Green Marketing and Green Hype

I'm watching with mixed emotions as more and more vendors start to describe their products as addressing challenges associated with reducing power and cooling in the data center. On one hand, clearly it's a monumental challenge -- and opportunity. On the other hand, I'm starting to see vendors with thinner and thinner claims start to add this message to their marketing drumbeat. That's not a good thing.

It seems to me that there's a lot of opportunistic positioning going on. Global warming is a serious issue. Running out of energy in data centers is a serious issue. The people who are concerned about these issues aren't fooling around. And neither should be vendors. If you've got a compelling story to tell, and the tools and methodologies to back it up, the more than merrier. No one vendor is going to have a lock on solving this problem. But if you're just looking for another way to spin your latest feature, let's do everyone a favor and show a bit of restraint.