Steve O’Donnell works for First Data International (FDI) where he runs IT for the largest global credit, debit, gift and prepay card processing business. Prior to FDI he was Global Head of Data Centres at BT running the largest data centre estate in Europe. He has a worldwide reputation as a thought leader in Green IT having won three industry awards for his 21st Century Data Centre vision and design.

O’Donnell became the first non manufacturer and first European based contributing member of The Green Grid when he took BT into membership.

In this blog he shares his ofttimes controversial views about what a modern data centre should look like and how to ride the perfect storm of being green and cost effective at the same time.

There are some basics that just need to be done to keep a data centre efficient and as green as possible.

O’Donnell contends that the 20th Century Data Centre is dead and that modern green thinking has enabled the creation of a 21st Century Data Centre that uses 60% less energy than it’s 20th Century counterpart.

With this dramatic cost advantage old inefficient sites will be forced to close.  Global organisations are starting to wake up to the need to be dramatically more efficient in their use of power.

O’Donnell has had a career in IT with over 28 years experience working up to and including board level in large multinational organisations in both international and domestic markets.  

He has held senior positions at First Data International, BT plc, Cable & Wireless, Lehman Brothers, and Deutsche Bank.  In addition Steve has run a number of IT Consulting firms where for example he led the merger of Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand to form PWC.

Green is just common sense; energy is not free (and the laws of supply and demand mean the more we use the more it costs per unit) so why waste it? I remember my Father being green decades ago because he hated wasting his hard earned cash on unnecessary bills!

O’Donnell has industry recognized Green credentials - as the winner of three industry awards for green data centre projects. He is a Member of the IEEE, IET and BCS.

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