How important is Data Centre Energy Efficiency?

The Code of Conduct for Data Centres has been created in response to the increasing energy consumption in data centres and the security, environmental and economic impacts this has. The aim is to inform and stimulate data centre operators and owners to reduce energy consumption in a cost-effective manner without hampering the mission critical function of data centres.

Transitioning to an energy efficient data centre and optimizing operating efficiency can be a complex undertaking.

Faced with increasingly urgent warnings about the consequences of the projected rise in both energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions, governments and businesses alike are now focusing more attention than ever on the need to improve energy efficiency.

A growing number of datacentre decision makers are realizing that environmental concern and business success can go hand in hand—and that an Energy Efficient, or environmentally friendly, data centre may actually be one of the best ways to both accommodate growth and make a positive impact on their business’s bottom line.

Rising energy costs and the ever-expanding technology requirements are stressing the power and cooling infrastructure – which, in turn, threatens operating resilience. Data centre strategies must be rethought with energy efficiency as a business-critical operating parameter.

The answer would be naturally to adopt an energy efficient initiative that could help a company regain power and cooling capacity, recapture resiliency and help meet business needs—while, at the same time, dramatically reducing energy costs and the total cost of ownership.

MAXIMeyes are in the unique position of being able to help clients not only with their energy procurement but also dramatically reducing energy costs through utilisation of energy efficiency initiatives and strategies – ultimately helping to meet widening business needs.

Why jump into the deep end?

We would recommend a company adopt a process that can occur in a step-wise manner, reducing risks and helping to realize benefits along the way. Going energy efficient is becoming more than an altruistic aspiration to save the planet. It’s now clear that going green is a necessity that companies will need to embrace—sooner rather than later—to survive economically.

Why datacentres need to think energy efficiency?

1.     Responding to customer demand for better performance at lower prices, the information technology industry has delivered faster servers, lower-cost storage and more flexible networking equipment. While these new components can often deliver ever-greater performance per unit of power, they can also be increasingly power hungry.

2.     The evolution of high-density, rack mounted servers has typically increased heat density, creating hot spots and taxing cooling systems. The excessive heat can also threaten operating stability, resiliency and staff productivity.

3.     Don’t forget some companies can’t even deploy more servers because extra electricity isn’t available at any price. Many utilities, especially those in crowded urban areas, are telling customers that power feeds are at capacity and they simply have no more power to sell, which will directly affect growth and bottom line with the increase of energy costs.

Although there is clearly no single “one solution fits all way” to create a Energy Efficient data centre, experts believe that the most productive first step for organisations is to conduct a MAXIMeyes best practices assessment and energy audit. This systematic check-up offers a real-time profile and modelling of the data centre’s energy use conditions and makes it possible to pinpoint areas of high energy use, while establishing a baseline for further planning.

Organisations should then take a holistic view of the environment, taking the following factors into account:

• An inventory of your current systems, their power usage and locations  
• Your company’s business and growth plans to help forecast future needs              
• Current or planned governmental energy efficiency regulations in your area        
• Available energy efficiency rebates or economic incentives from government sources or your energy provider
• Any already established goals for reducing your company’s carbon footprint and the time frame set for achieving those goals

Let’s put this in perspective...

Compared with a normal office block or residential property data centres use vastly more electricity. The average household in the UK uses approximately 5000kWh of electricity over 12 months. In comparison, a micro data centre with just 20 moderately loaded cabinets and a PUE of 1.4 uses 981,120kWh in the same time. A large facility housing 1000 moderately loaded cabinet with a good PUE of 1.2 uses 42,048,000kWh. This is the equivalent of 8,409 households.

Although the numbers above are pretty big and there are no denying data centres, through their energy consumption, do produce a lot of CO2, the highest estimates for Northern Europe’s data centre energy consumption are around 65tWh. This produces around 32,500,000 tons of CO2 per year. In comparison, the lowest estimates for CO2 produced by Europe’s air travel is 125,000,000 tons of CO2 per year. This means almost all the CO2 produced by all of Europe’s data centres could be “off set” by grounding 1 in 4 flights. Food for thought.

IT Equipment Energy Efficiency

This falls outside of our scope as it depends on the efficiency of the hardware and software in use. Great improvements have been made in recent years with manufacturers producing equipment that provide more compute per kilo Watt. Developers are also creating more efficient applications while IT managers are virtualizing and consolidating their servers, all resulting in more energy efficient data centres. As yet though there is no agreed metric for the efficiency of the IT load as a whole, as this will require an industry agreed means of measuring and comparing the “output” of the IT system themselves. Some organisations have created their own internal metrics such as financial transactions per Watt and searches per Watt. These are very useful for them and can help decisions regarding data centre deployment and development. However due to each organisation being slightly different these metrics cannot be used in a universal way.

The message is clear:

As governments and corporations intensify their focus on reducing energy demands and greenhouse gas emissions, pressure to improve data centre energy efficiency will continue to grow and costs will rise.