Greening the Data Center

The information economy depends on the old energy economy. Without the electricity that powers computer and communications systems, no IT business could function. Moreover, computers use a lot of electricity. Much of the world’s electricity is generated in coal- or gas-fired power stations. So the more electricity computers use, the bigger their carbon footprint.

Information is vital to how you understand your customers and increase your sales. Almost certainly, this information will be stored and updated in vast data centres that are heavy consumers of electricity. The issue of climate change has increased the pressure on both governments and corporations to do more to reduce their carbon emissions and to protect the environment. Economic growth in India and China, which is expected to lead to increased competition for the world’s energy resources, compounds the problem. This is why it is important to prepare your business for the future, by adopting a more energy efficient approach towards data storage. 

Technological advances are only part of the equation. If you want to green your data centre, you will need to come up with a plan and to be able to implement it. Involving your employees in the process is crucial, and the culture within your organisation will have to change as well. This book tells you the most important steps you have to take to make your data storage more environmentally friendly. By following the author’s expert advice, you can lower your organisation’s energy consumption and therefore reduce your overheads.

Benefits to business include:

• Stop wasting electricity
  Consuming vast amounts of energy does not mean you get vast amounts of work done – think of an empty office block at night time with all the lights on. If your data servers are needlessly running for prime time in off-peak hours, something equally wasteful is happening inside your IT systems. Improving power management is a simple way for your business to cut its energy costs
• Exorcise your old ghosts
  Your data centre may be running hardware that no longer serves a useful purpose. These “ghosts” have stayed around long after their function has disappeared because no one remembered to tell your IT guys to take them out of commission. By identifying and eliminating these “ghost” systems, you can reduce your support costs and your consumption of electricity
• Stay cool
  Computer systems need to be kept cool in order to function effectively, which can be expensive. This book will tell you how to organise your data centre in the most energy efficient way by preventing the mixing of cool and warm air, and by exploiting cold weather to obtain “free cooling”
• Find the best location
  Cooling is responsible for a large share of the costs involved in running a data centre, so you could consider locating your data centre in a cold climate.

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George Spafford is a Principal Consultant with Pepperweed Consulting, LLC, and an experienced practitioner in business and IT operations. He gives advice and provides training in relation to regulatory compliance, IT Governance and process improvement. He holds an MBA from Notre Dame University and is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA).