Taking Greener Approach to a Data Center
Believe it or not, 'Going green', 'Save the planet', 'recycling', 'put lights on timers', 'don't waste paper' are the most discussed words among users, policy makers, technology providers, owners and operators, and utility companies. today. Owners are in constant pressure to monitor and improve energy efficiency of their facilities to obtain the best value from a business perspective.
Do you think; only having warm feeling about 'going green' is enough to build green data centers? I don't agree with this statement.
I believe, going green makes sense when it saves capital investment and resources and millions of dollars on energy-efficient servers, computer-cooling technology and HVAC.
Impact of data centers on the environment:
A typical data center consists of IT infrastructure, power infrastructure, and cooling infrastructure. The owners need to understand the business, environmental factors related to data centers .They need to address the changes in IT strategies, such as virtualization, automation and consolidation to use IT resources effectively.
What is the efficiency of your data center?
To understand how efficient, you need to analyze your energy consumption and HVAC.
What can you to reduce Carbon foot prints?
To helpgo green, you need to understand, measure and monitor energy use. Youshould conserve energy and money in such way that it could reduce energy consumption and doesn't put burden on the operation cost.
-You can consider adopting green building construction initiative ( recycling building material, installing solar energy panels on data center roofs etc.). The data center owners with preexisting facility can remodel of the data center.
-Decreasing the number of physical number of servers reduces the energy consumption and cooling cost. Try to consolidate many servers on one system. It will reduce your power cooling and management cost.
-Anyone working is IT knows that Server virtualization can save both energy and money. But how much money you will be able to save depends on your planning and strategy for server virtualization and efficient utilization of fewer server.
-The use of cloud computing to manage, host and scale web applications can reduce the number of hardware and cooling equipment.
-You cannot ignore wireless, mobile and networking devices as these create e-waste and data centers need to address these devices in their green initiatives.
-Cooling infrastructure is very important component of the date center. You need to check your Airflow chambers and remove the obstructions from cables and other materials time to time. Check, is there any air-conditioning unit that is not working? Change the unit! I know it require capital investment but it will bring substantial energy savings.
Most of the big companies are into green data center design, Cisco announced a new green data center in Allen texas.
Cisco offers new green data center with continuous power supply (UPS) room. Unlike conventional data center where hundreds of environmentally challenging batteries are used, the company has installed energy-efficient rotary flywheels.
The cooling in Data Center Hall in Cisco's new green data center is done by an energy-efficient air-side economizer design, which reduces the need for mechanical chilling.
Green teamwork:
Green initiatives are picking up, but still a lot of individuals and corporations have showed a stubborn reluctance to adopt ways that could save data center power usage unless you are compelled to pay a high, direct price. It depends on you what you do you want to do with your data center? Whether you want to make green data center or not?