Lower Data Center Energy Bills, Maximize Performance

Energy Savings in the Data Center Powering, cooling, and protecting a data center costs more than a little loose change. For higher power density facilities, electricity costs can account for over 10% of the total cost of ownership. (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_center) Fortunately, there have been some great innovations in energy efficiency. Check out how some companies are saving a pretty penny on their electric bill. Virtualizing a single server can save you 7000 kWh of electricity a year and about $7000 in energy Server virtualization. costs over 10 years. /?src=www_08q3_vmw_csgn_energy_efficiency_so lutions_page) (source: http://info.vmware.com/content/GreenlT_LP Fresh Air technology allows servers, storage units, and network switches to run at more extreme temperatures (up to 113° F in excursion-based operation) to help save on cooling, and, in some climates, eliminate chillers altogether. (source:http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d /press-releases/2011-07-28-fresh-air- initiative.aspx) Economizer cooling involves using only outside air to keep the data center cool. A test done by Intel proved this method effective in climates as hot as 92° F. (source:http://www.intel.com/it/pdf/Reducing_Data_C enter_Cost_with_an_Air_Economizer.pdf) Data center containment, which involves separating hot and cold air to maximize cooling potential, resulted in a 7.7% improvement in overall energy efficiency and 18.8 million kilowatt hours (kWh) annualized savings for Verizon. (source:http://www.businesswire.com/news/ho me/20110504005897/en/Verizon-Saves-En ergy-Reduces-Environmental-Impact- Polargy)7EDLE8_RO_EN.pdf) Keep your company's piggy bank intact by increasing your Power Usage Effectiveness. Total Facility Power PUE= IT Equipment Power PUE is the ratio of the total amount of power used by a data center to the power delivered to equipment used to manage, process, store, and route data. An ideal PUE is 1.0. (source: http://www.thegreengrid.org/~ /media/WhitePapers/White_Paper _6_-_PUE_and_DCIE_Eff_Metrics_30_December_2008.pdf?lang=en) Server efficiency, then and now. The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) measures server power efficiency in units of server-side Java operations per second, per Watt (ssj ops/Watt). In 2002, the Dell PowerEdge 1650 server was capable of around 28 ssj ops/Watt. Today, the PowerEdge R710 server with an Intel Xeon X5670 processor can handle 2963 ssj ops/watt. 10 This means that in | 10 short years, Dell servers have become over 100 times more efficient. 100 (sources: http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/ poweredge-r610-r710-spec-power-benchmark.pdf; Dell Server Generational Efficiency Global Marketing Report)