Posts Tagged ‘energy consumption’

• Data Center Virtualization and Cost Reduction

  On 03.01.10, In Data Centers, GreenIT, IT Asset Management, By Rajesh Kadam

  GreenIT has brought significant cost saving opportunities by way of increased productivity.  Data Centers have been quick to grab on to this . According to the Green Grid, nearly 60% virtualized their IT equipment. Another 47% consolidated and optimized their servers, 46% bought computer equipment that uses low power / low wattage processors and 40% make full use of power management tools. Virtualization and consolidation of servers and storage devices is a no-brainer—a way to reap productivity gains without sowing investment. The House of Representatives, for example, reduced its energy consumption its data centers by 50% and lowered its installed base of servers! With the state of IT Asset Management today, it’s not uncommon for server utilization to be as low as 2% to 5%. Companies can make-do with fewer servers, increase their rate of utilization and save the energy costs that are otherwise incurred on operating the surplus servers before virtualization reduces their numbers. A growing number of options exist to lower costs—blade servers which save space and energy costs, switch to cloud computing and desktop virtualization. For efficient utilization of energy, the devil is in the details of comparative data of consumption by each piece of equipment and the angel in the overarching view of consumption patterns. Companies need to automatically discover their many assets and all the details of their versions, brand names, parameters of power consumption, etc. They also need to categorize the data for it to be intelligible and map the relationships in the asset classes, compare their baseline consumption with the benchmarks in order to detect opportunities for cost reduction while maintaining service levels. Manual data crunching with Excel sheets is way too cumbersome and slow. Software tools for IT Asset Management are needed to automate data gathering, analysis and visualization for identifying the sources of excess costs and means to lower them.

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• Green IT: Measurement and Analysis

  On 01.29.10, In Data Centers, Data Normalization, GreenIT, By Ido Sarig

  Measurement and analysis of energy utilization is a pre-requisite for energy cost reduction. The challenge today is that the sources of soaring energy costs in data centers and IT networks are lost in the maze of countless servers, storage devices and computing equipment sprawled in the data centers of large corporations. Measurement of the sum total of energy costs, their breakdown by each category of equipment and related software and relationships between the components provides cues for lowering costs.  CIOs hard-pressed by the Great Recession have been startled when the facts of energy consumption are revealed to them. Relief follows shock when they realize they have an opportunity to increase productivity by reorganization of their data centers and networks. Just how much impact visibility has on energy efficiency decisions was revealed in a survey by The Green Grid, a global alliance of IT companies and professionals seeking to lower energy costs in data centers and business computing ecosystems.  Completed in November 2009, the survey found that 90% of the 151 respondents had taken steps to reduce energy consumption following measurements of their energy consumption. Yes, 90%! A rude awakening for sure, a number that high is otherwise rare in surveys.

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