Bladewatch.com

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=data
_center&articleId=9019660&taxonomyId=52&intsrc=kc_top

May 16, 2007 (Computerworld) — Nothing in a digital society works without electricity, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that the federal government and the private sector are consuming power at an accelerating pace to keep their data centers running.

To help reduce the demand for electricity, the EPA is recommending that companies and government agencies consider a broad menu of approaches to cutting their power usage, from seeking more efficient software to installing larger servers and virtualization technology.

The U.S. data center industry is “in the midst of a major growth phase,” the EPA said in a 156-page draft report (download PDF) on power usage within data centers that was posted on the agency’s Web site for public review late last month. Already, data centers are consuming up to 1.5% of all the electricity generated in the U.S., according to the EPA. And the amount of power used by IT facilities is on its way to a 75% increase by 2011, the agency said in the draft report.

It needs to be a big picture exercise, how can I get the windows/unix/linux server guys to examine their systems for energy efficiency, how can I change the datacenter to maximize what we’ve got, checking the airflow, reducing the numbers of KVM stations in the cabinets, switching those 14″ screens to TFTs, lights out?

At the same time, addressing the issue at the corporate level, virtualization or the use of more shared infrastructure? SAN boot only? Removing storage arrays? To do this though we need investment, business buy in and agreed steps we’re going to take, it might be simply swapping all those array shelves for some fibre cards, but who funds them, what’s the cost, the benefit?

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