Power Play
Chip to chiller energy strategies
School system uses holistic approach
to downsize data center and save on power
costs.
by Bob Moore
The urgency and compelling need to curb
energy use has forced companies to evaluate
various elements of their business
structure, focusing on information
technology and, in particular, the data
center. The energy used to power data
centers across the country doubled from 2000
to 2005 and is expected to increase even
further due to the increasing demand for
compute power.
According to a recent study released by
the U.S Environmental Protection Agency,
data centers consumed approximately 61
billion kilowatt hours in 2006, roughly 1.5
percent of the total U.S. electricity
consumption. Some businesses are being
prevented from expanding or providing
additional service due to constraints on
electricity, as some municipal power grids
cannot provide enough electricity to local
data centers to run all the IT equipment.
One way to establish
energy-efficient IT solutions is by
addressing the entire energy consumption
problem.
Fife Public Schools in Tacoma, Wash.,
serves as a prime example of an organization
that was compelled to examine and re-invent
its data center. Following a 300-student
population increase over three years, the
school district saw the need to upgrade its
aging technology infrastructure to better
meet educational goals and further improve
communication between the staff members,
students and parents. Additionally, to
counterbalance these added hardware costs,
Fife was relying on the new IT systems to
reduce energy costs.
The IT department at the local school
district decided to update its data center
by standardizing on server blade and storage
solutions. The increased density and
performance doubled the school district's
data-processing capacity in a footprint that
was 80 percent smaller, saving valuable data
center space. The data center also was
consolidated from 55 servers to 38 and the
district experienced a 35 percent to 40
percent reduction in IT administration
hours. Finally, the school district was able
to reduce its data center power and cooling
costs by 25 percent.
One way to establish energy-efficient IT
solutions is by addressing the entire energy
consumption problem. This holistic strategy
is often referred to as "chip to chiller," a
tactic that addresses everything from the
smallest processor chip, through the servers
and IT infrastructure, up to and including
controlling the large air chillers that cool
the data centers.
A recent study of energy consumption in
federal government data centers estimated
that almost $500 million is spent every year
to power these data centers. According to
the study, by adopting and deploying chip to
chiller energy-saving solutions, the
government could save up to 40 percent of
its data center energy costs-almost $2
billion in government savings over 10 years.
In most cases, the power to cool data
centers drains as much energy as the IT
equipment itself. The power losses inherent
in transformers, uninterruptible power
supplies and power distribution units also
have to be addressed. While some server
manufacturers have point solutions that may
lower the energy consumption of individual
products, few address the entire spectrum.
For those customers that embrace a
holistic chip-to-chiller approach, the
savings can be substantial. Each data center
is different and will experience savings to
a varying degree, but energy reductions in
the double-digit percentages are not an
unrealistic expectation if a holistic
approach is adopted.
Bob Moore
Saving energy not only makes good
business sense, it also reduces the
associated carbon footprint. That $2 billion
in electricity savings for the federal
government data centers, for example,
equates to taking 1.4 million cars off the
road.
Alternatively, a 40 percent reduction in
energy costs also allows a data center to
expand and grow. Reducing energy consumption
allows additional IT equipment to be added
instead of building a new data center.
Bob Moore is the group manager for
the marketing strategy team in the industry
standard server division of
Hewlett-Packard, Cupertino, Calif.
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