Greener Data Centers is a global Priority

Tuesday, 21 October 2008 13:26

Written by Bob DeCoufle

Now this is not something that is happening overnight, but it is picking up steam due to the recent economic slowdown. Earlier this year several studies indicated that the “Green IT” trend is slow to catch on. However, ever since energy prices increased and the economy slow down corporate management is looking for ways to save costs.
Any manager or C suite executive responsible for expenses that looks at the cost to run a data center realizes that if there is an opportunity to save costs then it should be taken.

Through out Europe energy efficiency for commercial buildings including data centers is a few years ahead of the rest of the world and now we are starting to catch up and are on the same page regarding data center energy efficiency globally.

One recent example of how the rest of the world is catching on comes from United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to Fujitsu Siemens Computers, more energy-efficient or ‘green’ data centers are assuming a vastly increased priority on the ‘to do’ lists of CIOs and technology decision-makers in the UAE.

A growing trend is starting to take place that is approaching data centers and energy efficiency holistically that includes how to save energy from the building infrastructure to IT equipment and software.

Companies face difficulties in managing costs, space, power, and air conditioning demands generated by major data centers and recognize the importance of building data centers that are both energy-efficient and responsive to regional business needs. 

According to a statement provided by Fujitsu Siemens “In order to drive more ‘green IT’ adoption, we as vendors are creating a situation where saying ‘yes’ to environmentally-friendly solutions is an easy decision for customers.”

“The daily and weekly power and air conditioning consumption of a data center can be greater than that of the monthly power demands for thousands of homes, according to our estimates.  By using strategies such as virtualization or resource pooling plus automating more processes, our customers can make ‘green’ choices that help their businesses by reducing costs as well.”

What will the future hold for data center efficiency?

1. Potential standards or requirements from government agencies as well as power providers (utilities) to help limit power usage. Simply put power providers only have so much energy to provide and need to do something to cap off use. In addition, the US Environmental Protection Agency recognizes the carbon footprint that the data center industry takes up and has started the ball rolling toward energy efficiency with its recent study on data center and server energy use.
2. Automation of IT tasks, that reduces the complexity of their systems, and simplifying their technology management.
3. Continued use and maturation of virtualization.
4. Improved cooling techniques and best practices
5. Improved electrical design that optimizes power efficiency.
6. The development of higher efficiency IT equipment.
7. The swapping out of less efficient equipment

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed