Ga-ga for Green

By John Gray

In this last part of our discussion about evolving to become a next-generation data center, we’re going to tackle the ubiquitous topic of energy efficiency. We know you’re getting bombarded with questions about how “green” your data center is, and as you seek budget for resource-intensive applications such as electronic medical records and real-time diagnosing, you’ll need real answers.

Deploying these projects in a time of tight budgets and even tighter data center footprints (i.e., lack of real estate and power grid resources) will take some strategic planning on your part. Somehow you have to roll out systems that will contribute to the bottom line without sending power and cooling costs into the stratosphere or requiring so much more data center space that you have to build a whole new facility. Both of these approaches negate whatever revenue might be gained from these exciting new projects and are considerably environmentally un-friendly.

Add to this that Nemertes Research says it won’t be long before data centers are maxed out energy-wise. “By the end of 2010, more than 50 percent of large data centers will reach maximum power consumption levels, leaving consumers in a major energy crisis as these organizations will be unable to scale data operations to support their business needs,” says Andreas Antonopoulos, senior vice president at the research advisory firm.

So how can you avoid this outcome? The answer is twofold: Know the real energy consumption your data center infrastructure—including servers and switches—will require, and communicate that information to your data center and physical plant facilities teams.

Let’s start with having real numbers. Antonopoulos warns that the lack of data center resources will mean that “power efficiency and accurate data on power consumption is absolutely vital for the future.”

“To avert this crisis, organizations need to not only measure their own data on power consumption, but also, they need to begin demanding that vendors disclose all product efficiency data in order to serve as a key criterion for customers who are choosing the tools that will best provide them with sustainable next-generation data centers,” he says.

Too often, network teams base their projected power and cooling architectures on vendor data sheets. But these on-paper numbers do not always reflect how the products will perform under the rigors of your unique data center environment, and the inevitable discrepancy can present serious problems. If you overprovision resources, you’ll end up spending more than you need and impacting the energy efficiency of your data center. Underprovisioning will leave you scrambling to bring in more power and cooling infrastructure, which can impact network performance, drive up costs and potentially force you to unnecessarily add on to your data center.

What you should be using to gauge the energy impact of network gear on your data center are real-world numbers. This way, you can accurately assess whether you can eke more from your raised-floor data center. Since the cost of a new data center is estimated to start around $20 million, working with real-world power and cooling requirements is essential.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take a big step in making this possible come June when it plans to extend its Energy Star program to data centers. According to the IDG News Service, the program will offer incentives for organizations to make their data centers more energy efficient and offer tools to track the results of conservation projects over time.

“Data centers that take part will use an online tool that ranks their efficiency on a scale of 1 to 100. Those that score 75 or higher can request an audit from the EPA, which then awards the Energy Star certification,” the article states.

The author points out that the Energy Star program is also recognized in Europe, and that China and India have agreed “in principle” to use the EPA’s system to rank products. Andrew Fanara, the program’s lead at the EPA, is quoted as acknowledging that avoiding a patchwork quilt of regional programs is important, especially for multinational companies.

Some vendors have even started certifying the energy efficiency of their own products. For instance, independent testing firm Miercom offers its “Certified Green” program to provide vendors with an objective assessment of the environmental impact and business case effectiveness of their product as compared with national indices.

Organizations hoping to nail down some stats on their energy efficiency today can use the online resources at The Green Grid. There you’ll find a power configuration efficiency estimator, a data center design guide, a presentation on real-time energy consumption measurements in data centers, and other valuable tools to help you better understand how to manage your energy demands.

You can also alleviate your concerns about energy efficiency via a flattened architecture, which we’ve referenced in previous blogs. By moving from a three-tier strategy to a two-tier one, you’re able to shrink the number of devices and interconnects in the data center floor consuming floor space as well as power and cooling resources.

Being proactive about energy efficiency ensures that your organization won’t have to choose between spending money on power-hungry network infrastructure that might tap out the grid and force you to construct a new data center facility versus purchasing a life-saving, state-of-the-art CAT scan machine. You’ll be able to show healthcare executives that not only are you choosing to be green, but you’re also saving green—money, that is—in the process.

In our next blog, we’ll talk about the second half of the energy discussion: planning power and cooling needs with your data center and physical plant facilities teams.

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Tags: Data Center, energy efficiency, Green IT