We share some top tips on reducing data centre energy waste – without having to follow in Microsoft’s footsteps and sink a server into the sea!
Tech giant Microsoft has sunk a data centre into the North Sea just off the Orkney islands in Scotland. It claims ‘Project Natick’ will improve coastal community internet connectivity, but an added benefit could be improved efficiency because keeping the server room cool will be easier underwater.
Of course, it won’t be practical for the vast majority of data centre managers to follow suit. They need to come up with less eye-catching, but just as effective, ideas.
And with data centres consuming 3% of the world’s electricity, they need to come up with them fast.
Fortunately enough, there are several relatively simple steps data centre managers can take to improve energy efficiency.
Our General Manager Leo Craig shared a few of these ideas with leading technology website IT Pro Portal.
The piece explores several that help with reducing data centre energy waste:
- Using a containment system: air conditioning can account for up to 60% of a data centre’s total energy costs. Fixing air tiles into the cold aisles of containment systems means CRAC units operate more efficiently.
- Virtualising servers and storage: moving to the cloud and sharing servers and storage can save space, reduce the number of servers, and cut energy consumption whilst still maintaining segregation between data and applications.
- Turning idle IT equipment over: servers tend to be only 5-15% utilised, while for a PC its 10-20%. When they’re unused but still left on, they can consume a sizeable amount of the energy required to keep them running at full capacity.
- Improving UPS efficiency: modern, modular uninterruptible power supplies are capable of achieving consistently higher efficiency levels across all load levels. Modular UPS also require a smaller footprint and their scalability reduces the risk of inefficient oversizing.
Learn more about reducing data centre energy waste at IT Pro Portal
