Guest View: Small Steps in Energy Efficiency Result in Two Kinds of 'Green'

By Jim Smith

August 1, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 3)
When you hear the words “green data center,” what comes to mind? For many people, those words bring the other kind of green (money) to mind, but not in a positive way. They think about the “high cost of going green,” but it is a common misconception that the only way to go green is to make significant investments that undercut any cost savings from the increased energy efficiency. The notion that increased energy efficiency comes at a steep price is simply false.

In many instances, the most significant things you can do to increase energy efficiency have nothing to do with buying specialized hardware. Certainly the use of “green” hardware should be assessed as part of your data center development planning process, but placing your faith in hardware alone is like trying to kill a flea with a sledgehammer. Paying attention to small aspects of data center operations and looking closely at your data center provider’s capabilities can generate significant financial dividends, require little or no capital investment, and have immediate payoffs.

On the operations side, a company with a typical data center can achieve energy savings of 10 percent to 50 percent with just a few changes. Those include managing bypass air by sealing gaps and using blanking panels to keep hot and cold air from mixing—plus using a hot-aisle-cold-aisle layout. Another important change is to make sure set points for the ambient data center temperature are not set too low. Data centers that ordinarily run at 68 degrees can gain a 10 percent energy savings just by using a recommended set point of 74 degrees. None of these may be as sexy as a hardware-based solution, but their impact on energy usage and corresponding operating costs is undeniable.

Another key way to ameliorate the financial impact of a “green” data center involves the data center provider. A common misconception of companies seeking a new data center facility is that their provider can do very little to help them manage and reduce their energy costs. Unfortunately many customers believe a provider’s primary contribution to energy efficiency efforts is limited to designing the proper number of PDUs and CRACs and properly distributing perforated raised floor tiles. But if a customer’s data center provider is not doing more than that, the customer is unknowingly subjecting themselves to higher energy costs.

Related Search Term(s): data centers, green computing, power

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