Tips On How To Improve Data Center Energy Efficiency

When a data center is designed it is designed to be a reliable asset to the company it is working for.  What it is not designed for is to be cost efficient and can usually cost the company when it comes to paying for energy costs.  This cost can increase the company’s capital and operational budgets and can cause several companies to have money issues.  It can also cause a company to outgrow their data center.  There are many tips to help a data center become more energy efficient without giving up some of the reliability of the data center.

Cooling Power Consumption Reduced

When you are looking into how a data center operates you will find that only the actual IT equipment is using half of the available power that is being used.  Instead most of the power is going to cooling the equipment.  By simply upgrading the cooling system you can see additional efficiency within the cooling system simply by making use of the outside air.

Consolidate And Virtualize

One of the biggest sources of waste within almost all data centers is that of poor server utilization.  If you virtualize all of the servers you will see that there will be an increase in the overall utilization.  Most dedicated servers utilize between ten to thirty percent however with a better data management system you will see a much better percent somewhere along the line of fifty percent or higher.

Monitor And Calibrate Cold Temperatures

Machines are known to run hot at all times.  A good practice within companies today is to have a hot/cold aisle configuration.  This is a recommendation from the American Society Of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers.  Of course this configuration does not come without its problems and can often create hot spots, which can waste power and cause power outages.  The equipment needs to be calibrated and the monitored continuously to help maximize the cooling efficiency and saving energy.

The Server Capacity Should Load In Real Time

Even when we are looking at the best configurations you will find that these will even waste power especially during periods of time where there is low application demand. By simply matching online capacity to load in real time you will see that the total server power consumption has the possibility to reduce server power consumption up to fifty percent.

Correlate IT/Facility Emergency Procedures

In order to have a good running system you should have correlation between the facility and IT emergency procedures. Having this system in place can help the system help no longer have unnecessary cause and/or extended outages.

Figure Actual Power Consumption

When looking into the total amount of power that equipment uses you might be surprised to find that the older equipment uses power inefficiently and can often overload the circuits.  By upgrading your systems you will find that the amount of energy being used is cut dramatically and everything will run better.

Get Rid Of The Transfer Switch

One of the most common configurations between the grid and the generator is an automatic transfer switch.  By doing away with this switch and using a bus configuration you will see that it is seamless and integrates all sources of power much more efficiently often times by the use of solar and wind energy.

Have Consistency Within IT and Facility Management

It is important to have cooperation with both IT and facility management when working to maximize data efficiency.  This requires a lot of communication and cooperation between the two parties.

By following the tips above you will find that you data center will have the energy usage decreased and not only will your energy bills be less expensive you will find that it will also be better for your machines and the life of the company.