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Heating & Cooling
A 2007 survey of the Data Center Users Group indicated that 77 percent already arranged the data center in a hot aisle/cold aisle layout to maximize cooling efficiency, and 65 percent used blanking panels to minimize hot air recirculation. Some 56 percent had sealed the floor to minimize cooling loses. More can be done.
"So, walk the floors," Pouchet advises. "Is every tile in place? Are the air blocks functioning? Are the air filters clean? Is cooling directed where it's needed?" Oftentimes when managers say the servers are running hot, the issue isn't insufficient cooling, but misdirected cooling. A professional assessment can determine that.
Variable speed fans offer another savings opportunity. "Seventy to eighty percent of the time, there's no need for the air handling system to run flat out," Pouchet says. They can pay for themselves within three to six months, by letting managers adjust cooling as needed.
Local heat management, in which the air distributions systems are fully encapsulated in the racks have a double benefit. As Bob Waldie, CEO of OpenGear, in Australia, points out, the heat is extracted where it's generated, so racks can be positioned more closely together.
"As you consolidate servers through virtualization, you change the power density, increasing the kilowatts used per square feet. To adapt to that, you need to apply the next generation of management tools," Waldie insists. These systems are most advantageous when deployed in facilities that have significant differences between their peak and average utilization rates, and can reduce energy costs by about 11 percent even if no other actions are taken.
Electricity
During a hardware refresh, switching equipment from AC to DC power can result cut energy consumption by 30 to 50 percent, according to Ron Croce, chief operating officer at Validas DC Systems. Direct current is used by high voltage electric lines, train, UPS systems, off-grid power generation and even some computer equipment. The benefit of using DC power in the data center, Croce explains, is that it reduces the power transformations typically needed to make it useable by computer equipment from five to seven, to two. The first converts AC to DC, and the second steps down the voltage. Payback is possible within six to 18 months, depending on the cost of power in the region.
"The downside," Croce continues, "is that this isn't mainstream yet." Currently some of the world's leading financial institutions are piloting DC power systems, he says. Croce predicts DC power will be widely adopted in data centers within the next decade, as more vendors build DC-ready hardware.
Building?
Some companies, like IBM and Microsoft, are building new data centers to meet their business objectives, adhere to the tenets of LEEDs and the U.S. Green Building Council. New buildings have the opportunity to locate the mechanical and electrical rooms on the ground floor and computer operations on another to reduce heat entering the data center, and segregate servers from their human managers to reduce the heat, dust and security risks associated with people. Sun Microsystems is working with a consortium to build a 30,000 server data center in an abandoned mine tunnel 100 meters underground in Japan in a bid to reduce cooling costs. Operating cost savings are estimated at one billion yen ($1.23 million) annually.
For most companies, though, building a new data center isn't an option. Instead, CIOs can employ strategies within their existing facilities to maximize utilization and efficiency while conserving energy. IBM, for example, offers modular data centers that are about 20 percent less costly than traditional data centers, and that also are 20 percent more efficient. Retrofits, mobile units and add-on modules are available to add efficient capacity without draining the existing power infrastructure.
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