environmental commitments, Hewlett-Packard today announced several expansions to its overall green IT program.

SYRACUSE and ARMONK, N.Y. -- In a partnership with Syracuse University, IBM is breaking ground today on a new data center facility embracing a range of cutting-edge green IT solutions.

There's good news and bad news about the just-released Energy Star ratings for servers. The good news is that it exists. The bad news is that it doesn't go nearly far enough.

What's near the top of the list of concerns for IT pros? If a recent survey is to be believed, they worry that the federal government may begin setting regulations for Green IT. But there's plenty of evidence those fears are unfounded. I've got details in my blog.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- After several years of work, enterprise servers can now be rated on energy efficiency, as part of the EPA's overall goal to improve data center energy efficiency.

There's no doubt that the future of IT is green, and that any country that leads the world in Green IT will reap enormous financial benefits. But it may be that South Korea, rather than the United States, will become the world Green IT leader.

Times are tough, but for Green IT consultants the future looks very bright. Forrester has recently come out with a report that says the market for Green IT services will grow at an eye-popping 60% per year, and reach $4.8 billion by 2013.

Want to green IT, but don't think you have the money for it? Think again: Virtualization projects are slam-dunks for IT these days, even in tough economic times.

Last week, the big news was that Chinese, Russian, and other hackers had invaded the U.S. power grid, and planted malware that could shut it down. But some commentators are saying that in fact, it may not have happened, and that it's all a bit of political theater performed as part of a cybersecurity power play by political insiders.