1. TECH VIEWS
Approaches for developing
energy-efficient Data Centers
Aniket Patange writes about how organizations can go about
optimizing power consumption in the data center
I
t's well-known that energy consump-
tion has constantly increased over
time due to industrialization and the
growth of economies. Barring 2008 and
2009. when a majority of the world was
affected by the recession and manufactur-
ing and consumer demand slowed, the
world's energy consumption has in-
creased consistently for the last 30 years.
Now that's a startling statistic not just for
the world's leaders but also for organiza-
tions. which collectively account for a
large part of energy consumption.
There are multiple factors of energy
consumption in organizations and one of
the most important ones is the data center.
Energy consumption by data centers can
be significantly huge and surprising. Ac-
cording to a Greenpeace report in March
2011, data centers consumed 1.5 to 2% of
all global electricity and were growing at a
rate of 12% every year! To go with this,
as per the International Energy Outlook
2UIO - Highlights, the total world energy
use is projected to grow to 739 quadrillion
Btu (British thermal units) in 2035 from
495 quadrillion Btu in 2007. As a result,
organizations have realized that data cen-
ters contribute significantly to the envi-
ronmental burden of doing business and
are major energy guzzlers to boot. This is
the single most important reason why
they are resorting to making their data
centers more efficient in terms of both en-
ergy and business value.
An efficient data center is necessary to
augment the breakneck speed of
business and achieve greater energy
efficiency with a view to expand the busi-
ness itself. Market forecasts show that
data center energy costs would escalate
by 18% and customer insights point to a
reduction of 2% in electricity bills from an
improvement of 1% in data center infra-
structure efficiency.
Typically, half or less of the energy used
in a data center goes towards the IT loads.
The remainder is utilized for the center's
physical infrastructure including power
equipment, cooling equipment and light-
ing. It is estimated that every KW saved
in a data center saves about $1,000 per
year.
Let's explore some ways and means to
reduce the energy consumption of a data
center. A key point for CIOs and IT man-
agers to understand is that the main factor
of power consumption is the draw from
the IT equipment and therefore IT person-
nel should be concerned with controlling
the power consumption of IT equipment.
At an operational level, one can reduce
IT equipment power consumption by retir-
ing systems, enhancing the operational
efficiency of existing systems and migrat-
ing to more energy efficient platforms. At a
more strategic level, visualization and
standardization can greatly contribute to
achieving
energy efficiency.
Let us lake a look at some of these
approaches one by one:
Operational: Retiring IT
systems
Many companies still use legacy data
centers that are based on old technology
platforms. Such centers are typically re-
tained for archival or research purposes: or
sometimes, just for budgetary reasons. Be-
cause they are based on technology plat-
forms. which do not leverage the benefits
of next-generation software upgrades,
these data centers consume much more
power than their modern-day counter-
parts. Powering down these systems and
consolidating old technology platforms
onto new servers can free up the server
count and help recover some of the power
capacity.
Operational:
Enhancing operational
efficiency of existing
systems
There are almost no new servers
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2. today that don't have power management
features, unlike before when the power
consumption of IT equipment was inde-
pendent of the computational load. IT per-
sonnel must take advantage of energy effi-
ciency technologies (that are lead features
in a technology product today) and. wher-
ever possible, power management must
be enabled on all devices with such capa-
bilities to reduce the total electrical usage.
Operational: Migration
to energy-efficient
computing platforms
Many data centers continue to operate
on 'low density servers' that are a few
years old. We recommended that these be
replaced by newer generation blade
servers, which provide for greater appli-
cation consolidation on the servers, vir-
tualization and a reduction in the overall
server count.
Planning:
Visualization
Virtualization is now a highly recom-
mended strategy to dramatically reduce
the IT power consumption as it signifi-
cantly reduces the number of installed
servers. Many IT systems and policies con-
tinue a 'one server, one application' as-
sumption. which is an archaic way of de-
signing IT. Virtualization empowers IT
managers to run multiple operating sys-
tems and applications on a single com-
puter. thereby consolidating multiple
physical machines and freeing up server
space and lessening the server load. On
an average, eliminating a single server
can save approximately 200-400 W of
power consumption, generating savings
more than the cost of the server itself in
the long run.
Planning:
Standardization
It is important to understand that even
though blade servers are perhaps the most
efficient among servers in terms of elec-
tricity consumption, their performance
can vary based on the blade types for the
servers. In a virtualization process, it is
usual that the highest performing server is
used to minimize the overall power con-
sumption.
This approach needs to be different in
cases where servers are deployed on an
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IT IS OFTEN IGNORED THAT THERE ARE FIXED LOSSES IN THE
POWER AND COOLING SYSTEMS THAT ARE PRESENT WHETHER
THE IT LOAD IS PRESENT OR NOT, AND THAT THESE LOSSES
ARE PROPORTIONAL TO THE OVERALL POWER RATING OF THE
SYSTEM. WHENEVER THE DCPI SYSTEM IS OVERSIZED, THE
FIXED LOSSES DECOME A LARGER PERCENTAGE OF THE TOTAL
ELECTRICAL DILL. RIGHT-SIZING CAN POTENTIALLY
ELIMINATE UP TO 50a/o OF ELECTRICAL COSTS IN PRACTICAL
INSTALLATIONS
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application-by-application basis. In such a
scenario, it is recommended to match
server performance to the application re-
quirements to save energy. A good design
would be to first deploy applications to the
lesser performing blade server, and then
move to a higher performing blade if the
need exists.
Right-size DCPI
Another important strategy to reduce
the overall electrical consumption is to
right-size the DCPI system to the load by
using efficient DCPI devices and design-
ing an energy-efficient system. It is of-
ten ignored that there are fixed losses in
the power and cooling systems that are
present whether the IT load is present
or not, and that these losses are propor-
tional to the overall power rating of the
system. W h e n e v e r the DCPI system is
oversized, the fixed losses become a
larger percentage of the total electrical
bill. Right-sizing can potentially elimi-
nate up to 50% of electrical costs in
practical installations.
In conclusion, it is important to re-
member that the energy cost of data cen-
ters is a significant chunk of their operat-
ing cost. A well-designed data center
reduces power consumption, as well as
the capital and operating costs associated
with power and cooling systems.
Data center energy management is of
the utmost importance and an efficient
operation will offer a stable information
technology platform and boost business
competitiveness and operational excel-
lence. It is the backbone of the business
and should have the capability to help or-
ganizations achieve greater overall
energy efficiency and profitability.
The author is Director - Professional
Services, APC by Schneider Electric