As more and more business-critical information is generated, companies are struggling to balance accessibility and low cost
By George Skaff, Chief Marketing Officer, SGI
In January 2010, The Carbon Reduction Commitment will come in to place as the first mandatory carbon trading scheme in the UK. All companies that use more than 6000 MWh per year of electricity will be affected by the initiative, so it is more important than ever that data centre managers assess their environmental impact. For this reason, it is essential that organisations start now to assess their existing technology implementations and data centre designs to ensure that they can continue to support the needs of their customers without breaching regulations and facing harsh penalties.
In addition to increasing governmental pressure, there is growing consumer demand for the IT industry to improve its environmental credentials. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by the BPM Forum on IT Sustainability Insights and Imperatives, consumer demand of green IT practices was one of the top three reasons companies were placing greater weight on implementing ecological business practices. Simultaneously, however, businesses and consumers are also insisting on greater efficiency from their storage providers to give them quicker access to their data. As a result, many data centre managers are struggling to meet these competing goals with their existing infrastructure.
In 2007, data centres worldwide used 180 billion kilowatt hours of electricity on power and cooling alone. In the UK this translates to data centres being responsible for an estimated 2.2-3.3 percent of the country’s total electricity consumption. Growing consumer demand for services such as 24 hour online video and music streaming will cause this figure to increase in the near future, requiring higher density configurations and larger processers and therefore more power to operate existing systems. So how can IT managers keep up with these demands for service whilst ensuring regulatory compliance and being able to afford ever increasing energy bills?
By improving energy efficiency through smart hardware decisions, managers will find that their costs will be concurrently reduced; they can improve system capacity and efficiency for their customers while they reduce the negative environmental impact of their data centre or storage facilities. Data centre managers must consider the implementation of innovative technology solutions that address these ever-present problems, so that they can ensure maximum capacity and optimum efficiency at minimal financial and environmental cost. Firstly, we must address the issue of air conditioning which traditionally creates the greatest cost for data centres.
Conventionally, computer hardware achieves optimum performance when operating in an environment that is maintained between 25-30°C. If the temperature rises much above this, it will in many cases result in an electronic equipment malfunction. With the heat that is generated from the continual running of servers in a data centre environment, it is clear to see why there is such considerable expenditure on power for air conditioning. High density, tray-based server hardware is now available that is able to function optimally at much higher temperatures. This allows managers to run their data centres at up to 40°C meaning that the power consumption by Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units can be reduced by over 80 percent, compared to conventional operating costs.
This increase in ambient data centre temperature is made possible due to intelligent server thermal optimisation. Rather than each server having its own power distribution and cooling system, it is possible to transfer these functions to the cabinet level. This allows more space in each individual server tray to increase storage density and improve power distribution efficiency. Furthermore, tray-based servers are designed so that they do not need covers which helps to improve server airflow. Rear mounted, hot-swappable fan arrays at the cabinet level ensure that excess power is not being wasted as the cooling level responds to the environment around it.
Another alternative to satisfy the overwhelming demand for storage space while keeping energy costs low is the containerised, or modular data centre. These stand-alone structures can be used to create additional capacity at existing sites or can be deployed as an alternative to traditional brick-and-mortar constructions. One of the main appeals of modular data centres is their ability to be transported to almost any location. It may be that businesses are setting up in new regions or they are wishing to implement a data centre structure close to their customer to mitigate latency issues. Modular data centres arrive fully built and ready to run, requiring only a power connection, a water supply for cooling and a network connection.
Companies can reduce their carbon footprint automatically by eliminating the need to build additional data centre space. There are further environmental benefits due to the ability to position these data centres in a variety of locations to therefore allow companies to more easily access alternative energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro electric power. By positioning modular data centres in appropriate environments, cold, outside air can be used to complement traditional air conditioning to reduce cooling costs.
Recently, the Think Eco-Logical initiative published an informative tool to help companies understand the full financial and environmental implications of running a data centre, and the significant impact and consequent cost reductions new approaches and technology discussed in this article could make. In only a few minutes, it is possible to calculate data centre costs, quantify cost savings, reduce carbon emissions and print or email report findings; the Eco-IT Monitor can be found here: http://www.sgi.com/thinkecological/ecomonitor/.
The ever increasing business and consumer-driven demand for data means that organisations will be faced with the prospect of providing more computing capacity in a more cost and energy efficient manner than they have in the past. A daunting challenge for certain, but one that technology vendors have taken notice of, and are providing the solutions and services needed to bridge the divide. In fact, one of the most important initial step an organisation can take to get ahead in this area is to undergo a professional data centre assessment, such as the one SGI’s professional services organisation can provide.
Regulations and public opinion have dictated that it is most definitely time for decision makers to readdress the traditional concept of brick-and-mortar data centres and data centre technologies. Intelligent, energy-efficient data centre and server technology will enable companies to comply with government regulations, meet customer data demands, reduce their carbon footprints and lower their total operating costs. While the current economic climate may make some companies unwilling to make the initial necessary investments in alternative hardware, managers need to understand that making environmentally conscious decisions can in fact have tangible business benefits and can drive a very quick return on investment.