Power running out for data center facilities according to Uptime Institute Report

Wednesday, 19 March 2008 17:27

Written by Bob DeCoufle

According to the Uptime Institute survey of 311 participants who manage or work within a data center 41.7 percent indicated that their data center would run out of power capacity in 12-24 months. This finding supports previous Uptime Institute research which indicates that data center energy consumption may make or break enterprise computing profitability in the near future.

The Institute has argued that to continue to deliver uninterrupted uptime in enterprise computing, it is necessary to recognize that profitability, efficiency, and greenness are all one and the same.

The Uptime Institute’s final conclusion noted the following:

1. The aggregate of responses from industry professionals seem to indicate that, despite all the hype, greater attention to energy consumption and green initiatives is required in the enterprise computing industry.
2. The threat of running out of cooling and power capacity is far too common and represents a growing issue
3. The C-suite is not adequately involved in or committed to the reduction of data center energy consumption.

If we look at the conclusions stated by Uptime Institute it really should come as no surprise. Let us take item number one for starters.

Over the last year we have learned about “green” initiatives, products, programs and groups designed to gain our attention to combat the problem of wasted energy and carbon emissions. 

It seemed the movement was in full gear after reports from environmental groups and analysts noted that the world wide carbon emissions from the data center industry was equal to that of the airline industry. To top that a report from the Environmental Protection Agency on data center and server power consumption noted the need for the industry to begin regulating power consumption before it becomes out of hand.

Since those reports we have learned that companies in the US lag behind our global partners as it pertains to “greening” their data centers. In fact, a good portion of the data center population has been slow to adopt, implement or plan a “green” program.

In a survey conducted late last year on Data Center Journal we asked the question of our readers to tell us about their “Green” initiatives and 30% indicated that they have no plans for a green initiative while another 33% indicated that they are planning and discussing it only.

Other surveys including the Uptime Institute survey have concurred that the “green” push in North America is slow going.

Now let us look at Item #2 which is that the threat of running out of cooling and power capacity is far too common and represents a growing issue. This comes as no surprise.

Ask any design engineer or better yet look at the sales growth in data center construction to facility related equipment. In the last few years the data center market has been on the climb and most of it is because of the changing nature of IT and the power and cooling demands IT equipment is having on facilities.

When looking at the results regarding power capacity it does not clarify whether it is noting power capacity from a main service or the distribution stand point. The question in the survey solely inquires to data center power capacity and does not specify at what level or all.

It is possible that those who took the survey, of which most were of small to medium sized enterprises, could have understood the question to be asking about their distribution capacity or available breakers instead of their entire capacity and vice a versa.

There is no question that distribution capacity is increasing rapidly with denser pieces of equipment with multiple power supplies. A good question to have combined into the survey with the question about capacity was to inquire to their existing power load by the traditional watts/sf or today’s standard watts/rack and included the rack total for the facility surveyed.

Finally, Item #3 should definitely come as no surprise because for years data center managers have been stating that the C-Suite barely recognizes the data center not to mention an energy savings program that will help reduce carbon emissions in the data center.

The Uptime Institute study confirms the direction the industry has been and is continuing to head toward, but more information needs to be gathered before we can all say that slightly less than half of all data centers will run out of power by 2009. 

This is a drastic statement that needs to clarified and closely examined. If true, it is alarming and nonetheless data center owners should be carefully examining the power usage to determine where they can save energy wherever possible such as identifying unused and underutilized equipment, consolidation, virtualization and the purchasing of energy efficient equipment.

Other Uptime Institute News: To help better define the Tier classifications that the Uptime Institute originally printed several years ago they have been updating and now have created a supplement to the Tier system that determines the operational sustainability of a data center location based on five categories: Site selection, Building Characteristics, Fitness for use, Investment effectiveness and management/ operations. To learn more about this white paper please visit www.uptimeinstitute.org. 

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