Green data centers make business sense

Going green is not about being altruistic; it is about making wise
business decisions, especially when it comes to data centers, which thrive on
being cost efficient. This is something that often gets missed in the excitable
information overdose that vendor companies are feeding enterprises today

A lot has been spoken, written and talked about how the environment around us
is being affected by the carbon footprint each of us create. This is all the
more true for large organizations which are in growth mode and are investing in
expanding their presence by building up data centers to run their businesses.

But while vendors touch upon the need to safeguard the environment one key
message that they fail to hit home is that going green or becoming energy
efficient actually makes business sense. There is a need to create an
environment of accountability for every bit of resource used.

So what is a green data center? It can be described as a data center in which
the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for
maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact, according to Prasoon
Srivastava, CEO, Ctrl S Datacentres.

As simple as 1, 2, 3?

There is no single technology that can drive green adoption in data centers.
Said Sandeep Nair, MD, Emerson Network India, “To be truly green you have to
start from the processors and work your way upwards to see how much heat is
generated and how you can efficiently bring down the power that is used to run
these equipment and the cooling used to keep them running.”

The first step towards going green is to plan utilization of power sensibly.
This can be best achieved by consolidating server, storage and network
infrastructure. This is also where companies need to think beyond traditional
models of doing business and piggyback on alternative technologies. For
instance, virtualization has been talked about for over than five years. But it
need not be limited to storage alone; it can be extended to other aspects like
server applications or as well.

Here is an interesting bit. For every 100KV of power used in a data center 60
percent of it is used to cool the equipment. This means that just 30 percent is
used for running the IT equipment! “The amount of power you can draw in a data
center is fixed. So if a solution provider wants to grow the IT infrastructure,
where does he get the power from?” asked Durgadutt Nedungadi, Director-Marketing
& Alliances, HP (India).

The Green Grid Data Center Power Efficiency Metrics: PUE and DCiE study
offered a fundamental measure of data center efficiency where the best way to
determine the infrastructure efficiency of a data center was to calculate the
ratio of the total power consumed by the facility infrastructure to the power
used by the IT equipment load.

According to this study, Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Data Center
Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE) are defined as follows:

Building efficiency

Over the past two years, it has been noted that facilities and IT have
started working together to improve the efficiency of data centers. Initially
both were working with their backs more or less to each other. Today
organizations are trying to bring about efficiencies across the board; be it in
the IT equipment, applications or policies.

But at the same time, it is ironical that often solution providers are not
aware about the direct electricity cost of the equipment in a data center nor
are they aware of the cost of cooling equipment in isolation. “This ignorance
results in incorrect cost-optimization which in turn leads to misallocation of
resources and energy waste in many traditional data centers,” noted Srivastava.

This is illustrated by the results of a survey done by the Experton Group
Study on Green IT that was release d in November 2007. It showed that of a
sample of 98 surveyed companies 93 percent of the IT managers were unaware of
the energy consumption in KW and Euro of the equipment in the data center.

Green data center can be described one in which the mechanical, lighting, electrical and computer systems are designed for maximum energy efficiency and minimum environmental impact

When it comes to building efficiencies in the IT equipment, one has to start
at the basics which means start with the processors and then work the way
upwards. Power consumption should also be checked at various levels to see how
it can be controlled at different points. Besides this, the equipment should be
consolidated to reduce its footprint and ensure simplified one-source
management.

“At the rack level, efficiency can be achieved with by enhanced levels of
density of the racks and intelligent control of power consumption,” said
Srivastava while talking at Data Center 2008, an industry event held in
Bangalore and Mumbai recently. He added that efficiency across data centers can
be achieved by having a policy-based workload rebalancing, ultra efficient
facilities and detailed power metering.

Building a green data center

Now that it is evident how important it is to have a green data center what
are some of the points that solution providers should bear in mind while
building it? For starters it is imperative they adopt the best practices in data
center energy efficiency as mentioned above. This will ensure a reduction in
operational costs from energy use in the physical infrastructure and keep the
door open for year-to-year improvement in the center.

Often 40 percent to 50 percent of the inefficiency inside data center is
linked to lack of best practices deployment. Therefore, there is no doubt that
the savings accrued from adopting best practices can be furthered fed into the
business, either for expanding the physical infrastructure or offering more
services.

The second and most important thing to do is adopt an innovative approach.
For instance with power draw options coming down, there are companies like
Netmagic Solutions which are seeking alternatives for generating more power
including investment in biomass. Said Sharad Sanghi, CEO, Netmagic Solutions,
“Right now my power cost per unit is Rs 9, which is bound to

go up. It might not be possible for me to have a captive power plant in my data
center because that calls for very heavy investment, besides a lot of red tapism.
So we are considering other options for the new data centers that we are setting
up.”

Quick tips

Virtualization can be a savior when it comes bringing in better computing
performance at lower power consumption. Srivastava also advises that solution
providers should factor energy management in their service level agreements with
customers.

Some other tips that he offers included the usage of raised floor cooling
which gives more space for the cold air to navigate and ensures better cooling.
The next is the creation of hot side - cold side aisle so that the temperatures
can be controlled in one particular corner of the room rather than just
refrigerating the complete facility.

“Load balance the cooling units and run them to their highest efficiency.
Additionally, match the cooling technologies to the server types deployed in the
center,” he added. Besides this, solution providers should provision for longer
rows of racks and seal cable cutouts. Since water is a ready resource it is a
good idea to install water-cooled equipment and racks because for an equal
volume water can remove 3,600 times more heat than air.

Cabling can also play an important role when it comes to making a data center
more cost effective. “Cabling that utilizes new connector technologies that will
be compatible with the next generation interconnects,” said Mohamed Shahid Khan,
AM-System Engineering Application, Tyco Electronics. It is therefore important
for solution providers to invest in next generation Ethernet Networks.

“10GbE has penetrated into the access layer much faster than in the
traditional network environment and its adoption on the server infrastructure
will drive the need for 00GbE uplinks from

the access to the core of the data centers,” Khan added. “This is why we insist
that our customers use Secure Cabling Systems because it has common access
points that reduce the risk of inadvertent access as well as reduce chances of
unauthorized connections to the wrong network.”

There are these and other ways and means as well that can help make a data
center green. It is just a matter of asking for it from the right sources.

Vinita Bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in