However, what I hadn’t considered was the environmental impact of virtualisation. Fewer servers means less electricity is required to power the system.

Today in the Guardian there is an article about this subject, Why the future’s green for IT. It explains that at present most servers use less than 10% of their capacity whilst running. So by using virtualisation, one server could replace ten. This has the potential to save money and reduce the amount of energy required to power the system and keep it cool.

From a PR point of view this is fantastic. If a client reduces their server use through virtualisation then there is the opportunity for “X&Y Computing Goes Green” style articles. However by adopting this approach it leaves the client open to accusations by the press of being less environmentally friendly elsewhere.

In his blog, Seth Godin recently suggested that green marketing will soon face a backlash from reporters and consumers who see through the eco-friendly promises and campaigns, and want to see that companies really care. So perhaps companies should make more of an effort to be green, instead of simply jumping on the back of new research that shows that they are slightly greener than they thought.

We’ll be collaborating on marketing projects for Seth’s website Squidoo.com as well as completing a number of other tasks. At the end of the summer, Seth has stated his intention to showcase the CV’s of all the active interns on his phenomenally popular blog. Money can’t buy that kind of reccomendation.

For my first task I’m hoping to team up with Richard Millington who writes a very inciteful marketing blog at FeverBee.com. We have been asked to create lenses (web pages) on Squidoo about topics which interest us. We haven’t decided what our lenses will be about yet but I’m hoping we can write about the microblogging service Twitter. I shall keep you informed.

The job isn’t actually a job, it’s a paid internship in the summer with marketing pioneer Seth Godin, in New York. The brief for the application was simply four pages of whatever you want. I chose to send my application in the form of a press release about myself. Seth quickly replied to say thank you. It only takes two minutes for employers to send a reply to applicants but I think it makes such a difference. Even if it is a negative response it is still better than no response in my opinion. What do you think?

I have booked my flights with Easy Jet to Berlin in the end of August. It only cost £90.00 including taxes, bags, insurance and carbon offsetting. An hour later the same flights cost more than £20 more so I think I was pretty lucky! I hope I am just as lucky with my application to Seth Godin.